Addiction Treatment Essay

Luckily, the history and philosophy of addiction treatment has evolved a lot over the centuries. Every step made toward progress has also brought about many negative or unorthodox treatments along the way. Unfortunately, many of those treatments have led to patient suffering and quite often death. However, abuse and addiction treatment efforts in the United States can be traced back to the early 1700’s when leaders of Native American tribes deemed it necessary and created what they called “sobriety circles”. Native Americans were not accustomed to the potent alcohol products the colonists traded them, nor had they ever consumed it in such abundance (Frank, Moore, & Ames, March 2000). In that same century, Benjamin Rush, made advances in his …show more content…
Hence, these newfound solutions caught on like wildfire throughout the country, as did increased alcohol consumption. Addiction related problems became so radical in the 19th century that the temperance movement turned into blatant prohibition and a desperate reliance on miracle cures like Dr. Keeley’s thrived until the 1900’s. His treatment plan had a 50 percent success rate and consisted of toxic chemicals being injected into the patient’s body, oral consumption of tonics, specialized housing, and extensive support groups. His treatment method did not have the support of many of his colleagues, even though, so many other healing cures being distributed to the public in that era also consisted of unregulated use of substances. However, many scholars still believe the program’s success rate was due to group therapy and community support-not the tonics or other toxic chemicals being administered to patients (Keeley Institue, n.d.). By today’s standards, Alcoholics Anonymous would be the most closely related support system compared to that of Dr. …show more content…
Clients experiencing process addiction or process addiction with a co-occurring addiction, like substance abuse, can be assessed by using tools expressed by, Buck and Amos. Their substance abuse criteria can be considered an aid in addressing both substance and process addictions: preoccupation, withdrawal, tolerance, and involvement after experiencing negative consequences (Capuzzi & Stauffer, 2012). Structured, semi-structured, or unstructured interviews can be chosen to gather necessary information but considering process addiction has a lack of criterion to meet, structured interviews may not attend to the needs of comorbid or a stand-alone diagnosis of process/behavioral addiction. However, semi-structured interviews would prove to be beneficial due to the fact it allows a counselor to use interview techniques and assessment tools more freely based on the patients’ needs or concerns. When considering level of addiction, typically, there are no obvious physiological signs but as with substance abuse or dependence, tools to gauge severity can be used. The Behavioral Health Index – Multimedia Version can be used instead of the standard Addition Severity Index because it can effectively detect levels of severity for both substance and process addiction without being as costly and time consuming (Hazelden,