Why I’m Hooked on Psych

I have spent nearly half of my life studying psychology, with much of this time focused on substance use and addiction. It is not uncommon for others to ask why I have chosen to devote so much of myself to the study of and treatment of addictive disorders.

The Personal Hook

I initially entered this field for very personal reasons. My father had an alcohol use disorder. While the definition of AUD has changed over time, it is currently diagnosed according to DSM-5 criteria as having two or more symptoms related to one’s drinking that have a significant physical and or emotional impact on one’s life.¹ Examples of these symptoms include difficulty controlling or stopping one’s drinking and continued drinking despite social, interpersonal, or occupational problems. These symptoms need to be in place over the past 12 months for it to be a current concern. While I will never know if my father was formally diagnosed with AUD, his drinking pattern and behaviour when intoxicated were consistent with this diagnosis.

While the personal impact can play out very differently in various households, I often felt alone among my peers as a child and then as a teenager navigating being a child of someone with AUD. Little did I know that AUDs are one of the most prevalent mental health conditions in the world, affecting nearly 9 percent of adult men and nearly 2 percent of adult women.² I was actually among millions of children with a parent with AUD.

Unfortunately, my father did not reach a point where he regained control over his drinking. He died suddenly from heart disease a few weeks shy of his 67th birthday. It is a common misconception that alcohol is good for the heart. In fact, alcohol use, particularly when exceeding one to two standard drinks per day, has been shown to have toxic effects on heart health.³ To help cope with this loss, I briefly attended Al-Anon, a group focused on supporting people who are worried about someone else’s drinking.⁴ This group was incredibly helpful and supportive, and I only wished I had learned about this option earlier in my life.

Within a few months of processing my grief, I changed career paths and majors from pre-med to psychology, with the goal of becoming a clinical psychologist. Needless to say, these personal experiences played an incredibly important role in who I am and where I am today.

Source: Tookapic/Pixabay

The Intellectual Hook

While these personal factors undoubtedly steered my life towards clinical psychology and researching and treating addiction, I have grown to appreciate that my passion for this field has outgrown my original reasons for study. Addiction to substances is incredibly widespread, and the use of certain substances, particularly alcohol and tobacco, are leading preventable causes of mortality and morbidity.^2,5 Nonetheless, further work is needed to develop and strengthen interventions for many of these concerns. My continued work in this area is fueled by my desire to rectify this problem for individuals who are harmed by substances, including those who use the substances and those who are in their lives.

Where I am now

I conduct research examining factors increasing the risk for substance-related concerns and evaluate and develop interventions for substance use. I also supervise and mentor students who have an interest in this field, with the hope of nurturing future researchers and clinicians.