Do you want to help people suffering from drug abuse? If so, you can become an addiction counsellor after a background in psychological counselling. With millions suffering from substance abuse disorder, the demand for counsellors is high.
Addiction counselling can be an emotionally-satisfying career where you can give back to society by helping addicts cope with their addictions. Now let’s see how you can facilitate their recovery.
Ways an addiction counsellor helps an addict:
An addiction is deep-rooted and causes for addiction can be traced to the addict’s past or a mental disorder that went undiagnosed. An addiction counsellor can help identify the root cause of the addiction and ensure the addict doesn’t experience a relapse. For complete recovery from addiction, it’s not enough to simply break the physical dependence of the addict on drugs. A counsellor will help him identify situations that can trigger cravings and teach him coping mechanisms to handle such cravings.
Look at the benefits addiction counselling can offer:
- Offers addicts a new perspective: As an addiction counsellor, you can teach the addict to identify thoughts, habits, and behaviours that lead them to drug abuse. He will then use different therapies to change these harmful behaviours by teaching addicts new approaches.
- Identifies triggers: To prevent a relapse, an addict must know the events and situations that lead to continuous substance abuse. Often, the addict cannot identify these on his own. He fails to understand how relationship dynamics can push you to addiction or how a life-changing event may have made you take recourse to drugs. A counsellor will address these issues that make an addict prone to abuse.
- Provides support: A counsellor can offer support for mental health problems when treating an addict. For an addict suffering from drug abuse with a history of mental illness, counselling face-to-face can be beneficial. The counsellor can suggest strategies to resolve both mental illness and addiction. When counselling is in groups, it’s a good way for the addict to connect with fellow addicts. If they share their vulnerabilities in a group, it benefits everyone.
- Introduces new therapies: Counselling uses different tools and behavioural therapy to prevent relapse. CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) is one such therapy that helps the addict identify harmful thoughts and seeks to replace these with positive and healthy ones.
- Prevents relapses: Relapse happens when the addict feels the urge to use drugs again. However, if he works with a counsellor, he can contact him immediately to get help fighting away such temptations.
- Advises on fixing relationships: Drug addiction can destroy families and jeopardize friendships. As an addiction counsellor, you can help the addict mend broken relationships and guide him on starting new ones. Building new connections is integral to recovery.
So, if you are wondering how to help addicts on the path to sobriety, consider getting an education in psychological counselling. Enable them to heal and return to a drug-free life.
