Question by Claudia: I want to be a rehab therapist what do I major in college for that?
I want to be a therapist that helps drug abused women or mothers but what do I major in college? I am currently a sophomore in high school and kind of struggling in science will that make a difference? Do I have to be extremely smart for this job because I am no where near. Please help!!

Best answer:

Answer by jannsody
I believe that you’re referring to a licensed substance abuse counselor. One may need to take college-level math while in college which may include statistics, however, I don’t believe that a counseling or social work student will need the rigorous type of mathematics such as calculus. The person majoring in counseling or social work needs to have empathy (being able to place oneself in another’s shoes) for the individual with the addiction. Communication skills and reasoning are also traits necessary for effective therapists.

A certified addiction counselor (CAC) or certified alcohol & drug counselor (CADC) needs to have gotten several hours of clinical fieldwork experience while under the supervision of a clinical supervisor and having an actual patient caseload. There are quite a few addiction counselors who are “in recovery” (from addiction/s) themselves. A lot of CACs or CADCs have a master’s degree, too.

This professional organization has more info re: certification(s) in addiction counseling: http://www.naadac.org/certification

With regard to schooling (for any field), please do *avoid* those private For-profit schools such as devry, ITT tech, strayer, university of phoenix, capella, walden, full sail, art institute, penn foster, icdc, keiser, argosy, westwood and others. Their course credits usually do ** NOT ** transfer to other schools, even if the for-profit school is regionally accredited as opposed to only nationally accredited.

This consumer site has a lot of negative posts by former students of those for-profit schools, and please heed the students’ warnings: http://www.complaintsboard.com and can search.

For U.S. colleges (though please still forgo those for-profit schools): http://www.utexas.edu/world/univ

General career info: http://www.bls.gov/ooh and can search “substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors”, “social workers”, “counselors” or such.

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Question by Zach: Possibility that I will be on in-patient care?
I had an overnight stay in the hospital. I’m actually still there. I took drugs with the intent of suicide. A social worker talked to me and she said she is recommending me for in-patient care. Please refrain from saying, “You’re crazy, you need to go.” In all honesty I do not believe that. I had a huge revelation since I’ve been here, and I’m the one who got myself here. I still have to talk to a psych and a crisis response team. The social worker said something like, if I say I want to go, it will be treated as voluntary, etc. If I say I don’t need it then they need a mental expert to make the decision. That’s sort of how it went. So anyways… legally, what are my options? Can someone be more specific and precise with the information? What would the “rehab” be like? How long does it typically go for?

Best answer:

Answer by jeremytarbush
You need to be there. Legally they can keep you until you are of no danger to yourself. You’re not crazy. Just dangerous to yourself.
Normally it is 48 to 72 hours depending on your State. I can’t tell you what’d be like because hospitals vary and I normally stay in VA hospitals. Good luck to you.

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Question by Nurse Joker: How to address this issue?
Yesterday, a boy at our school drowned after tripping out on acid. Lots of people are upset, naturally. I didn’t know him personally, but I still feel really bad about it and that my friends are upset.

I go to our school’s Alateen program; it’s a program where teens talk about drug/alcohol in their family/friends/selves…and most of the kids in that program do acid, pot, alcohol, etc. I would like to talk about how the boy’s death affected me because when I hear about the kids in Alateen doing drugs I worry that they will get hurt, jailed, or die because of drugs…but I don’t really know how to bring it up and talk about it because I’m not good at public speaking and I didn’t really know the boy. I’d like to hope that I could make them understand the dangers of drugs and how it’s not all fun partying.

Please, help, thank you.

Best answer:

Answer by Mister Super Hero
I hate drugs and never tried it ( oops! I lied, I tried a few puffs when I was 17 yo but decided I was already stupid and didn’t need that stuff to make me stupid).

It doesn’t make any difference to what you say.Even the experts cannot make them change their mind. Where I live, there are 5 addicts. The Social Workers come round every couple of weeks to give them medication for the Mental Health problems caused by the drugs and when they leave, they just light up again.

Even with constant counselling, they do not see any danger to taking drugs. Some people are more sensitive to drugs and overdose by inexperience or their brain is too sensitive to the chemical reactions.

I’m on my “soap box” all the time and I make fun of their stupidity but they just as happy to do their own thing. Fortunately these guys are not loopy tunes. They seem to just enjoy the experiences and don’t seem to have any problems. One of them had a “friend” join in. He was dancing around the yard and banging rubbish bin lids and off his virtual head. The others were just laid back and content. The dancer will more than likely overdose and die within a few years because he is not in control of his mind during the events.

It won’t make any difference what you say. even hard core video of deaths and over dosed victims will not sway them if they are already addicted. It might work before the addiction gets hold of them.

Famous celebrities are overdosing, dying or going into “ReHab” all of the time. Is it a deterrent? Nope.

If you still believe you can make a difference to even one person then just talk to each individual, one at a time. Carrry some pictures, news articles, and Drug & Alcohol information leaflets.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

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