Paper details:
Beth is a 42-year-old married woman with two children requesting a consultation regarding her husband Frank’s behavior and her marital situation. Frank has a history of being addicted to alcohol and has been struggling with this addiction for several years. When Frank drinks he isolates himself in his home office and spends hours watching online porn. This was becoming an issue and Beth confronted Frank about his behavior. Frank gave up drinking and spending several hours a week watching porn online and spending more time with Beth and his two children. Within the last 6 months Frank has been off work due to a global pandemic. This has led to Frank being overwhelmed with feelings of anxiety due to the isolation and pandemic. Frank has been self-medicating with alcohol and has begun spending a lot of time isolated in his home office and has been avoiding Beth and his two children. Frank has been drinking roughly a 26oz bottle of gin daily, followed by several bottles of beer. As Frank has begun spending more hours within the day drinking and isolating, this has led to him spending much of his time watching online porn.
While not openly acting out on his sexual desire, he has been secretly spending 3-8 hours per day hunting images and videos of online porn. Within the last week Frank, while under the influence of alcohol has become extremely aggressive towards Beth. He has not physically assaulted Beth, but has yelled and Beth feels he could become violent towards her or their children. Frank has also slept, or passed out, in his office for the last 3 nights. Beth had discovered Frank had been visiting porn sites on his computer. She confronted him and he became outraged, defensive and accused her of violating his privacy. He refused to join her in seeking treatment. She does not know how much time he spends visiting porn sites but has a list of the particular sites he visits. When she looked at the sites, she was shocked at the graphic images, some of which involved gay sex. She said that she has been concerned for a long time about their diminishing sex life and the emotional disconnection she feels. She is confused and scared about what this alcoholism can lead to and what the porn viewing suggests about Frank’s sexuality and about the future of her relationship. She would like help sorting her feelings out and develop a plan to deal with this with Frank as she fears her children are being impacted in negative ways as they are witnessing Franks behavior. •
In 5-6 pages describe: Questions:
1. Does Frank meet criteria of being addicted to Alcohol and / or online porn based upon the conditions outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistics Manuel 5 (DSM-5). If so provide at least 2 conditions deeming this an addiction.
2. Define the situation and its level of seriousness – what could this behavior be stemming from?
3. What do you believe to be the most significant contributing factors impacting Frank and Beth’s relationship in negative ways?
4. What are the potential future risks for Frank, Beth and their two children?
5. As a practitioner, how would you support Frank and Beth? Provide at least 2 support strategies and at least 3 community resource that can support Frank, Beth and their two children.
