Adults

When it comes to addiction in adults and how we as Social Service Workers deal with the problems, it can be difficult at times, particularly in women. This can be due to the fact that it is becoming more common to have housewives, as opposed to street corner junkies, getting addicted to prescription medication  such as Adderall or Ritalin.

As counsellors in the SSW field, we must ask multiple questions in order to give the correct support. Through open and closed ended questions we are able to further asses the problem and come up with the correct course of action. When dealing with addiction within adult women there are multiple areas to focus on, including how different types of drugs can seriously effect women's relationships.

According to Mike Dow, a Psychotherapist who specializes in addiction, “More and more, we are seeing housewives as opposed to cocaine and heroin junkies that show major signs of addiction. These are wealthy, well-off individuals who you wouldn't normally suspect to have substance abuse issues.” ( Öz, 2012). This is a big shift in drug user trends; most people think of addicts as extremely poor people, lacking the means to provide for themselves. We see now that even though drug usage is high across all adult populations, it isn't necessarily legal drug use. A well know doctor by the name of Mehmet Oz, better known as Dr. Oz or for his famous television show "The Dr Oz Show" explains, “there was about a million more prescriptions filled in the last year, than there were diagnoses.” This tells us that the problem is more prevalent than most people might have thought or been aware of." ( Öz, 2012).

Dealing with clients who use drugs seems to be a whole other tactic entirely. We as Social Service Workers can’t go to the street corners to find addicts and offer to help them. Clients have to want the help. However, most of the time unfortunately drug users  /abusers will have to be diagnosed first by a mental health professional, and then that patient would either get referred to a specialist, or possibly admitted to a  rehabilitation facility. Another possible method of diagnosing women misusing/abusing medication would be to use reverse psychology on the patient. If the woman refuses to admit that they’re addicted to the drugs or abusing medication then SSW's can ask the patient, without sounding authoritative, if they would consider the possibility of cutting down on their medication or stopping entirely, at the discretion of their physician. If the woman responds openly and positively, they are most likely not addicted and would not mind lowering their dosage or stopping completely. Someone who has developed a high tolerance or addiction, would become more dependent on that drug, and that would mean that lowering the dosage and/or quitting altogether would be simply an irrational idea in the patients mind.

All in all, it seems very hard to diagnose medication abuse, as well as treat it properly. The symptoms of this abuse may not be as apparent as they would be with illicit drug use. When women are taking pills to stay alert or become better mothers (at least in their own minds), they run a serious risk of not only damaging their child’s development, but also ruining their relationships at home, work, etc.