Adolescents and drug abuse
There are two prime challenges that counselors come across while dealing with adolescent clients. First, adolescent drug abusers show similar signs to other persons in such a group. Signs such as hyperactivity may illustrate drug abuse while hormonal change also causes similar signs among adolescents. It is also difficult to establish the nature of drugs abused by adolescents. Due to nervousness, adolescents respond to drugs significantly, in comparison to other drug abusers. Additionally, psychologists are limited in determining a clear line of action thus resulting in negative results (Fields 67).
Drug abuse and women
While dealing with women who abuse drugs, the major problem is that most of them feel ashamed and thus may not reveal their conditions easily (Fields 70). Even though, they may reveal their situation they hold back some information, which they perceive as upsetting. Women are vulnerable and some of them may suffer the consequences of relapse. They are likely to fall back to drugs especially when they are destabilized emotionally. Consequently, it is hard to help these clients because acquiring information is difficult. After establishing and dealing with a problem, an additional challenge is ensuring that the clients do not undergo relapse thus utilizing drugs.
Drug abuse by gay and lesbians
Most “gays and lesbians” utilize drugs to attract people of the same sex. Others take drugs as a way of eliminating guilt when they feel that their actions are not morally right (Sussman & Ames 13). Therefore it is tricky dealing with such clients since one has to tackle issues surpassing drug abuse. These challenges are true while dealing with transgender or bisexual clients. Most of them abuse drugs as a way of making them feel like they belong to their preferred gender and to suppress the idea that they belong to a different gender. Therefore dealing with these clients is difficult because the drugs make them assume an imaginary stature.
Drug abuse and the elderly people
One of the challenges in dealing with elderly drug abusers is that due to historical experiences they become reluctant to change. The elderly may have abused drugs for a long time thus having difficulty changing their habits. This differs from the disabled who abuse drugs as a way of uplifting their self-esteem. Disabled people also abuse drugs as a way of making them forget their challenges. Therefore psychologists have to help them change their perceptions prior to convincing them to stop abusing drugs.
Anxiety disorder
A common anxiety disorder is a social phobia, which affects a person especially when he has to face a crowd. Social phobia affects about 13 percent of human beings; furthermore, women constitute about 71% of this proportion (Fields 93). In rare cases, drug abuse helps one to deal with phobia; however, this lasts for a short time. Social phobia can be controlled by familiarization with environments that cause anxiety.
Personality disorder
A personality disorder affects the various aspects that define an individual’s personality or character. This is different from social phobia because personality disorder lasts for a relatively long period (Sussman & Ames 13). It is also caused by historical experiences, as opposed to, a social phobia which is caused by anticipation. This can be worsened by the abuse of drugs. The only approved remedy for this is psychological attention although there are suggestions for medical cure.
Pathological Gambling
Pathological gambling is the strong urge to keep on gambling. This is a resultant feature of continuous involvement in gambling. Once an individual develops such a habit, it becomes difficult to stop. Extreme circumstances are evident when the gambler steals money thus using it for gambling. Some gamblers increase the money used in gambling hoping to increase their fortunes. Firstly, the gamblers enjoy big wins; however, they may start losing. This leads to the desperation phase. Evidently, the last step is the hopelessness phase (Castellani 67).
Work Cited
Castellani, Brian. Pathological Gambling: The Making of a Medical Problem. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000. Print.
Fields, Richard. Drugs in Perspective: Personalized Look at Substance Use and Abuse. Boston, Mass: McGraw-Hill, 2006. Print.
Sussman, Steven. & Ames, Susan. Drug abuse: concepts, prevention, and cessation. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Print.