RESISTANCES IN SEEKING TREATMENT—ADDICTIONS AND MENTAL HEALTH
1- Shame
People start thinking that they are lacking something in themselves, or that they are not “complete”. They have a feeling of something missing in them as a person. They do not accept themselves as normal human beings, nor do they believe in themselves. They think that they do not deserve what is available around them and may stay in this vicious cycle.
2- Guilt
The clients feel guilt for what they have done when they were not in their senses. They try to go back to their past again and again to correct their past actions, but they only reinforce their guilt feelings. The shame and guilt become their main issue. Both shame and guilt are reinforcing each other. Some people try to resolve this issue by being aggressive or violent towards others, which can further complicate their problems.
3- Lack of support
The clients have lack of support in their life. They have no sense of where to go. Their stress level will increase which will further deteriorate their mental health symptoms, or they may relapse. If they are missing interventions, they are missing help, which could further create complexities.
4- Stigma
Consciously or unconsciously, society places a stigma on this population. It can create further discrimination and problems for them in seeking help.
5- Denial
Some of the clients may think that they are not suffering from any problems. People may have problems, but they start thinking that some magic thing will happen and end their sufferings- this is not the case. Their issues become stronger with denial. The solution is not in denial, but in facing realities. It requires courage to accept the realities of life.
6- Withdrawal
The clients are afraid of facing withdrawal symptoms. It is most prominent in alcohol and drugs addictions cases.
7- Fear of treatment
Some clients are afraid of the treatment. They are afraid of unknown. This is usually solved after sessions with the therapist. The clients are afraid to share their personal thoughts and their stories.
8- Psychosocial reactions after treatment
Some clients have certain psychosocial pressures. They start thinking about how they will survive without drugs and alcohol, as these were compulsory parts of their life. They start feeling a gap in their lives because they may have connected everything with these substances. And removing these from their life is not so easy. It requires empathetic support. They have several questions revolving in their mind about how they will survive, what will happen, would the people accept them? etc.
9- Society Approval — acceptance—stress
They have a pressure of social acceptance. How will society respond to them after they come back to becoming a productive member? Would they be able to develop trust in society? Who will trust them? How can they create the trust? How will they keep up the trust level after their first acceptance by the society. They are struggling in their early recovery.
10- Low self-confidence
They have lost their confidence in their struggle for life. Gaining self-confidence is a continuous struggle for them.
11- Fearful of themselves
They are sometimes fearful of themselves. Would they be able to properly present themselves? They ask themselves: who are they really?
12- Different people different world
The clients start thinking themselves as different from others. They start comparing themselves with other members of the society. When they are seeing themselves not functioning normally and according to the expectations of society, they become depressed and stressful.
13- Hostile world
The clients are seeing the world as a hostile place to live where their needs are not being met and understood.
14- Stress of maintenance of what they learned
The clients have psychological stress of maintaining what they have learned. They often have concerns that their newly learned skills are not working. It can create distrust and low confidence in them. So, it is very important to give feedback to the clients about their learning and the potential problems they could face. It is important for the client to get in touch with the therapist for support and objectivity.
15- What people will think and society response
Clients usually have their concerns of what other people will think when they return after the treatment or during the treatment. If the societal response is positive the clients will be having some positive effect on their behavior, but if the societal response is negative this will increase their stress levels. The clients must be ready to face these and not have high expectation from their surroundings. The clients discuss this with the therapist and plan to deal with it. Society comprises of different minds which all think differently, so the clients must be trained to be ready to hear anything.
16- Lack of financial resources—poverty
Lack of resources and poverty are big factors which prevent people from getting treatment. Poverty plays a big role in creating and maintaining stresses and disease relapses.
17- Isolation
The clients start isolating themselves from others. There could be several reasons. It could be their shame, lack of confidence, and lack of social skills. They unintentionally create more deficiencies in their lives by isolating themselves. They will be missing several things such as information about the society, social skills problems, lack of sharing emotions, and feedback for objectivity.
18- Dependency
Sometimes clients cannot decide for themselves; it creates a type of dependency in them. We need to encourage them to engage in self-supportive activities and decide for themselves.
19- Non-supportive family environment
If the family is non-supportive, it can escalate stress in all areas of the life. When the family is not emotionally supportive, it results in tension and depression. It is important that the family members support each other and listen to each other to relieve their stress and confirm each other’s feelings.
20- Conflicting values of society
Society is supporting treatment, whereas on the other hand, drugs and alcohol are available everywhere. Cigarettes are dangerous for health, but you can still buy them easily. A society’s environment has a significant impact on its individual members. The society is giving conflicting messages simultaneously. We are opening more gambling sites and bars, but on the other side we are putting emphasis on gambling and drugs/alcohol treatments. This has a conflicting impact on the people’s mind. I have heard people saying, “What to do,” “We cannot escape from these.”
21- Perfection dilemma
We are suffering from a perfection dilemma and sometimes there is no room for normality or making mistakes. Perfection does not exist, but we are striving for it. Let’s accept who we are and try our best in everything we do. Perfection is just impossible to meet, as we are human beings, and we are born to continue striving in both good and challenging times.
22- Losing jobs and license
People are afraid of losing their jobs and/or licenses after revealing their mental health issues. Sometimes they keep suffering inside, finding themselves helpless and hopeless.