Cognitive behavioral therapy: principles and applications

Chaney n Alcoholism Order

Chaney Allen & Alcoholism Analysis

It's is no surprise that Chaney Allen's character resembles her as an African-American alcoholic who grew up in a poverty stricken neighborhood and known as one of the town drunks had became powerless in her addiction as she struggles with addiction, symptoms, recovery, including Alcohol Anonymous. The physical symptoms were just as overwhelming as the mental and emotional ones, and the title of her book I'm Black & I'm Sober published in 1978 was from a time in her alcoholism when there was nights that she would get sick and vomit which usually is a sign of alcohol poisoning because she would consume large amounts of alcohol from her habitual binge drinking and say something in contradiction to the book's title (Martin, 1990).

In using the American Psychiatric Association's multiaxial diagnostic system out of The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders System Manual, is an accurate code for alcohol dependency, and it defines alcoholism as a continuous pattern of specific behaviors occurring at any time within the person's life. The manual states that if someone builds a tolerance and needs to increase the amount they drink to get drunk, if it is used in bigger quantities over a longer time than they expected, no interest in any family activities, and it continues regardless of the persistent or recurrent physical or psychological problems that is likely to have been caused or worsens a situation. This powerless behavior started becoming evident in Chaney's alcoholism, and Axis I the primary diagnosis is alcohol dependency, with Axis 4 because of the psychosocial and environmental problems the character had, as well as the assessment from Axis 5 of her overall functioning and severity would be well below a 50 (Family Practice Notebook.com, 2011).

However, if we further assess the situation of Chaney's book and own personality and possible reasons as to why the alcoholism was brought on has no definite answers yet only the diagnosing from mental healthcare providers, but sometimes there is that battle as to where does the addiction actually root from. In Chaney's case she had mentioned, along with studies and articles that have been throughout the years on minorities and alcoholics that she had a hard time with there being only a minimal amount of blacks that attended AA, especially African-American women, that came forward with an addiction to Alcohol. Chaney felt that she was different because growing up in her neighborhood in California there were not many blacks at all that were in recovery/AA for alcoholism, and there was doubts in her own mind as to why the amount of African-Americans who had a drinking problem was so low even though it is a problem in every neighborhood and there were liquor stores on every corner in her neighborhood.