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Addiction Treatment and Termination of the Therapeutic Relationship

Addiction Treatment and Termination of the Therapeutic Relationship

Addiction is a neuropsychological disorder characterized by continued use of drugs or substances despite psychological, physical harm, or adverse consequences. Socioeconomic status, environmental influences, and preexisting mental disorders contribute to drug addiction. Legal addiction is the persistent use of drugs/substances permissible in the country, such as alcohol and prescription drugs. In contrast, illegal addiction is the persistent use of regulated or unlawful substances such as cocaine, heroin, and cannabis. Addiction treatment aims to assist addicts in overcoming their habitual substance seeking and use.

Addiction treatment is the same for legal and illegal addiction since the aim is to prevent the use of the drug, whether illegal or legal. The treatment options include detoxification, medication, behavioral therapy, or a combination of the two and long-term follow-up. Treatments medications manage to suppress withdrawal symptoms during detoxification (National Institute of Drug Abuse, 2019). They are also used to prevent relapse by re-establishing normal functioning of the brain and decreasing cravings for the substance one is addicted to. For example, opioid addiction is treated using both methadone and naltrexone. The addiction treatment drugs act on the same targets as the addictive substances in the brain after detoxification. Behavioral therapy help patients to change their attitudes and behaviors towards drug use, develop healthy life skills, and stick with other types of treatment, such as addiction treatment medication (National Institute of Drug Abuse, 2020).

The Individual, Group, and Family Therapy.

Individual therapy involves the treatment of an individual by either one or more therapists. It benefits the person with an addiction to develop affective self-exploration, cultivate self-awareness and establish healthy coping skills by identifying the negative behavioral patterns which led to addiction and replacing these negative patterns with positive, healthy alternatives. The advantages include; an individual experiencing an intense and focused therapeutic experience by receiving the therapist’s full attention. Also, the therapy sessions are flexible depending on the client’s preferences. However, the patient only gets a viewpoint from single therapists, and the sessions are costly (Generes, 2022).

Group therapy is beneficial in addiction treatment as it provides a support network and groundwork for change. Group therapy provides an interaction session with other people and boosts self-esteem and confidence. Its advantage is that it helps people develop a sense of identity and belongingness after understanding that there are people with similar issues. They also provide lifelong connections between the group members, and the session is cheap. However, in group therapy, individuals do not receive focused attention and treatment, and there is the risk of a breach of confidence by group members (Generes, 2022).

Family therapy is beneficial in addiction treatment as it offers appropriate support to move through addiction treatment smoothly. It also improves family communication skills. It is also advantageous as it helps improve the family’s emotional health and helps develop a motivation for change. However, family therapy can alter the perception of the family towards the patient and painful and negative feelings within the family members (Hogue et al., 2019).

Termination of a Therapeutic Relationship

A therapeutic relationship is terminated when the therapist’s services are no longer since the objectives and goals of the therapy sessions have been achieved. Amicable termination of the therapeutic relationship involves openly discussing the termination phase at the beginning of the therapy to enable the client to see the therapy as temporary. Involving the client in preparation for termination helps the client face their next life chapter bravely and solidify counseling gains. However, if done acrimoniously, the termination causes emotional harm to the client, which can cause a relapse of the negative behavioral pattern and make the therapy ineffective. The acrimonious ending involves the abrupt ending of a therapeutic relationship without appropriate engagement and making the client aware of it. The client faces grief because of the ending of the relationship. 

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