Drug-Related Problems

There are several different approaches when it comes to counselling people with alcohol and drug related problems. The approach of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous is that the difficulty is primarily due to a pre-existing physical (biochemical) abnormality, usually referred to as a kind of incurable allergy to the substance of addiction, and therefore lifelong abstinence is the only solution.

Another, medically influenced approach sees the related harm as important, and deals with it by reducing harm: minimizing risks, reducing intake rather than aiming at total abstinence, and possibly changing to another prescribed substance with reduced harm implications.

A third approach sees drug misuse as a pattern of inappropriate coping, and so focuses on cognitive factors to change perceptions, improve feelings of efficacy, and increase the vocabulary of alternate coping behaviours that may be used instead of drugs. Apart from these there are a number of other approaches, but these are the ones most commonly encountered in India at present.