7^th International Conference on Addictive Disorders and Alcoholism July 03-04, 2017 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Biography:

Dr Prem Kumar Shanmugam is Chairman and Clinical Director of Solace Sabah Addiction Treatment Retreat. Prem co-founded Solace with the vision of helping people with addictions recover and learn to live for life. Prem has worked in the field of addictions and psychology for more than 10 years.

Prem is the Past President of the Association of Psychotherapists and Counselors (Singapore) and the Regional Director of the Asia Pacific Certification Board (Singapore) while being one of the founding members as well. Prem is a psychologist, psychotherapist, trainer and facilitator and is actively involved in research in the addiction field.

Prem is a certified practitioner in Management of Family Violence Counseling, Certified Clinical Supervisor, Certified Substance Abuse Therapist (Level 4) and a Certified Psychotherapist and Counselor (Level 4).

Abstract:

Addiction is a disease that not only impacts the individual but the family as a whole as well. Family members tend to take on new unhealthy roles when infected with this disease in order to continue evolving as a unit and maintain homeostasis. This form of dysfunctional balance helps keep the system going while enabling the addiction to continue manifesting further.

Codependency is a concept that describes this dysfunctional relationship or behavior of supporting or enabling another individual’s addiction, unhealthy behavior, poor mental health or immaturity. Very often also known as ‘relationship addiction’, people who are codependent end up in relationships that are not only destructive to themselves but also to the other parties as well.

In these kinds of relationships, people tend to become over-dependent on each other so much for the purpose of getting their own core dependency issues met that their personal and emotional maturity is stunted from growing. As the addict continues the addiction, the codependent sacrifices his or her own needs in order to fulfill the addicts’ needs. One person needs to feel needed by sacrificing for the addicts needs while the addiction continues. They tend to continue to please people around them in order to feel important and wanted. There is this strong desire to appear perfect and good for others to approve. They have this delusional idea that as long as they can keep the important people in their life happy, their own pent up explosive emotions will go away.

This form of “dual diagnosis” is not uncommon in most families presenting with addictions. Similar to treating any other dual diagnosis or comorbid disorder, family members require specific treatment as well and this paper discusses how this is achieved employing a biopsychosociospiritual approach.

Biography:

Robert Labos, BA- Arch, IAC, RC completed his Bachelor of Arts Degree, Major in Architecture from the University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines. In the spring of 2000, I have completed a short course on Addiction offered by the Harvard Medical School, Department of Continuing Education, and Cambridge, Mass. USA. Robert have also continued to update himself by going to Training and Workshop, completing in the first and third quarter of 2013, Training and Workshop of Addiction treatment given by the Colombo Plan- Asian Centre for Continuing Education. Bangkok, Thailand. My research interests are on Alterative Practices in treatment of Addiction as well continuing care and relapse prevention and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy.

Robert Roux Labos, BA-Arch, IAC, RC began work in the addictions field in 1995 with one of the Philippines' best Minnesota Method outpatient treatment facility, located in Makati City, the country's central business district.

Abstract:

The treatment of addiction is complex and broad in approach, without much study and work on regional and cultural realities thus resulting in poor outcomes. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) was developed as a method to prevent relapse when treating alcoholism, and later it was modified for individuals with substance use disorder. Cognitive-behavioral strategies are based on the theory that in the development of maladaptive behavioural patterns like substance abuse, learning processes play an significant role. The use of CBT is to learn to identify and correct addictive behaviours by using a range of different skills that can be used to prevent drug abuse and to address an assortment of other problems that often co-occur with it.

A central element of CBT is anticipating likely problems and enhancing clients' restraint by helping them expand effective coping strategies. Specific techniques include looking into the positive and negative consequences of drug use, self-monitoring to identify cravings on the onset and recognize situations that might put one at risk for use, as well as developing strategies for coping with cravings and avoiding those high-risk situations.

Research indicates that the skills individuals become skilled at through cognitive-behavioral approaches remain after the completion of treatment. Current research focuses on how to produce even more influential effect by combining CBT with medications for drug abuse with other types of behavioural therapies. From sty particular practice of combining culturally sensitive factors we focus on a particular cognitive distortion described as personalisation. Doing so has been producing positive treatment outcomes.

Key Words: Treatment, Cognitive, Therapy