Child bereavement

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The misnomer of the heroin overdose

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Experimental drug use

Experimental drug use is common with teenagers. The gateway drug idea focuses on this type of drug use. Alcohol and marijuana are the gateway to a life time of drug use is the argument. For the vast majority that is not the case but there is a small group it does happen with.



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Self medicating ADD with marijuana

Uxma Javaid B said.

Great observation Tony I would like to share my observation here that Marijuana is not just effective in ADHD but also for those who suffer from Schizophrenia and Bipolar disorder, they also tend to use some form of drugs (smoking, marijuana are more in use) to subside their symptoms and interestingly they get benefit from such drug use (feel more calmer and thought process in control). Marijuana (a mind-bender drug) has some significant properties which slower our thought process and gives us a temporary sense of calmness. People learn to use these drugs for their benefit through experimentation or on a friend's recommendation. It seems a perfect remedy for such psychiatric illnesses thus far.

But the other side of the fact is that illicit drugs do have a great susceptibility for addiction. The person can go into double jeopardy if he also has a predisposition to addiction along with a psychiatric illness such as ADHD, Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder or Depression. It's not very uncommon for professionals to treat Dual Diagnosis at Rehabs.

So, it's being wise not to use marijuana or other illicit drugs to self-medicate one self for any Psychiatric illness. People should take proper medication suggested by health care professionals (Doctors, Psychiatrists) to get long term benefits.

I replied

Thank you for your good comments Uxma and I would agree with you that some sufferers of schizophrenia do report a lessening of their symptoms after smoking cannabis.

I also think you make a good point that illicit drugs do have a susceptibility for addiction and the process of self medicating is a hazardous on indeed and one I do not suggest to anyone as using properly prescribed medications does seem the best path. Having said that one must also be aware that plenty of legal prescriptions drugs are quite addictive as well.

Also some times it is difficult path for the drug counsellor to walk. The client I talk about in my statement I have not suggested he go and get prescription drugs for his ADHD which in Australia would be dexamphetamines. He knows about this any way himself, but I have not encouraged it because I know what is likely to happen. It will just add one more addictive drug (dexamphetamine) into the cocktail of drugs that he already uses. He is unlikely to stop smoking marijuana and he would just also start taking dexamphetamines which also are very easy drugs to sell on the black market which he could then start doing to get more money to by his marijuana.



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Phobophobia.

This phobia which is the fear of fear, is often undiagnosed. A place where it is commonly found is with those suffering panic attacks. It is probably safe to say that the majority of people who suffer panic attacks also suffer from phobophobia. As many report as soon as they have experienced a panic attack they then live in dread of another one coming and hence we have the phobophobia. The intense discomfort that panic attack sufferers report leave them living in fear of the next one coming which it often does. Often panic attacks come whenever they want and are quite unpredictable hence heightening the fear of the impending fear which will appear at some unknown time in the future.

Most conventional approaches to panic attacks and the phobophobia would seek to contain the feelings of anxiety in some kind of way. To work on ways of stopping them. Whilst the goal is for the panic attacks to stop and the phobia to stop how one goes about achieving that can done in a variety of ways.

Alternatively the client is invited to experience the symptoms of the panic attack in the therapy room with the therapist. This has a number of productive therapeutic effects on the client and their relationship with the panic attack. This approach in particular addresses the phobophobia and can have quite a significant impact on the phobia for a variety of reasons.

As one can see from this treatment plan for the treatment of GAD the focus is on getting rid of it, stopping it, gaining control over it, avoiding it and so forth. This has some significant contra indications and leads to other difficulties. The alternative approach being suggested here is to engage the neurosis and to establish relational contact with it.

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The psychology of racism

With the AFL now using their racism reeducation program on members of the public and not just footballers anymore, it seems an opportune time to examine this issue.

In the counselling room one hears people express all kinds of views, prejudices and so forth. When the client realizes you are not going to judge them if they make statements that are bigoted and they know because of confidentiality their statements will never leave the room they can open up at a deep level in this way. They express thoughts and views which they would rarely express in public because they know they would be seen as racist or bigoted in some way.

I would suggest there are two different types of racism of perhaps two different ways that racist views can fit into the personality. I was actually working with a man recently who expressed this exact point. He was raised in the United States and reported that as a boy when he was with his father often in the car together, the father would express quite racist views about african americans (I think that is the term to use these days). 

He reported that as he grew up he took these on and became quite racist in how he viewed blacks and other ethnic groups. However as a young adult he joined the military and reports that this cured him of his racism. He was forced to live in close quarters with people of a wide range of ethnic groups and indeed to rely on them for his very survival in combat situations. He discovered first hand what many of them were actually like. He reports that now he has good friends that are African American and so forth.

Children will automatically and instinctually take on those attitudes that are expressed around them especially by the parents and other parent like figures. If parents make open racist comments around children then children will introject those at least to some degree.

This type of racism would probably be suited for systems like the AFL reeducation program. These attitudes are usually not that hard to deal with, in the sense that they are not deeply rooted in the personality. 

However there is another situation where the racist attitudes are more insidious and form a more integral aspect of the personality. This is shown by the life position I+U- (I’m OK, You’re not OK). In my reexamination of the life positions I have shown that this weltanschauung or world view is more accurately represented by the life position I-U-- (I’m not OK, but You’re worse).

Some children grow up with a basic feeling or sense of not OKness. They feel bad in themselves and about themselves. To cope with this they project it out onto others. The thinking goes, “If I can prove they are bad then that means I am good.” This person’s  racist views are how they maintain some sense of self worth and thus will be very resistant to change. Often the bully type person has this structure in his personality. The AFL reeducation program will be of very limited use in such circumstances.

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Being sent to counselling

So Eddie McGuire has been sent to counselling by Andrew Demetriou for his racist comments last week. He apparently is going to be educated on racial vilification. 

Counselling is such a convenient solution. It’s a feel good solution. It’s not really a punishment like a fine but it is kind of a punishment because the person is being sent and they are meant to be contrite with their tail between their legs. Kind of like being sent to the headmasters office at primary school. Here is a grown man, Eddie everywhere, being treated like a child so it is a pseudo humiliating process and hence we have the punitive aspect of being sent to counselling in this instance.

However, having been a counsellor for 30 years I would love to be a fly on the wall and see what happens in Eddie’s counselling session(s). 

True counselling is a collaborative process particularly around the goals of the counselling. The counsellor and the client together work out what are the goals the client wants to achieve. What this means is no better illustrated than with a person who has been sent by the drug courts for counselling. The logic behind this is that the counselling is somehow going to correct the client and then they will not want to take drugs anymore.

I have counselled many such people and not uncommonly the client will say, “I see nothing wrong with taking drugs and I intend to keep taking them”. The goal of the counselling has been clarified. From then on the counselling sessions are not about the person stopping taking drugs which contradicts the logic behind the whole process.

The logic behind Eddie’s counselling is that he will come to see making racial comments is wrong and then he will want to stop making them or having that negative view point of other racial groups. The goal is to change his perception of the value or worth of himself and others.

That is a very difficult thing to do. To change ones basic values, view of racial groups and people in general is a difficult thing to do. And of course in his counselling Eddie may say that he has no intention of changing his views in this way and that he is quite happy with them. From that point on the counselling is no longer about Eddie becoming less racist. So in this way the whole process becomes a farce as the AFL has sent him to counselling so he will in some way come out less racist.

At that point it could stop being counselling and become a (re)education process for Eddie. It is no longer a counselling session but changes into an education session. These are two quite different things. Having said that counselling often does have an educative aspect but it is not a teacher - student relationship. That relationship is quite different to the counsellor - client relationship.

If someone is of the view that other racial groups are more primitive and ape like, simply giving them information (teaching them) that this is not so and why will have very little, if any impact on their racist views. One’s basic value system does not change by simply acquiring factual information.

Even if one goes to the extent of ‘Brain washing’ that they tried in the 1950s and 1960s, that was a failure as well. It was discovered you cannot change people’s basic view of societies or racial groups unless the person to some extent wants them to be changed. If that basic motivation is there then the counselling process can begin. If it is not there then Eddie’s counselling session is going to be a waste of time as far as the AFL is concerned. The best outcome that could happen in the reeducation of Eddie is it allows him to become more subtle in how he expresses such views (hopefully keeping his views entirely to himself) but his basic views do not change.

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