Reference no: EM132496210

1. How does your experiences with substance use influence determining your role as a counselor. Give an example of How/Where do you draw the line between use and abuse of a substance. Review the DSM-5 criteria distinguishing use from abuse, how does one determine if the pattern of substance use significantly impairs the person's occupational, social, or daily functioning or causes significant personal distress?

2. Base on these models, which theoretical model of explaining substance use do you feel is correct and why?

• Biological perspectives focus on uncovering the role of neurotransmitter imbalance and the biological pathways that may explain mechanisms of physiological dependence. Genetic factors also play a role in substance use disorders. The disease model treats problems of substance abuse and dependence as disease processes.
• Learning theorists view substance abuse disorders as learned patterns of behavior that, in principle, can be unlearned. They focus on the roles of classical and operant conditioning and observational learning - what association did I make and how to break it?
• Cognitive perspectives have focused on the roles of attitudes, beliefs, and expectancies in accounting for substance use and abuse. Research suggests that the one-drink effect may be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
• Sociocultural perspectives have focused on the adoption of culturally sanctioned prohibitions against excessive drinking in explaining differences among various ethnic and religious groups in rates of alcoholism. Social factors, such as peer pressure, also influence the development of substance abuse.