Crisis in Movies: Self Medicated

His mother, who developed a drug problem of her own, was unable to deal with his behavior. He was rarely attending school and getting in fights regularly. He began hanging out with a different peer group and cutting ties with the positive influences in his life. He displayed significant discomfort anytime his father was mentioned and it was clear he had not dealt with his grief in a healthy way. 2. Identify the type of crisis (Situational, Developmental, Existential). (10 pats. The crawls In this situation was primarily situational, but one could also argue that there was a developmental crisis. Andrews father died and the family, both Andrew and his mother, appeared to lack the adequate coping skills to deal with the stresses normal stress associated with being a teenage boy, and his mother the stress associated with raising a teenage boy. After the death of his father there was a developmental crisis during which Andrew was unable to successfully transition from being a dependent teenager to an independent young man. 3.

Identify the material, personal, and social resources available to the individual. (10 pats. ) Based on the home in which the primary characters live it is apparent that they either are, or at one point were fairly wealthy. Andrews mother does not appear to be employed and he does not hold a Job. There is no indication of an extended family support network. Andrews mother does not appear to have any support system. They appear to be very isolated. Andrew had an abundance of negative, superficial “friends” and one female friend who had pro-social contact with both him and his mother.

He is also very intelligent which is a valuable personal resource but there are times during his recovery process that it appears to interfere with his testability. Due to the fact that he resides in a large city, Lass Vegas, there are innumerable community resources available as well. 4. What were the differing perceptions of the crisis? (the client, family, community, friends, legal perspectives) (10 pats. ) The client, Andrew, did not believe there was a crisis because he did not view his behavior as problematic.

His mother felt quite differently and was highly concerned with both his drug and alcohol use and his apparent inability to deal with the death of his father. After multiple failed attempts to directly address Andrews behavior, his other appoints custody of him to an extreme measures treatment facility. They kidnap Andrew and he is enrolled in an involuntary, live-in rehabilitation program for addicts of all kinds. At the treatment facility Andrew was viewed as a “problem child”. This was largely due to his intelligence and the lack of realization of there being a problem.

He was unwilling to discuss his father and used his intelligence to manipulate and scheme against staff. Until he was forced into treatment Andrew surrounded himself with people who were sharing in his addictive behavior, this undistributed to his inability to realize that he was in crisis because his community group was comprised of fellow addicts. 5. Briefly, how was the crisis handled by the protagonist? (10 pats. ) The protagonist, Andrew, refused to address the death of his father, which was a primary stresses.

Eventually he turned to alcohol and drugs to numb the feelings associated with the pain of his father’s death. His lack of positive coping tools eventually led to a crisis of drug and alcohol addiction. By the end of the film Andrew had accepted that his addiction was destructive and was taking steps towards cover and more importantly towards dealing with the underlying issues that had 6. Suggest several steps for your client that could be used to handle the crisis. (10 Andrew does not believe he has a problem. He needs help seeing his addiction as detrimental.

One of the primary issues driving Andrews addiction is the unprocessed grief over his father’s death. He needs counseling to help him deal with those emotions and to learn healthier coping skills. Andrew and his mother also need to work through the resentment that has developed between them. Forgiveness therapy old be valuable if incorporated into family counseling. Cognitive self-change is also a valuable tool in dealing with addiction. Realistically Andrew is also going to have to deal with his legal issues before he can truly have a clean start.

He also needs to attempt to salvage his GAP in order to complete high school. Due to the fact that he wants to go to college he will likely need to extend high school by a year so that he can retake the classes he did poorly in and salvage his grade point average as much as possible. 7. Suggest steps for teaching coping skills and developing resiliency (preventing the rises from reoccurring). (10 pats. ) Andrew would greatly benefit from learning how to verbalize his feelings and talk through his problems instead of stuffing and avoiding.

He needs his emotions regarding the death of his father to be validated and to understand that they are okay to have. Re-involving himself in the healthy outlets he used to enjoy, like sports, would be a positive way to handle stress as well. Because he has struggled with addiction it will be very important to his future success that he complete a thorough relapse prevention program. He needs to identify what his triggers and red flag tuitions are so that he can learn steps to intervene in those situations. 8. What referral sources would be available to the client if he/she lived in your area? Specific names of organizations in your area to which you might refer your client. You might have to research your area for this. ) (10 pats. ) He could be referred to private counseling, support groups for those grieving the loss of loved ones, and drug/alcohol rehab or support groups. There are groups like Alcoholics Anonymous, Celebrate Recovery, and LIDS Family Services Addiction Recovery for those struggling with drug and alcohol addiction. His lawyer could also push for a mandatory treatment program instead of traditional punishment for the crimes he had committed.

This community has a treatment focused state prison nearby which employs the therapeutic community model for drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Because of this there are several certified drug and alcohol counselors in the area, some of which take on private clients on their own time. There are also drug and alcohol education groups such as DARE that may be beneficial. We are either slaves to sin or slaves to Christ, and the Bible is clear that to be a slave to Christ is a far easier burden to bear. Often times those things we believe to be freedom eventually become the heaviest of our chains.

This can be seen in Andrews downhill spiral of addiction. He thought he was having fun getting drunk and skipping school, he was doing whatever he wanted. However, it eventually reached the point that Alcohol was all that he wanted. The desires of the flesh quickly lead us to destruction. It is my opinion that there are few things out there that demonstrate the bondage we are in apart from Christ so vividly as drug, alcohol, and sexual addictions. Addiction is the epitome of being in bondage, of being a slave.