Joe’s Risk Factors
Availability – due to his business, which Joe claims is his major concern; he can buy alcohol for himself, which exposes him to drinking. Additionally, Joe can buy the drink from his pension from the military service. This might lead to higher drinking since he can afford alcohol. The other risk factor is family conflict. The fact that Joe was brought up in an alcoholic family exposed him to drinking behavior. His late father brought about family conflicts when he was around the home, and at times Joe almost hit him in the face with a baseball bat. These family conflicts exposed Joe to traumatizing situations, which translated into drinking in order to smoothen things over. This might hinder recovery since he might not know other ways of solving family conflicts
Thirdly, Joe was exposed to family drug behavior. As mentioned above, Joe was brought up in an alcoholic family, where his father always spent time at the bar with clients and friends discussing business deals and chatting. Having lived in such an environment, Joe was exposed to alcoholism, which might have been the cause of his alcoholic behavior. This is also a setback in the recovery process. He also had early and persistent problem behaviors. While growing up, Joe was always in trouble. When things got overwhelming at home, he frequently went down to the school and threw rocks at the classroom windows. He had similar aggressive behaviors in his childhood, which became persistent to his adulthood. The long persistent behaviors might be difficult to solve.
His academic failure might have also led to the drug behavior. Joe performed very well in high school. However, he spent more time drinking than studying in college, which led to the revocation of his military deferment in 1968. The causation in this case can be either way – his drinking led to his academic failure, or his academic failure led to further drinking in college and in the military. This could serve as an example and speed the recovery process. Finally, Low bonding to family is his other risk factor. Joe doesn’t seem to keep a happy relationship with his daughter. She sees him when he comes to kiss her goodnight. However, she does not feel the fatherly love, and doubts her father for entering her room. She also pities him for being drunk. This might lead to rejection by the family, thereby hindering the recovery process.
Joe’s Resiliency Factors
These are the factors, which increase the possibilities of the effectiveness of rehabilitation process and they include: relationships; during the counseling process, he undergoes group counseling with ACA, which help him maintain sobriety. The group members provide a relationship that his troubled daughter cannot provide. The group members help each other in the recovery process. Secondly, his insight is very important to the process. Joe recalls the event in Vietnam and insists that he had had it good compared to his mates. Being filled with the survivor’s guilt, Joe denies having traumatic exposure, even though it is evident from characteristics such as sleep disorders, and nightmares, night sweats, inability to concentrate, hypertension, disorientation, and explosive temper. This could be challenging to the recovery process since finding facts would be difficult unless he is willing to open up
The third resiliency factor is morality. During the war, Joe felt sorry for Vietnamese children and described them as stealing, cheating, and manipulating the GI’s to survive, which reminds him of his childhood when his father could not provide for his family. This is important to the recovery process because sanity of the victim is important. He also posits independence. He distances himself from his family and is always away drinking. This provides time and distance for his family to heal and accept him. Finally, his sense of humor is very important to the process. When Joe is late for his first counseling session, he wondered why the counselor was so concerned with time. His only concern was his business, and not time. This is also an advantage to the recovery process.
References:
Chopko, B. A., & Schwartz, R. C. (2009). The Relation Between Mindfulness and Posttraumatic Growth: A Study of First Responders to Trauma-Inducing Incidents. Journal Of Mental Health Counseling, 31(4), 363-376.
