Question

writ a paper about identifying schemas and how they are formed and result in substance abuse

Answer 1

Schemas are mental concepts that form based on an individual’s life experiences. Schemas inform individuals on what to expect in certain situations and helps them navigate through similar encounters. Schemas also tend to change as time passes and when there are contradictions to our existing schemas.

For example: Some of us may have a schema that all cats are unfriendly and indifferent. This schema might continue to exist until we encounter a cat that is friendly and sociable. This alters our schema that cats are unfriendly and indifferent, but not all of them are that way.

People have schemas about almost everything in their day-to-day life. They interpret how we perceive situations; make decisions, and how we act on them. Some of the types of schemas are:

• Social schemas- schemas about social situations
• Person schemas- schemas about people
• Role schemas- schemas about appropriate behaviour in certain situations
• Self-schemas- schemas that we have about ourselves

There are also certain schemas that are maladaptive that some of us develop during our childhood and this in turn results in some form of social dysfunction. There are 18 early maladaptive schemas that have been identified by Jeffry Young. They are:

• Abandonment / Instability
• Mistrust / Abuse
• Emotional deprivation
• Defectiveness / Shame
• Social Isolation / Alienation
• Dependence / Incompetence
• Vulnerability to harm or illness
• Enmeshment / Undeveloped Self
• Failure to achieve
• Entitlement / Grandiosity
• Insufficient self-control / Self-discipline
• Subjugation
• Self-Sacrifice
• Approval-Seeking / Recognition-Seeking
• Negativity / Pessimism
• Emotional inhibition
• Unrelenting standards / Hypercriticalness
• Punitiveness

Problems with substance abuse develop because of negative schemas. Negative schemas form when a child’s core needs of safety, love, stability, acceptance, empathy, and guidance are not met. These schemas are perpetuated and reinforced throughout one’s childhood and adolescence and form destructive coping mechanisms. When a schema is triggered, an individual’s thoughts and emotions are controlled by these negative schemas. These individuals develop one or more of the following styles of coping in order to deal with these schemas.

1. Surrender: In this method of coping, the individual tends to give in to the negative schemas that they have about themselves and start to believe that they are true. They also make decisions and start to act in ways that demonstrates their surrender to the people they believe they are.

2. Avoidance: Avoidance is the most common coping method among individuals with substance abuse issues. Individuals who use this coping method try to block out these negative schemas and use drugs as a way to escape the negative emotions attached with these schemas. With the use of substances, these negative emotions become repressed and build up over time. They continue to build up and after prolonged substance abuse; most individuals begin to feel trapped and unable to escape these emotions and thoughts.

3. Overcompensation: Overcompensation is the act of doing the exact opposite of what you believe in order to overcome the negative emotions attached with a schema.

Individuals with substance abuse issues use all of these coping mechanisms. Schema based therapy is a form of cognitive behavioural therapy that addresses early maladaptive schemas and can be useful in treating individuals with substance abuse problems.