Paper Example - Psychological Disorders and Therapies

Movie directors may, at times, present a character with psychological disorders when building the storyline. In the television show Recovery Road (2016), the main character is Maddie Graham. She shows significant signs of mental disease related to addiction. She is a high school girl who has cast herself into alcohol consumption, and it is becoming uncontrollable (Royal et al., 2016). She sneaks alcohol to school and even sneaks away from home to attend parties where she drinks herself silly (Royal et al., 2016). She developed an alcohol use disorder, which is classified as a psychological illness. From the perspective of the four D’s used by professionals, the character of Maddie Graham could be assessed as follows.

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Deviance: Maddie Graham is a deviant as they can get. Her addiction to alcohol is too bad that she sneaks alcohol bottled in school against the school rules. She is also disrespectful of her caring mum and dismisses her every time she tries to talk her out of alcohol consumption.

Dysfunction: Maddie’s ability to perform in her normal life in school is profoundly affected. Her performance in class goes down, and she doesn’t remember the essential day to day things of her own life.

Distress: Maddie experiences a fair share of distress because of her behavior. She cannot sleep well and is always trying to make plans on how to take liquor.

Danger: She lives a dangerous life due to alcohol. For a girl her age, a teenager, sneaking out at night to attend a party is dangerous enough. In her quest to satisfy her thirst for alcohol, she jumps out through a first-floor window to escape the home at night.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), there are eleven criteria against which to diagnose alcohol use disorder. If someone meets two of them, then they are victims of the disease. She first into criteria as follows; craving to take alcohol, and alcohol interfering with her school activities. The disorder is classified under the code DSM-5 303.90 (F10.20) (Lenora, 2017). The disease could either be mild, moderate, or severe, depending on the patient’s stage.

Alcohol use disorder is treatable in different approaches. In most cases, it begins with detoxification to get alcohol out of the person’s system (Lenora, 2017). This detox is a process that could take about five days on average. Detoxification precedes therapy sessions where the patient gets some education about alcohol dependency and how to recover from the trap. The next phase could involve participation in support groups composed of people recovering from alcohol use disorder (Lenora, 2017). At this stage, someone should be on the last part of the healing process from the addiction.

In some communities, alcohol consumption is prohibited. For instance, if it were a Muslim girl downing in alcohol, the social perception would be highly detrimental. American society may be very okay with Maddie’s behavior, considering it is a common phenomenon for people to take alcohol to addiction in the country. The same may not be accurate in the Middle East, where alcohol consumption is akin to committing a social taboo. When negative perceptions come on board, it is difficult for the affected person, especially in the recovery process. Everyone in society will always view the individual in a negative way, which makes it difficult to integrate socially. However, where there is social support, it becomes easier to make a recovery.

References

Lenora, K. (2017). Alcohol Use Disorder: Symptoms, Treatment DSM-5 303.90 (F10.20) - Thriveworks. Counseling and Life Coaching - Find a Counselor. Retrieved 3 June 2020, from https://thriveworks.com/blog/alcohol-use-disorder/

Royal, B., DiConcetto, K., Piligian, C., von Zerneck, D., & Sorensen, H. (2016). Recovery Road [Film]. Freeform.