Independent Component 1

LITERAL

(a) I, Stephanie Salas, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

(b) Cite your source regarding who or what article or book helped you complete the independent component.

For completing my independent component, I did an extensive amount of research using my mentor, Isabel Godoy, documentaries, books, and articles. I actually have a best source for each category. The website that helped me the most was the National Institute on Drug Abuse (www.drugabuse.gov), a documentary named "The World's Most Dangerous Drug," and a book titled "Substance Abuse: Information for School Counselors, Social Workers, Therapists, and Counselors." 

(c) Provide a digital spreadsheet (aka log of the 30 hours).   Post it next to your mentorship log.

Done.

(d) Explanation of what you completed.

For my Independent Component, I decided to create a blog where I would show all of the research that I've come across, post/reblog pictures & videos, as well as recommend and review books, music, and films that all revolve around the dangers of substance abuse and how to recover from it. I also include some experiences with my mentor, but only a few. Here's the link: http://armedwith4mind.tumblr.com/

INTERPRETIVE 
Defend your work and explain how the significant parts of your component and how it demonstrates 30 hours of work.   Provide evidence (photos, transcript, art work, videos, etc) of the 30 hours of work.  

This isn't the best picture but the one that i posted on my extra blog post didnt show up for some reason :-( Basically what was happening was that all the counselors met up together for a training and were asked to give feedback on how they thought they were doing and how the program could be improved. Alot of them got cut out but I got to sit in with a group and listen to what they had to say. Not gonna lie, it was pretty emotional but it was fascinating to see how much they care about helping their clients. At this training I learned how hard it is emotionally for the counselors, especially when the clients refuse to cooperate, which is often. Or when they think a client had successfully finished the program but then end up relapsing or dying from an overdose or violent crime. For 3 hours I got to hear what a counselor has to deal with everyday and it's not really not as simple as people make it out to be.

This is a picture of the SEA office located in Crenshaw. After the training, me and my mentor came here and had to print out and edit a couple of letters that we then had to deliver to the clients, notifying them that they were now enrolled in the program. This was the first and probably the only time I will have interacted with a client.

 

A couple of weeks ago I spent a good amount of time at the Cal Poly Library looking for some books that would give me more depth on the topic and luckily I found these 4. (titled Drug Addiction in Youth, A Handbook on Drug & Alcohol Abuse, Substance Abuse, and Drug Abuse (Current Concepts and Research.)

APPLIED
How did the component help you understand the foundation of your topic better?  Please include specific examples to illustrate how it helped. 

The amount of research I did was crazy, and honestly I came across a lot of information that I would have NEVER come across just from doing research checks. Did you know that methamphetamine was originally invented by the Japanese to give to their pilots so they would do well during WWII? Well I didn't, but I do now. And I thought that was crazy. I also learned how the demand for these drugs keep rising and rising, as well as the costs (for certain drugs) Did you know that 4 oz of crystal meth costs around $4,000? The crazy thing is people would actually be willing to pay that much.

Throughout my research one of the most important things I've learned is that addiction is a disease. Even if the person made the decision to try a drug, it was never their decision to become addicted because it was something that was beyond their control. Their body and brain have become so accustomed to the drug that they don't know how to function without it, and that is why they make the decisions they do. I was watching a show called Addicted, and in one episode, a 19 year old girl had become addicted to meth and had begun prostituting herself in order to pay for the drug. If she wasn't smoking meth, she was smoking weed. She was basically high 24/7. During multiple occasions while she was smoking meth, she would burst into tears and blurt out repeatedly that she didn't want to be like this but that she couldn't stop, and now I understand why. That information, in my opinion, is so vital when a counselor is considering treatment to offer their client.