Artemidė Motekaitytė 440781 Psychology 3rd grade. Presentation about
„Drugs“ (related to motivation).
Motivation
There are a lot of theories of motivation, all them trying to explain why people
do what they do. Motivaton gives a person‘s behavior its energy and its direction. It is some
motive that energizes the athlete, and it is some motive that directs the student‘s behavior
toward a particular goal. The sudy of motivation concerns those processes that give behavior
its energy and direction. Energy implies that behavior has strength – that is relatively strong,
intense, and persistent. Direction implies that behaviour has purpose – that it is aimed toward
achieving a particular goal. The processes that energize and direct behavior emanate from
forces in the individual and in the environment, as you can see in the picture . motives are
internal experiances – needs, cognitions, emotions – that energize the individual‘s approach
and avoidance tendencies. External events are environmental incentives that attract or repel
the individual in engaging or not engaging in behavior.
DRUGS
The medical historian Osler wrote „that the only characteristic that distinguishes
man from other animals is his propensity to take drugs“. Given current knowladge, Osler
might add that there are exceptions to this statement and also that then propensity to „do
drugs“ is as old as human behaviour. Intoxicated behavior is seen in most animals, from
elephants to the catnipconsuming pet.
What is addiction?
Experimental try:
It takes short period of time, usually one or two tries. Most of them try it in group activity
(with friends, subculture and etc.). You can hear that in some countries almost everybody
tried some drugs, but also you can hear that in some countries it‘s isn‘t so popular to use
drugs. It depends on how easy you can get drugs, what friends think about drug using, is it
popular, if you belong for subcultre, which require to do it. These factors are changing all the
time and it changes habbits of drug using.
Entertaining use:
The main different between experimental try and entertaining use is that a person use drugs
regular. In this case, a person usually use it to seek pleasure on special occasion, for example,
parties. Person thinks that he/she can control it and can stop if he/she wants. The amount of
using can be from small dose to large dose, but it doesn‘t mean that a person has addiction.
Addiction:
When person can‘t control it, you can call it addiction. Long time using, needs bigger amount
of drugs. It becomes more important to get drug and it doesn‘t matter how and quality of
drugs. A person starts using it alone or in a small groups, feels psychological and physical
addictions.
Psychological addiction: A person can feel psychological addiction even after first try.
He/she becaomes obssesed with thoughts, memories, feelings about drugs. It becomes
difficult to think about anything else. Among teenagers gets a group psychic attraction. This
dependence can be directly related to the environment in which drugs are used. Drug using
becomes as much important as communication in groups.
Pysical addiction: Pysical addiction usually comes after psychological addiction when drugs
are necessary for keeping biological and chemical balance in organism. Changings are
occured in all functions of human body, the blood must constantly circulate an individual
dose of the drug. A person needs to get a dose to eliminate unpleasant state. If the body does
not receive the drug, the drug withdrawal syndrome develops.
More about physical addiction:
How does stimulation of the brain's pleasure circuit teach us to keep taking drugs?
Our brains are wired to ensure that we will repeat life-sustaining activities by associating
those activities with pleasure or reward. Whenever this reward circuit is activated, the brain
notes that something important is happening that needs to be remembered, and teaches us to
do it again and again without thinking about it. Because drugs of abuse stimulate the same
circuit, we learn to abuse drugs in the same way.
Why are drugs more addictive than natural rewards?
When some drugs of abuse are taken, they can release 2 to 10 times the amount of dopamine
that natural rewards such as eating and sex do. In some cases, this occurs almost immediately
(as when drugs are smoked or injected), and the effects can last much longer than those
produced by natural rewards. The resulting effects on the brain’s pleasure circuit dwarf those
produced by naturally rewarding behaviors. The effect of such a powerful reward strongly
motivates people to take drugs again and again. This is why scientists sometimes say that
drug abuse is something we learn to do very well.
Psychoteraphy
Drug withdrawal is a constellation of physiologic changes undergone by people or animals
who have become physically dependent on a drug or chemical who are abruptly deprived of
that substance. The intensity of the syndrome varies with the drug or chemical. Generally, the
effects observed are in an opposite direction from those produced by the drug; the withdrawal
syndrome from CNS depressants (barbiturates) consists of insomnia, restlessness,
tremulousness, hallucinations, and, in the extreme, potentially fatal tonic-clonic convulsions.
Onset time and severity of the syndrome depend on the rate at which the drug disappears
from the body.
Some of rehabilitation types:
• Cognitive-behavioral therapy, which seeks to help patients to recognize, avoid and
cope with situations in which they are most likely to relapse.
• Multidimensional family therapy, which is designed to support recovery of the patient
by improving family functioning.
• Motivational interviewing, which is designed to increase patient motivation to change
behavior and enter treatment.
• Motivational incentives, which uses positive reinforcement to encourage abstinence
from the addictive substance.
In our country (Lithuania):
Detoxication. Drug detoxification is used to reduce or relieve withdrawal symptoms while
helping the addicted individual adjust to living without drug use. Drug detoxification is not
meant to treat addiction but rather an early step in long-term treatment. Detoxification may be
achieved drug free or may use medications as an aspect of treatment. Often drug
detoxification and treatment will occur in a community program that lasts several months and
takes place in a residential rather than medical center. Drug detoxification varies depending
on the location of treatment, but most detox centers provide treatment to avoid the symptoms
of physical withdrawal to alcohol and other drugs. Most also incorporate counseling and
therapy during detox to help with the consequences of withdrawal.
Methadone maintenance therapy. It is a synthetic opioid .The principal effects of methadone
maintenance are to relieve narcotic craving, suppress the abstinence syndrome, and block the
euphoric effects associated with opiates.
Motivational interviewing. Employ interventions that connect to the individual and strive to
understand hisorher thoughts, feelings, struggles, aspirations, and disappointments.
Providersserve asempathicallieswhile working toward facilitatingthorough exploration of an
issue. The concept of motivational interviewing evolved from experience in the treatment of
problem drinkers, and was first described by Miller (1983) in an article published in
Behavioural Psychotherapy. MI recognizes and accepts the fact that clients who need to make
changes in their lives approach counseling at different levels of readiness to change their
behavior.During counseling, some patients may have thought about it but not taken steps to
change it while some may be actively trying to change their behavior and may have been
doing so unsuccessfully for years. focusing on a variety of topics like looking back, a typical
day, the importance of change, looking forward, confidence about change, and so on.
Motivational interviewing is non-judgmental, non-confrontational and non-adversarial. The
approach attempts to increase the client's awareness of the potential problems caused,
consequences experienced, and risks faced as a result of the behavior in question. Alternately,
therapists help clients envision a better future, and become increasingly motivated to achieve
it. Either way, the strategy seeks to help clients think differently about their behavior and
ultimately to consider what might be gained through change.Motivational interviewing
focuses on the present, and entails working with a client to access motivation to change a
particular behavior, that is not consistent with a client's personal value or goal. he main goals
of motivational interviewing are to engage clients, elicit change talk, and evoke motivation to
make positive changes from the client. For example, change talk can be elicited by asking the
client questions, such as "How might you like things to be different?".
Literature:
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[2014.11.08].
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