The Patient Experience
SECTION 3
Before approaching someone with substance abuse disorder treatment, it's crucial to understand certain core characteristics.
Understanding core characteristics of individuals with substance use disorder is essential for tailored treatment, fostering trust through appropriate communication, and ensuring safe care, especially in correctional settings. This knowledge includes diagnosing different disorder severities, utilizing medications effectively for opioid use disorder, and providing compassionate interventions. Recognizing the complexities associated with SUDs patients is essential for providing effective support and treatment to individuals struggling with substance abuse.
Core characteristics of addiction
Summary of Key Points:
Ambivalence is mixed feelings or contradictory ideas.
It is crucial in patient care, especially for those with addiction, to understand their ambivalence as it reveals the complexity of their attitudes towards substance use, guiding treatment.
In addition, conflicting desires in addiction include the urge to use substances and the desire to quit, leading to internal tension and complicating decision-making.
Guilt vs. Shame
Guilt: Feeling bad about your behavior.
Shame: Feeling bad about yourself.
Addiction complexities include persistent cravings, loss of control, and internalized guilt and shame from harmful behaviors.
Addiction-related behaviors include lying, stealing, and neglecting loved ones to sustain substance use.
Fear of Judgement
Fear of judgment stems from societal judgment and self-criticism due to addiction-related shame.
Helping patients recognize positive qualities enhances self-esteem and motivation for change during recovery.
Demonstrating non-judgmental attitudes fosters a safe treatment environment, encouraging patients to seek help and engage in therapy.
Healthcare professionals support patients by providing treatment, emotional support, access to resources, and advocacy.
Understanding patient experiences informs tailored treatment, improves communication, and advocates for systemic changes in addiction care.
STIGMA
Patients with addiction often experience the stigma associated with their condition, feeling defined and isolated by it. As healthcare providers, it's imperative to convey that we recognize their humanity beyond their addiction.
While addiction is a part of their story, it doesn't define their entire identity. By acknowledging their worth as complete individuals, we can mitigate the stigma they face and foster a supportive environment for recovery.
For instance, affirming statements like, "You are an intelligent and caring mother, and also a person with an addiction," emphasize their multifaceted nature and validate their experiences without reducing them to their addiction.
The importance of language
Using person-first language, such as "person with a Substance Use Disorder," emphasizes the individual's humanity and reduces the stigma associated with their condition. When discussing urine test results, employing terms like "positive/negative" or "appropriate/inappropriate" maintains objectivity and avoids judgmental language.
As Dr. Miller highlights, patients with addictive disorders do not possess fundamentally different defense mechanisms; rather, their experiences are influenced by treatment approaches. Drawing parallels with other medical conditions like diabetes or hypertension, where relapse terminology isn't used, challenges the binary view of outcomes and recognizes the nuanced spectrum of recovery. This approach acknowledges that recovery is a journey with varying degrees of progress, rather than a simple dichotomy of success or failure.
“We don’t use that term in the treatment of diabetes or hypertension. When a patient comes in with high blood pressure we don’t say ‘You relapsed!’. It implies a binary picture of outcomes which is simply not true. That there are only two possible outcomes: perfection and disaster. If you look at outcomes they are all the way in between. There is every shade of gray and variety”