If you would like to become an addiction specialist, there are many career choices available. Before you select an option, it’s a good idea to learn a little bit about what to expect working in this industry, including the following facts.
1. Addiction Is Complicated
One of the topics covered in our curriculum concerns the effects of alcohol and other drugs on the body. We discuss what happens to the brain and the body as addiction begins to take hold on an individual.
While people tirelessly debate whether or not addiction is a disease, the most important fact to remember is that no one chooses to become an addict. While each person begins using drugs or alcohol for different reasons, none of those reasons include, “oh, I just thought it would be fun to become addicted to opioids.”
There are hundreds of reasons why someone might become addicted, and addiction affects people from every walk of life, it’s a disease that definitely doesn’t discriminate. You will find that your patients are quite diverse, young and old, rich and poor, and of every ethnic group.
2. Dual Diagnosis Are Common
In many cases, your patients won’t simply have one issue that needs to be handled. For instance, perhaps a person was injured and prescribed pain medicine and became addicted to this medication and possibly self-medicated with additional substances. While you obviously want to address the addiction issues, you also need to help your client find possible solutions for the pain. If the person’s pain issues continue, it’s going to make recovery much more difficult.
Here’s another example. Perhaps you have a patient addicted to methamphetamines, but they began using drugs as a way to self-medicate due to issues related to anxiety and bi-polar disorder. You can work on the addiction all you want, but if you don’t also try to find resources and options to address the anxiety and bi-polar disorder, you really aren’t treating the whole patient.
As an addiction specialist, you obviously aren’t a physician or psychiatrist, so while you cannot help in a medical sense, your job often will include contacting doctors, social workers and other resources to ensure that all of the needs of your patient are addressed.
3. It’s Not Just About Drugs & Alcohol
You may find that your patients, in addition to medical conditions and psychiatric conditions, also suffer from other types of addiction. For instance, you might see patients with sex addiction or perhaps gambling addictions, so it’s wise to learn all you can about these addiction issues, as well.
After you earn your credential, you will need to complete some amount of Continuing Education (CE) credits in order to renew the credential, and these might be topics to consider learning about to complete your CE credits. Keep in mind, that you will need to find approved CE vendors, and approved coursework, which may or may not correspond with the suggestions regarding other types of addiction.
4. You Can Work On Either Side Of Addiction
While many people working in addiction specialist careers enjoy helping those who are facing addiction, you also can work on the preventative side. A Prevention Specialist is a person that works with schools, hospitals, churches, community groups, police officers and others to help prevent addiction and other types of risky behaviors.
For instance, as a Prevention Specialist, you might design materials to be used at a local school or perhaps develop presentations to be given to teachers or after-school program leaders. Topics might include preventing drug and alcohol addiction, bullying prevention, suicide prevention, safe-sex practices and more.
5. You Don’t Have To Be In Recovery
While many people in recovery decide to dedicate their careers to helping others into the recovery process, it’s not a requirement to become most types of addiction specialists. It certainly provides you with a perspective that can be valuable to your patients, but even a person who has never tried drugs or alcohol can be an effective counselor. Some people also decide on this career because they have watched a friend or family member suffer from addiction, and they just want to help others prepare for a successful recovery and a brighter future.
While a healthy dose of compassion is essential for any addiction specialist, it’s also important to possess good communication skills and organizational skills. You will be communicating with a wide range of people on a day-to-day basis. Obviously, there will be patients, but you also communicate with co-workers, doctors, social workers, therapists and many others. You also will be responsible for quite a bit of paperwork, so those organizational skills definitely will come into play.
6. You Don’t Need To Be A College Graduate
While some addiction specialist credentials do require an associate’s, bachelor’s or master’s degree, there are some that only require a high school diploma. For instance, a Certified Drug and Alcohol Counselor (CADC) does not necessarily need to have any education beyond that high school diploma.
This opens up a rewarding and lucrative field to a wider range of individuals. Obviously, in order to earn a credential, you will need to complete education hours as well as supervised work experience hours. The amount of education and supervised work hours depends upon the type of credential you wish to earn. Additionally, many credentials require the passing of a written exam, such as the IC&RC Alcohol and Drug Counselor exam.
7. We Can Help With Your Education
At Sober College of Addiction Studies, we can help you complete the academic requirements needed to become an addiction specialist. Specifically, we offer education programs for those wanting to become a Prevention Specialist or a Certified Alcohol & Drug Counselor (CADC). This includes those seeking CADC-I, CADC-II and CADC-III certification.
The educational requirements for all three CADC levels are identical, however, each one is required to complete a unique number of work experience hours in order to earn their credential. For instance, a CADC-I with an associate’s degree in behavioral science or an allied mental health profession must complete 2,080 hours of supervised work experience, while those without this degree, must complete 3,000 hours.
Our addiction specialist programs can be completed in just six months (or less) and we have three options. We have an in-class hybrid option where students attend class at our Los Angeles-area campus one weekend per month for six months. We also offer two online programs.
Our standard online program can be completed in just six months, and we offer a self-paced option that can be completed in as little as three months. With the self-paced program you also can take up to 18 months to complete your coursework if needed.
While we are based in California, we offer NAADAC-approved and IC&RC-approved curriculum that is accepted in most other states. Whether you live in Georgia or Pennsylvania or somewhere else, Sober College can help you realize your dreams of becoming an addiction specialist.
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