COUN-5108Unit 1Discussion 1Impact of AddictionThe Portrait o, Lecture notes of Accounting

Download COUN-5108Unit 1Discussion 1Impact of AddictionThe Portrait o and more Lecture notes Accounting in PDF only on Docsity! COUN-5108 Unit 1 Discussion 1 Impact of Addiction The Portrait of Addiction (linked in the Resources) video presents the account of what the path of addiction cost nine individuals. Why people continue to use, in spite of consequences, is hard for many counselors to understand because it does not make sense. Select one of the individuals introduced in the video and analyze how the impact of their addiction wove into their path to recovery. Consider the following: What consequence struck you as most poignant because it did not stop their use?  How does our assigned readings help you understand what came to be the turning point? The individual’s story that stuck out to me the most was the ex-cop, Kim Wozencraft. She started using due to her undercover work. Her job was to buy drugs and be exposed to the environment of drug use (Moyers, 1998). A moment that struck me was when she spoke about a time where she had stopped injecting drugs but was witnessing someone injecting and she could taste the drug. She became consumed with getting through her day by acquiring and using cocaine. In a field where her job is to find the drug dealers and arrest them its shows how fast someone can spiral if they are consistently exposed to drug use and the pressures of a job (Moyers, 1998). Each story was a little different but each story had a similarity when it came to what was their rock bottom or what their turning point was. Kim’s turning point was fear that her partner was killing himself and that her job doesn’t care that their officers were struggling. She knew her partner needed desperate help and herself. She decided to let her Sargent know what was going on with her partner but even when they helped him rather than arrest him, she continued to use (Moyers, 1998). It wasn’t until she had been shot that it was a wake-up call that she needed to turn her life around. Even then, she left law enforcement and was drawn to prescription drugs. However, she eventually acknowledged that she needed to get help. She didn’t start her career as a cop to be addicted to drugs, she wanted to stop the drugs and make her community better (Moyers, 1998). However, the constant exposure on the job eventually got her addicted. This consistent exposure changed the brain and disrupted her neuroplasticity signals. The drugs started to release dopamine and she started to crave that feeling and memories (Logo et al., 2016).