On Studying Addiction & Psychopathology
February 29, 2024 |
| My Spring 2024 textbooks and independent study reading |
Good evening beautiful people,
I just got tickets to Our American Family, a documentary that follows a family of five as they navigate recovery and ‘generational addiction’. As I wait for the Wednesday 13th screening, I would like to give an overview of the classes I am taking this semester, and how this documentary fits into the direction my academic journey is gravitating towards.
With the exemption of my Statistics in Research Methodology class, all the classes I am taking this semester are on psychopathology = study of diseases of the mind
- psycho - mind,
- patho - relating to disease,
- ology - the study of.
They are, however, better than Dr. Google and Auntie TikTok, and I think a good starting place for further exploration. I also know there is a whole discussion about giving symptoms labels but again having a label is a good starting point to finding solutions.
The professionals highlighted in the diagram below (except the criminologists) are involved in various aspects of assessment, diagnosis and treatment.
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| So many career options - Image Source |
Two of my classes focus on general psychopathology, with one focusing on adult illnesses and the other childhood disorders. The other two classes are dedicated to addiction with one looking at the Psychology of Addiction (is addiction a behavior that we should study or does addiction lead to certain behaviors that we should study…chicken-egg dilemma) and the other is an independent study (my focus is on substance use disorder among women).
So you know, addiction is not a disorder, it is more of the thing that leads to a disorder. I still have not gotten round to blogging about my Intro to Neuroscience class, but it is part of the reason I am studying addiction. I fell in love with how the brain works and how substances from outside the body hijack functioning and reorder the systems and structures. I promise I will work on that post.
In psychopathology, reporting addiction is different from how it is done in everyday conversations. When reporting it, we do not say that someone is an addict, instead specify the type of substance (if known) and degree (this is done by professionals after assessments). For example, if the substance is alcohol, we should say alcohol use disorder, mild. This means that the substance one is using/abusing is alcohol, and the degree is mild. Degrees are determined by the number of signs and symptoms one has from a checklist/criteria given by the DSM-V. Mild is 2 to 3/11, moderate 4 to 5/11 or severe more than 6.
This is an example of how the labels and specifiers can help with treatment. Treating alcohol dependency is different from cocaine or opioid. Part of what we are learning in my Psychology of Addiction class is the types or classes of substances and the effects they have on the brain. So activate it, others slow it down. Knowing how the substances interact with the brain is important as it lets us know how to counter its impact during treatment (FUN STUFF!!!)
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| Collage of the one day retreat on recovery and healing facilitated by Eric Jean Warde |
On top of my class work, I have been attending a couple of events here in Lancaster, and reading several books and articles, as I explore various aspects of addiction.
So far, I have attended
- a retreat on recovery and healing facilitated by Erin Jean Warde, a priest, recovery coach and author of Sober Spirituality
- a Narcan use training facilitated by Blueprints for Addiction Recovery, a recovery centre here in Lancaster. Narcan is a brand name for naloxone, a type of medication used during opioid overdoses. It reverses the effects of opioids.
Upcoming events include
- the screening of Our American Family on March 13th
- doing a poster presentation for my independent study on addiction.
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| Everyone got a box of Narcan, which has two nasal sprays |
Reading material for my independent study is a mix of books, news articles and journal publications.
- Lady Lushes is my key book (covers the history and medicalization of alcohol among women),
- I just got a copy of Erin Jean Warde’s Sober Spirituality (which focuses on religion and soberity)
- you know I got a copy of a million little pieces during my Lititz visit (mostly around rehab life)
- and I have Narcotics Anonymous books
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| My copy of Lady Lushes |
All these things keep taking me back to a book I read last summer - A.J Finn’s The Woman in the Window. It is a fictional book that perfectly fits at the intersection of all the classes I am taking this semester.
I started thinking about it when we had our first case study for my Abnormal Psychology class (the one focusing on adult psychopathology). We were given a case study and asked to use the provided details to diagnose the person. Rule number one when giving a diagnosis is to always rule out medical conditions and substance use disorders.
This process begins by determining signs and symptoms, then listing differential diagnoses (all the possible diagnoses based on those signs and symptoms) and finally giving our top two with support from the information from the case study, the DSM-V criteria for the diagnosis and empirical papers to support our diagnosis.
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| My copy of A .J Finn's The Woman in the Window |
I am tempted to do this with A.J Finn’s book. If I don’t get round to doing it, and end up teaching aspects of psychopathology when I become a Professor, best believe my students will have that as their case study.
Speaking of becoming a Professor, and the fact that I did not get into the PhD program I applied to, I am seriously considering doing more research work in addiction and substance use disorders after graduation...we will see.
Until the next school update.
Sending love and light,
Sitawa
Updates:
- Blog post on Our American Family
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