A substance use disorder counselor often seeks to understand why people use drugs and how the consumption impacts on the health of the users. According to Corte and Szalacha (2010), in the last few years, scholars have tried to comprehend the many factors that lead to substance addiction and use disorder by examining the users’ behavioral habits. However, as documented, the number of addicts continues to rise annually despite the endeavors of the scholars. Based on these heartbreaking facts, I chose to become a substance use disorder counselor to help people become free of addiction, help with the underlining cause of addiction and help people to move forward and live happy lives.
Importantly, substance addition has a global challenge. The devastating use of alcohol leads to more than three million deaths every year (“Management of substance abuse: Facts and figures”, n.d.). In addition to these figures, more than 31 million people around the globe are suffering from substance use disorders. As people die from this condition, society ultimately feels the pain. Children are left without parents for the reason that most of their parents succumb to death following the use of drugs. As such, my interest in this profession aimed to help people fight addiction. By understanding the dynamics of substance use addiction, I can help people fight addiction. When people are addicted, they end up taking part in criminal activities to get money to buy the drugs that I need (“Management of substance abuse: Facts and figures”, n.d.). This has been a trend that continues to worry for me, and the only way to bring it to a stop is by pursuing the profession.
In addition to helping people become free of addiction, this course will offer me the frameworks of the underlining cause of addiction. The roots of alcohol addiction, though related to psychological distress, are yet to be thoroughly examined. It is reported that addiction is caused by trauma from different perspectives. Children who are exposed to trauma to trauma during their younger ages are always prone to become substance addicts when they become of age (“Management of substance abuse: Facts and figures”, n.d.). Generally, the only meaningful way that I can contribute to this subject is by becoming a substance use disorder counselor.
The person who is helping the substance use addicts to move forward and live happy lives must have an understanding of withdrawal and tolerance. By having a piece of in-depth knowledge about the withdrawal process, one can offer appropriate diagnosis, formulate a treatment plan, and detect the likely disorders due to substance use. The only way that one can acquire all this information is by becoming a substance use disorder counselor.
According to Gallagher (2014), when one has pursued thus course, substance use disorder counselor, he or she can come up with a knowledgeable treatment plan that allows the addicts to have an easy way into the society. For example, a person who started to abuse drugs at a young and therefore the individual has consumed an enormous amount of substance, and the implication is that the person is likely to have several withdrawal challenges and might not like the process. In this process, a lack of education on withdrawal and tolerance would easily affect the person helping in the transition process. Therefore, by learning this course, I would develop this essential knowledge and help people.