ADDICTION AND CHANGE

AUTHORED BY: CARLO C. DICLEMENTE

Book Publisher: The Guilford Press A Division of Guilford Publications, Inc.

Description: Second edition. | New York: The Guilford Press, [2018]

Identifiers: LCCN 2017045254 | ISBN 9781462533237

 

 

Introduction

Drug Addiction and Substance abuse in India is these days are rising in a very fast pace and it becomes cause of Concern for us because we as a developing country cannot afford to have a kind of youth that are indulging in these kinds of habits when we have to do a lot of work to compete with other countries. In India though we have strict laws to protect the people from Drug abuse but still people are managing to escape it and doing trafficking of it and trafficking is also going on in huge manner that it is impacting the heaths of lakhs of people and ultimate the future of India is being attacked by it.Now there are several factors which are leading to India towards this dark reality but more than that what has been discussed in this book is that what are the physiological ,social, genetical reasons that lead a person towards the addiction and how it can be cured that should be the most important discussion now rather than thinking about the punishments to drug addicts which has been main focus in India. It is important to note that not all time a person has to be punished for a sin but it should be seen that the drugs are something which attacks the minds of a person because of which the body also becomes slave of it and rather than punishing a person for such habit we should think to cure him and take it as a sickness and try to help those addicts and that it what the author has also well explained in this Book.

 

Summary of Book

Before knowing summary of this book, it should be kept in mind that author in this book has simply tried to find out the reasons of addictions and how it can be cured and what are the stages of prevention. So no other things related to law he has discussed in this book so let us first understand the message he tried to coney from this book first without any prejudice then we will critically analyses it and give our views to it.

So, it should be first understood that the author has divided his book into 13 Chapters and 4 parts.

Chapter 1 deals with Model of Addiction wherein he 1st explained what is addiction in a traditional way and he says that it is self-destructive behavior that include pharmacological component  and then he explained  Traditional models of  addiction that are

• Social
• Physiological
• Coping
• Reinforcement behavior
• Compulsive
• Biopsychological

The social/environment perspective emphasizes the role of societal influences, peer pressure, social policies, availability, and family systems as mechanisms responsible for developing and maintaining addictions. Certain types of drug use and individual addictive behaviors occur more frequently in some subgroups Physiological model says that, the reason of addiction can be genetics also like if a father is alcoholic or drug addict then chances are high that the child can also get attracted to such substances and that genetics that leads a person to pull towards addiction and lessen the coping capability of person.

Social Models says that , a person can be addict because of societal reasons i.e. the surrounding of person is leading a person towards stress and depression and the one and only escape a person see is the addiction which makes them forget the societal [pressure for the time being.

The reinforcement model says that once a person become addict, it then all depend upon reinforcement that  now how much capable he is to quit that addiction and the study found that though a person can be a addiction of same level but some can quit is very easily and for some it becomes very hard to get away from it and it because of less tolerance level.

Behavior models tell us that Those who compare addictions to compulsive behaviors most often come either from analytic perspectives, where addictions reflect deep-seated psychological conflict, or from a biologically based view that compulsive behaviors represent a biochemical imbalance reflected in brain neurotransmitters.

Biopsychological Models says that, This model proposes that addiction is best understood as the result of a confluence of factors representing these three broad areas of influence and that it encompasses process addictions like sex addiction.

 

Now comes Chapter 2 which is talking about “the process of Human intentional behavior in this chapter author talks about TTM that offers integrated framework to understand Human intentional , kit says that if a person is addict and he /she wants to quit then it 80% depends on his hands only that whether he will be able to quit or not and it mostly depends on that derive force which is pushing hi  to quit the bad habit , the more the drive force , the more likely a person can quit the  addiction .

  

 

The picture shows the Cycle of change in human behavior of the person who tries to quit the Addiction

Chapter 3 deals with Well-maintained Addiction

Once individuals complete the Maintenance tasks and incorporate the addiction into their lives, they leave the process of becoming addicted and enter the Precontemplation stage for the change process that, one would hope, ends in recovery .Once individuals begin to engage regularly in the addictive behavior, three paths are possible. One is a pattern of regulated use with little or no misuse. A second is a pattern of misuse that is problematic and sporadic, often still qualifying for a mild or moderate use disorder even if the pattern is time limited (e.g., as often occurs in college drinking). The third consists of a pattern of problematic, dysregulated use that would indicate a moderate or severe use disorder.

Chapter 4 Deals with Exploring the Precontemplation and Contemplation Stages of Becoming Addicted and Interventions to Prevent Initiation-Here Author Explains that the precontemplation is a stage that a addict attains who tries to leave the Drugs addiction and in which the addicts got the rays of hope from himself that he can quit and can live heathy life again and starts looking perks of the heathy life and it occurs due to family, friends and the surrounding environment and it becomes essential for the person to stay long in this stage so that he can move to next stage i.e. contemplation stage wherein the person sees so many pros of quitting the drug addiction rathe than cons which makes him believe that it would actually change his life if he quit .

Chapter 5 talks about preparation Stage , in this stage once a person passes the contemplation stage, the next stage is preparation wherein the individual have made his mind to start planning things in away that would help me to get way from the behavior and he works upon himself to stick to those plans.

Chapter 6 is talking about repeated and regular use ,this chapter is talking about those kinds of person who regularly indulge in the activities like drinking, gambling, drug users but they are not becoming addicts and it is happening with them because they are gifted with the ability of self-regulation which is not present among addicts and that is the main reason that they tend to me into the stage of addiction and other factors for them also present which could be missing among the self-regulated people like their day to day life,past,present ,biological,psychological etc. .and that is why for those who becomes addicts , it is important for them to get prevention at right stage and regular observation on them is also very much required.

Chapter 7 is titled as precontemplation for recovery, herein the author is taking about the stage of precontemplation stage wherein the patients are being observed that whether they are developing the sense of change among them or not because of most of the addicts thinks that if they quit then they would have nothing to live for and that mentality is something which this stage focuses to change and for that the doctors tells the patients to think a life without addiction after 6 months and then it is seen that if a patient has even a little interest in changing then the doctors tries  them to move to contemplation stage and for this the author suggests 5 R’s i.e. Reveling , Relunctant, Rebellion, Resignation and Rationalization.

Chapter 8 Talks about Decision to Change ,now this stage is talking about the ultimate  stage which can be said as the success for the patient because in this stage the patient moved out of precontemplation and contemplation stage and finally has decided to go for change and start working on it.Also sometime it might happen that a person after even deciding to change can still recourse to drugs but that not an issue because in this stage if might happen because the body becomes slave of drugs and patients cannot resist it but the important thing is that I should not become regular habit against and special care and caution is needed in this case on patients.

Chapter 9 talks about Preparation and action which is focusing upon the stage just after decision to change wherein the patient needs to manage the existing problem of his life rather than escaping from it and tries to get way from all to person or surroundings that promoted him to become a part of addiction. On the similar lines chapter 10 is also taking and saying that ,the 4 main tasks for action are

1. Breaking Free of the addiction
2. Taking action for change
3. Revising the plan with the circumstance
4. Management of neurobiological readjustments, craving for drugs and temptations.

Chapter 11 is talking about long Haul which means that in this stage the person has successfully survived the action taken stage and has not recourse to drugs for long time and this long haul indicates the termination from the cycle of changes means at this stage the person is no more needed to crave for the change because here the person has changed himself and has no more left with temptations and cravings.

Chapter 12 and 13

These chapters are talking about Designing Intervention and Creating Comprehensive approach to understand Addiction respectively, which basically tells that different designs have been made by the doctors that helps the addicts to get away from the addiction and one of these is TTM model which basically talks about intentional behavior change wherein the person develops the intention in himself to change his or her habits. Lately authors explains that how the behavior of society towards addicts are changing with tie i.e. earlier the society used to consider drug abusers like they are doing a sin by consuming it and later this view changed and people started giving them punishment for the same but now the current trend is that people are not bothering much about addicts and because of this the drug, alcohol ,smoking has become a cool and fancy thing to do among Youngs and this perception is leading the people into their paths which are not actually good for the society as whole. Though law tries to curb these activities but still there are many loopholes in the law also which is making it ineffective.

 

Analysis

Addiction can be of number of types it is not essential that the definition of term addiction is only confined to drug, alcohol or for smokers but actually addiction is a psychological behavior of a person in which a person feels pleasure by repeatedly doing certain act for example addiction can of eating junk food also. Mostly when we see the fat person who are above 100 kgs the ,main reason for their fat gain is the eating habit with which they are addicted so that could also fall under the definition of addiction. If we analyses the book of the author in the sense that he is more focused in this book about curing the addiction and he tried to prove as well that addiction is in a way linked with our mind and that the reason he has focused upon the patients intention to get cured and explained that how the society, family, friends are also responsible for the person’s addiction; as he had mentioned that genetics play a very important role and it should be taken into account when a person is being treated and it is to be seen that whether there is any family history of a person regarding addiction behavior because as argued by the author that each person has certain self-control capabilities and it differs from person to person of course but he gives the contention that how a person who  also regularly takes drugs or alcohol but still do not become addict and the other person becomes addict so the treason he gave is the self-control capability and this capabilities also depend upon the genes i.e. if a person has the family background of an addict then he most likely would have low self-control in comparison with the person who is also regularly consuming but not becoming addict,

Now another argument put forth by the author is that , it has been found in the study that many addicts lost their hope in the life and lacks the energy to do something good inn life and are less social and even do not perform good at the workplace but then there are certain persons too that are also addicts but still able to manage all the things and responsibilities properly and they also have a good social life and this happens with those addicts have not lost the hopes from the life and still want to get out from the addiction and this does not mean that the group of persons who are falling under 1st categories are not wanting to leave the addiction but the intention to quit the addiction are seen to more with the persons who are falling in the 2nd group and that is why the study says that it more easy to counsel these person and to motivate them to quit the addiction. And the process which author is suggesting to follow is many stages and if the person successful passes the stages of process of get rid from addiction then there are very less chances that person will recourse to the drugs.

 

Furthermore the author has also explained that how society is now a days changes there attitude towards addicts and i.e. the another reason that many addicts do not for a considerable period feels that they are doing something bad with themselves for e.g. youths who are indulge in  drugs do find it very fancy and also find interesting ways to do like puffing,triping, 2DP,Taxi etc.[1] these are certain adjectives which they use for smoking drugs and also in the study it is found that the addicts are seen to be making friends more easily as compared to the non addicts and that has also become some of the reason that people are getting attracted towards such activities.

 

Critique with Concluding remark

 In this book the author has taken the smaller view i.e. is looking the addicts from the perspective of the psychology ,society and genes and has not taken the other factors into consideration like edication,financial status of a person which I personally think that affects the addicts also when it comes to addiction thought obviously I would be not competent person to critics the book but it can be said that the book is not exhaustive for understanding the Drug addiction and substance abuse but it cannot be denied that it would obviously change the perspective of person towards addicts after reading this book. And this becomes important for us from the point of view of the recent development that we are witnessing in our country regarding the Drug addiction i.e. even the authorities in India have also realized that some times we do need the rehabilitation for addicts rather than giving them punishment [2]and that is the reason that we can see in the NDPS Act[3] also we have the provision of the same and Recently Delhi H.C[4] has also released a man after hearing him and realizing that he need treatment rather than punishment and this shows that in India aso we are moving towards the step which the author in this books wanting us to. And this is the reason that in the famous case of Rhea Chakraborty[5] has we have seen that court has not convicted her as she had small quantity of drugs.

 

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[1]Tripti Tandon, Deputy Director, Lawyers Collective,

 Drug policy in India ,Internataional Drug policy Consurtium, February 2015

[2] Charles, M., Bewley-Taylor, D. & Neidpath, A. (October 2005), Drug policy in India: Compounding harm?, The Beckley Foundation Drug Policy Programme, Briefing Paper Ten.

[3] Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985

[4] ,KRISHNAPRASAD,HC stays case against drug addict, allows him to undergo de-addiction programme, , accessed July 30, 2022 05:29

[5] Rhea Chakraborty v. The Union of India and Ors. [Criminal Bail Application (Stamp) No. 2386 of 2020]