Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: This show is not a substitute for professional counseling and no relationship is created between the show host or guests and any listener. If you feel you are in need of professional mental health and are a UA student, we encourage you to contact the UA Counseling center at 348-3863. If you are not a UA student, please contact your respective counties crisis service hotline or their local mental health agency or insurance company. If it is an emergency situation please call 911 or go to your nearest emerg.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: It's 6 o'clock and time again for Brain Matters, the official radio show of the UA Counseling Center. We are broadcasting from the campus of the University of Alabama. Good evening. My name is Dr. B.J. guenther and I'm the host of the show along with my colleague and producer Kathryn Howell. And in case you don't know, this show is about mental and physical health issues that affect college students and in particular UA students. So you can listen to us each Tuesday night at 6pm on 90.7 FM or you can listen online at WVUAFM UA edu and you can also download some apps to be able to listen to us live. I like mytuner radio app and just type in WBUAFM 90.7 and this is our first showback for the spring semester. After the winter break, we're gonna do I don't know how many shows this semester, so if you have ideas, topics, please email those to me@brain mattersradiovuafm ua edu and I'll consider using your idea.
I've got the shows scheduled out until almost spring break, which will be the middle of March.
And so if you have not heard our show or you are curious about what we can talk about, just email it to me and then we will try to explore.
We've repeated shows before on various topics that are probably common like depression, stress management, even test anxiety, panic attacks and anxiety in general. But trends are always happening on college campuses and it's always good to talk about maybe even some of these. It's good to talk about every year because just to revisit it, to remind people what you can do or what the symptoms are, for instance for depression, how it can be treated and it just never gets really overused. I don't think. I think it's something we need. There's several topics we need to keep talking about and not forget about. So if you think you know, your idea might be, I don't know, stupid or dumb or whatever, you don't have confidence, don't worry about it, just send it to me anyway and we'll see if we can get it done. We've had some unusual topics over the years. We've been doing this show since 2013 and we've had some, I'd say unusual topics. And some of my favorite topics include animals. Animals. I like the shows where we talk about how animals can help with therapy assisted, even emotional support animals or, you know, therapy animals. I think that is just the coolest topic. So I love those kind of shows. But tonight we're going to start off the season or the spring basically with Understanding addiction is the topic. And really I really wanted to talk about trends on college campuses with substance uses usage. But we'll probably get into some other aspects of addiction too. Substance usage on college campuses has been increasing over the past decade with nearly half of college students meeting criteria for at least one substance use disorder. Commonly misused substances include alcohol, marijuana and prescription drugs. But students turn to substances to cope with mental illness and academic stress. And party culture and Greek life contribute to the substance abuse. So that's not anything new.
But I understand that some people who are listening to the show may not realize this. I guess maybe didn't go to college even and understand the culture on a college campus, especially our college campus. And we might get into some like sticky areas here, but I'm going to go there. My guest tonight is Dr. Caleb Lee. He's assistant professor over in human development and family studies and he's teaching classes on understanding addiction, which is fascinating. Back when I was in school, Caleb, we didn't have classes specifically like this and so it's wonderful students can take this. I've actually seen a few students over the years who have taken these classes and are really, really enjoy them and learn new things, you know, and it's going to be interesting to talk to you about like just the type of students who enroll in your class. But we'll get to that in a minute. Thank you for being on the show. Tell the listeners a little bit about yourself.
You're from where you went to school and why you're interested in this topic.
[00:05:19] Speaker C: Okay. Hello. First of all, thank you for having me on this show. I think it's amazing show and again, my name is Caleb Lee. I'm from South Korea and I'm working as an assistant professor in the ua. And as you just introduced, I teach Understanding Addiction class which covers broad addiction topics from like basic knowledge such as various drugs, diagnosis, risk factors and treatment and prevention and also recover behavioral addictions as well. So Basically I worked as a psychological counselor for college students and specifically for gamblers back in Korea for several years. And that's where my research interest begins. And that's the point that I'm specifically focused on. For my research.
I. I try to find a mechanism or risk and protective factors in gambling disorder and also for the video gaming behaviors as well.
[00:06:23] Speaker B: That's cool. We've had shows on gaming, not gaming addiction, but gaming just in general because so many students, that's what they do for fun.
You mentioned gambling addiction in South Korea, where you're from.
What is the prevalence? Can you give. And maybe this is just. I don't mean to put you on guard or to catch you off guard, but what is the prevalence of a gambling addiction in South Korea as opposed to here in the United States?
[00:06:57] Speaker C: As I know the approximately prevalence of the gambling addiction or gambling disorder in South Korea is around 5 to 10%. But in terms of adolescence, like it was very serious at some point around the COVID situation.
[00:07:15] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:07:15] Speaker C: So it was up to like 15% like from the some like surveys or unofficial like surveys from the schools or something. So yeah, that was pretty serious. And in the United States I worked on the pre violence study of the Oklahoma states with my advisor in my PhD. So it was around like 13% approximately, I guess. Yeah, there's a. The annual reports from Oklahoma and another state liberated that. But yeah, we figured out like the prevalence was like relatively higher than we expected. And in general in the the whole United States overall.
[00:08:12] Speaker B: Well, how does that compare to college campuses? Is it more prevalent on college campuses? Is it more prevalent in certain regions of the United States?
[00:08:24] Speaker C: Well, I would say in New Jersey, like a lot of sports teams and very popular and competitive sports teams are they relatively have higher prevalence in terms of sports gambling or like in general gambling disorder. But across the campus, what I found from Texas, I graduated Texas Tech. So we couldn't find like the certain amount of prevalence from the student population. Like it was very low percentage compared to the general population. But since there's a lot of risk related to the gaming, there's a gambling like activities in the gaming play. So regarding that, the risks or actual prevalence might be higher than we just expected.
[00:09:21] Speaker B: Yeah. Wow. You mentioned behavioral addictions. What are you talking about when you say that?
[00:09:33] Speaker C: It's very tricky and arguable to talk about the behavioral addiction, but it includes something that we can get at, get stuck of doing it again and again in terms of like behavior, things such as gambling and gaming, sex, smartphone, over, like, over dependency or TikTok using TikTok or like, like and also like addictive watching like YouTube clips. Like all kinds of behaviors around in our life can be so called like behavioral addiction. But there's a specific standards to be called as a, as an addiction or to be like some kind of disorder. So we have to mindful that like, like all things will not gonna be addiction, but it should be. Yeah.
[00:10:33] Speaker B: So they have to meet certain criteria.
[00:10:36] Speaker C: Right, right, right.
[00:10:37] Speaker B: So are they treated the same way? I mean I feel like I got my start in chemical dependency when I was doing my internship. I had a nine month internship. When I was getting my master's, I had my doctorate. But when I was getting my master's I worked on the hospital unit for psychiatric disorders. And there was one side was for psychiatric illness and one side was for chemical addictions. And that's where I was assigned to. I had no experience so I was thrown to the wolves.
And so I feel like. And I've worked over the years on and off with addiction and chemical dependency, substance use. But you know, some of this stuff is newer to me and even though I see students who you know, talk about binge watching or TikTok or a lot of times it's not to the point where I feel like it's an addiction or they feel like it's an addiction. When does it cross over into an addiction for, for like social media for instance? Because I know the, the class that you're teaching, the students probably can really understand and relate to this.
[00:11:54] Speaker C: So can you like.
[00:12:01] Speaker B: Well, okay, so what's the difference in somebody who just uses TikTok and somebody who's addicted to TikTok.
Does that make sense?
[00:12:13] Speaker C: Yes. So we, we have like so called like three C's when we talk about the addiction. I pretty assume that you already know about that. Like a continuous use despite of the like negative consequences and craving and what was that like laws of control. Those are the three addiction. So we have some kind of indicators that we can consider that behavior might be some addictive way or just like a overused way. So yeah, we have that kind of indicator we talk about in the class. And also for the gambling disorder, the only diagnostic diagnosed. The only diagnosable. Yeah, diagnosable. In Our Diagnosis System, DSM 5, the Gambling Disorder is the only behavioral addiction. So there is a nine criteria within the.
If the individual like can check the box, like more than four of the criteria, that individual can be diagnosed as a gambling disorder. So we do have like specific criteria or standards or the Things that we can draw the line between just like behavior or the additive behavior, but it's still arguable and very ambiguous because it's the behavior. You know what I mean?
[00:13:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:53] Speaker C: It's not having some chemicals in your body system.
[00:13:59] Speaker B: That's where people sometimes do not understand. It's even hard to explain it to the person who is participating in it.
[00:14:08] Speaker C: Right.
[00:14:09] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, I get it. Hey, we're gonna take our first break and when we come back, I want to talk some more not only about gambling addiction, but other addictions too, and what you cover in your classroom. So hang on. You're listening to brain matters on 90.7 the Capst.
[00:14:37] Speaker A: WVUAFM Tuscaloosa. This show is not a substitute for professional counseling and no relationship is created between the show hosts or guests and any listener. If you feel you are in need of professional mental health and are a UA student, we encourage you to contact the UA Counseling center at 348-3863. If you are not a UA student, please contact your respective counties crisis service hotline or their local mental health agency or insurance company. If it is an emergency situation, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.
[00:15:18] Speaker B: Hey, you're back listening to brain matters on 90.7, the capstone. I'm Dr. B.J. guenther. We're talking tonight with Dr. Caleb Lee about understanding addiction. He teaches a class over in human development and family studies on this subject, understanding addiction. And if you have questions or you have ideas for future show topics, email those to me@brain mattersradiovuafm.ua. edu and Caleb, talk about your actual class.
How many students do you usually have per semester? Is it a pretty popular class?
[00:15:56] Speaker C: Well, I've only worked in the. In the University of Alabama just like from like last semester. So actually this is my second semester to teach this class. But in previous class semester I had like 48 students in my class, but pretty good. Yeah, I have like maximum like 65 students.
[00:16:20] Speaker B: It'll pick up. It's. It's gonna. That's why I asked that because I think it will be a popular topic and a proper popular subject, you know, for students just whether it's curiosity or just something to have in their repertoire because of what how the prevalent it is. Honestly, do you. I know, I noticed in your bio because I was doing a little research on you, not stalking you, just doing research. Before the show, you went to undergrad in South Korea, got your bachelor's and your master's and at the same university you worked in the counseling center there.
[00:17:01] Speaker C: Right? Right.
[00:17:02] Speaker B: How was that, how was that compared to. And I know you don't work at the counseling center here, but as best as you can tell, how was that? How many students were enrolled at that university?
[00:17:16] Speaker C: Definitely smaller than ua, but I'm shocked.
[00:17:20] Speaker B: I thought it would have been larger.
[00:17:22] Speaker C: I don't know why, but in Korea, the university that I graduated, we had like less than 10,000 students the entire campus. And we have, but we do have like student counseling center. And I worked as a intern counselor and the full time counselor for, at that center like a year. But the thing is, it's embedded in our Asian culture or South Korean culture. We have very high stigma regarding psychological problems or mental illness or any kinds of situation that we need help. So we try to hide it as much as we can. So many students, they never tell anyone like around them to like, I'm going to the counseling center. Yeah, yeah, from the campus center. Or I do have like addiction problems. So I, I need help. Like we really like afraid of it. We scared of it in South Korea. But what I found from my class, students are quite open to share their stories and their struggling and their own journey for recovery or something. So that's where I like had like eye opening experience and more than that in Texas State University and same for UA as well. Like we have a collegiate recovery community, which is fantastic, you know. Yeah, it's really like fantastic for me. Like they can, they can open it and they, they keep doing it. Their recovery in campus, it's, it's really great thing for me.
[00:19:08] Speaker B: Yeah, it's amazing. When I was preparing for the show, I was thinking about this last night because I was reading some articles preparing for today and you. When I first started working here, we didn't have. For those listening, we have now at UA and have for several years Collegiate recovery. It's Collegiate Recovery and Intervention Services, we call it Chris for short. And most college campuses, I assume now at this point have something of this sort on their campus. Most campuses comparable to our size or larger, and it's wonderful, but when I first started, we didn't have anything like that. So we saw everybody. So if someone, let's say, got in trouble for substance use or on campus or something, or having, you know, marijuana or alcohol in the dorms, they would be sent to us. And so we would have to, like I said, see anybody. We would have to identify if you had an addiction problem issue, make a referral out to, you know, higher level of service.
So having collegiate Recovery on campus. We don't see as many students in the counseling center like we used to. I'll say it like that. As far as, like, especially for the students who get in trouble or, let's say, get arrested or there's some kind of sanctions.
So that's a little bit different. I won't say that I miss it necessarily because it was a challenge. And you can probably attest to this. Sometimes it is a challenge working with people who have addiction. I don't think anybody who is a therapist would necessarily disagree with that just because, you know, a lot of times in counseling, especially on a college counseling on a college campus, sometimes students are being made to come to counseling, and that's usually not a good thing because, you know, you've got to have the motivation to change.
And that was always a struggle. When I first started working here is seeing students who just didn't want to be here. It wasn't their choice to be here. So that was hard. Can you relate to that? Working on a college campus in Korea, even, or even here. Can you understand that?
[00:21:34] Speaker C: Yeah, I feel that, like, sometimes I met some client, like student client, as they said. Oh, well, I came here to counseling center to just experience what the counseling is because I'm studying counseling psychologist. So what?
[00:21:50] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Okay, we'll go with it. I've done it too.
[00:21:55] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. So like. But the hop, like, maybe like less than half of them, but they. Some of them, they have like, less motivated than others.
[00:22:06] Speaker B: But.
[00:22:07] Speaker C: But if they come to the counseling center with the step with the clear reason or with the clear needs, it's working so well. Like, they knew what's their problem. They want to handle it with the counselor and they want to get professional help on that. So it has good.
[00:22:32] Speaker B: Better outcomes. Yes, definitely better outcomes. The article that I put pulled with some questions that I have, I made some notes actually, and I can't remember where I got this article, so sorry.
But academically. Well, first of all, I want to ask you this. In your class, what does the curriculum look like? Like, what topics do you cover? Is it just a basic class for people who really don't know anything about addiction?
[00:23:07] Speaker C: I would say yes for now because I have a lot of students who have a like, wide variety of the background. Like some people, some students, they major like criminal justice or some students, they major in design or like computer science or like all kind of students come to my class. So I developed my, like, class contents as like, easier way and like, easy to access and my intention behind that Is like, I want students get motivated and get more relate this addiction knowledge onto their real life or the areas that they are actually interested in. So my class, like, had can be separated by like three big chunks. Like the lecture part one and two and three. And lecture part one covers like, perspectives and the basic knowledges regarding the categories of the drugs or something like very basic level. And part two, we cover some like biopsychosocial factors can be. Contribute to. To the development of the addiction. So that's the main thing. In the lecture part two and lecture part three, we talk about like prevention, treatment and recovery. And also at the end of the semester, we cover the behavioral addiction because it's still very.
It keeps changing in the field.
[00:24:46] Speaker B: Well, yeah, that's a perfect transition to my next question because I originally titled this show trends in substance uses on college Campuses. Do you talk about that in your class?
[00:25:03] Speaker C: Well, yeah, actually, I talk about that thing in very, like, how can I say it's in very, like, sections. Yeah. Experiential way. Because one of my favorite assignment in my classes, the behavioral contract, which I ask students to stop or abstinence from like, using drugs or like, like watching YouTube or like drinking caffeine or having like sweet dessert after meal, like whatever. They choose to stop it for two weeks.
[00:25:44] Speaker B: So it's.
[00:25:45] Speaker C: It's kind of experiential assignment. And by doing that we can openly, like, share our experience or natural, like very natural way if they decided to stop, like smoking or stop using weeds or something they can share, like by submitting journals.
[00:26:07] Speaker B: Yeah. And I would think too, with. With your setting, with your situation, they don't feel, I guess, threatened. I don't know what the word is. They don't feel like, defensive, you know, like in my situation, it might get a little weird because. Or because if they are coming in and somebody else is making them come in, say for instance, a girlfriend or a boyfriend. I've had students come in because their boyfriend's gonna break up with them if they don't quit drinking. I'll just. I'll just give you an example. And so it goes back to if they're not motivated, then it's hard to challenge them to change.
[00:26:46] Speaker C: Right.
[00:26:46] Speaker B: Let's just face it. So I get some pushback, I get some defensiveness. But with your situation, you probably don't get, you know, much defensiveness because this is a part of the class, you know.
[00:27:00] Speaker C: True. Yeah. And even they try not to open their problem directly. But like, let's say they choose to stop, like having like cookies or something. But as time goes by, like within two weeks, they like, they get to open, like comparing their addictive, actual addictive behavior behind and the thing that they choose to stop. They start to compare that experiences and they like, get to like, share those experience in the journal. And I was very surprised and very impressed. Like, and helpful? Yeah.
[00:27:36] Speaker B: Yeah, very helpful.
[00:27:37] Speaker C: Really? Like, yeah. Helpful on their own insights on their behaviors.
[00:27:42] Speaker B: Are you saying eating cookies is an addiction?
Because I'm in trouble. I'm in trouble. Hey, we're going to take our second break. When we come back, I want to ask you some more about, like, how addiction impacts or influences academics and other ways that affects a student's life. So keep listening. You're listening here to brain matters on 90.7. We'll be right back.
[00:28:21] Speaker A: WVUAFM, Tuscaloosa. This show is not a substitute for professional counseling and no relationship is created between the show hosts or guests and any listener. If you feel you are in need of professional mental health and are a UA student, we encourage you to contact the UA Counseling center at the 3863. If you are not a UA student, please contact your respective counties crisis service hotline or their local mental health agency or insurance company. If it is an emergency situation, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.
[00:29:01] Speaker B: Hey, you're back listening to brain matters on 90.7. I am BJ Guenther, and we're talking tonight about understanding addiction and basically trends on college campuses with regards to addiction. And my guest tonight is Dr. Caleb Lee. Dr. Lee teaches a class. I guess this is the only class you teach right now. It's called Understanding Addiction. And he says that anyone can take this class. You don't have to be a human development or family studies major. So it's open for anyone and there's a cap on the class. It sounds like you can only take like right now you've got them for this semester. You've got the maximum amount of students, say 65. That's a lot.
So I think it will keep growing. And you're probably really going to have to put a cap on this class. When we left off, we were talking about just basically how he teaches what is taught in the class, experientially asking students to abstain for a couple of weeks, just as an experiment, really, and express and share the feelings they have around whatever it is they choose to not participate in for a couple of weeks. What do you feel like? I mean, how long have you been.
[00:30:19] Speaker C: At UA it's my second semester, so I've taught only one semester before this semester.
[00:30:31] Speaker B: So you were here in the fall. And in your opinion. Can you give an opinion on what you think is the most prevalent addiction on our campus?
I know that you haven't been here that long, so I know that's a stretch.
[00:30:50] Speaker C: Yeah.
From the assignment that I gave to the student, I found some like smoking problems.
[00:31:00] Speaker B: Smoking marijuana or cigarettes or vaping.
[00:31:04] Speaker C: That's it, just vaping like electric cigarette stuff.
And I barely see the actual like substances problems from the students in my class.
[00:31:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:31:17] Speaker C: But I. I heard there's a growing number in the CRIs for gambling as well as well as just substance problem. I'm not sure about that.
[00:31:28] Speaker B: But you know, and I don't think we talk about that enough. I don't think people. I don't think students mention it enough. Even the gaming. I noticed some of your background is gaming disorder project. What is that specific gaming disorder project.
[00:31:47] Speaker C: My advisor and me like working on the research grant that the transaction from sports related gaming.
[00:31:56] Speaker B: Oh, okay.
[00:31:56] Speaker C: To the actual sports batting. Yeah. Among the all the adults population. So that's the project I was working on.
[00:32:09] Speaker B: Have you gotten a grasp yet of how bad it is here or how good it is here? I guess I should say because we are so. I mean we're big into sports here. Duh.
[00:32:20] Speaker C: Right, right.
[00:32:21] Speaker B: Football, basketball. You know, think about it. And I just. I'd be curious to know. I don't. I don't know how we would know that necessarily unless we're doing research on it.
[00:32:34] Speaker C: I talked with only one students like who wanted to talk about his like gaming behave. Gambling behavior.
[00:32:43] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:32:44] Speaker C: On sports. But when I take the interview with. For. For getting this job in this campus, I presented like from the research. I found the interesting fact that the most popular type of sports betting in the entire Alabama State is the college football.
[00:33:08] Speaker B: Of course.
[00:33:08] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:33:11] Speaker B: I would have guessed hockey for me.
[00:33:14] Speaker C: And I think that can be kind of risk factor for gambling disorder in this state. I guess across the campus area because I know it's pretty popular the Crimson Tide. And I'm also the fan of the Crimson Tide. But as long as you got like motivated and you have a strong emotional investment in the. In the specific team.
The, the risk of the.
The exposure by the gambling bad. The sports betting stuff, you know. Yeah. That topic, the accessibility for that topic can be increased. So it can be the risk factor at some point.
[00:34:03] Speaker B: How have you seen addiction affect students academically?
[00:34:10] Speaker C: Well, first of all, it takes a lot of their attention, energy and time and even money to do the academic thing. And academic performance also like their, like friendship and the social networks that they can have in their, in the campus. So it affects a lot of areas in their life, especially in the campus life.
[00:34:42] Speaker B: In one of the articles I read, it actually says substance. I'm reading this. Substance use among college students has been associated with low, lower GPAs, increased class absences and higher risk of unemployment post graduation.
Wow. And I mean I would probably have students, I have had students argue with me about being able to maintain high gpa and they don't really feel like their substance use or whatever the addiction is is a problem as long as they maintain a high gpa. So as long as they're making above whatever in their mind is okay, let's say above a 3.0, then they don't feel like it's problem.
[00:35:31] Speaker C: Yeah, but when we talk about addiction and recovery, we should look at the entire life areas include their relation, including their biological functioning and including their like social life at all areas. Like only if we only looked at their like academic performance, it can be okay even though they have addiction. But yeah, it again, the addiction can affect all areas in, in the student life and especially in the college year. That's why a lot of campuses, they, they increasing their efforts. An investment into the college and recovery community. I think that's the reason.
[00:36:17] Speaker B: I think you're right. What do you think are the primary contributors to the high prevalence of addiction and substance abuse on college campuses? What do you think are the biggest contributors?
[00:36:35] Speaker C: I definitely need more research on that.
[00:36:39] Speaker B: Well, I think for me in my position here, I think just accessibility, I think it's easy to get.
I think alcohol is still the number one substance used, you know, because it is easy to get for these, for the students, I think peer influence is another contributor. You know, of course, stressors, they're gonna say that when I ask them. They're gonna say they're so stressed out, you know, so that's a reason they'll smoke weed. Lack of sleep. I have a lot of students who smoke marijuana because they can't sleep. That's the number one thing they say.
[00:37:24] Speaker C: Yeah, I totally agree with that. And for the students in the college, I think the major contributor might be like a social stuff. But where my research, research is focusing on right now is the personality trait as well. It's more like a dispositional thing. But it's in the, in the, in the research we found out that as long as, as well as the, the Genetic thing. The personality trait also is one of the high contributor to develop the later addiction problems. So I'm still working on that. But I found out the greedy personality which is like more and more and never certified what the individual currently have that can be something to explain about their gambling disorder or problematic engagement in gambling. That's what I'm working on for my research, my own research program. But. But yeah, other than that in general, definitely like a social factor can be the.
[00:38:36] Speaker B: Are you. Are you developing or is there one in existence A scale or a survey for greedy.
[00:38:43] Speaker C: It's existence scale and the concept.
[00:38:47] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:38:49] Speaker C: I'm just. That's interesting the connections between greedy personality and the gambling behavior. Also the risky financial trading behavior.
[00:39:00] Speaker B: Oh, that's a big one. We haven't even touched on that. What about how much do you feel. You know, we've mentioned universities providing or getting involved in crisis intervention on campuses now, but how much do you think. And this may be controversial, but because I'm going to give my 2 cents because I always do. How much influence do you think the institution has?
[00:39:28] Speaker C: Actually I was quite surprised that I invited Kelly, the assistant director of CRIS to giving the guest lecture in my class. And I was pretty surprised that most of the students didn't know about cris.
[00:39:46] Speaker B: I know, I know, I know.
[00:39:49] Speaker C: Even though they are doing fantastic work, most of the students that were unaware of the fantastic resources available on campus. So yeah, that's where the faculties and instructors to do more things to relay that information to the students in the class. And we also should provide some kind of basic education for them to do some emergency treatment using our or naloxone kit for the students who have a kind of like overdose symptom like falling down on the ground and lost consciousness and stop breathing. When we recognize that problem, we should provide the right help and we should educate our students to do that when they encounter that kind of problem in their.
[00:40:43] Speaker B: Yes, yes. And we're going to take our last break right now but I'm glad you mentioned that because I want to transition into the health implications of substance abuse, addiction, etc. And also I want to touch on Greek life too, how much Greek life influences especially on this campus. So that might be the little controversial that I mentioned a minute ago. So let's take our last break. We'll be right back. You're listening to brain matters on 90.7. The capstone.
[00:41:22] Speaker A: WVUAFM Tuscaloosa. This show is not a substitute for professional counseling and no relationship is created between the show host or guests and any listener. If you feel you are in need of professional mental health and are a UA student, we encourage you to contact the UA Counseling center at 348-3863. If you are not a UA student, please contact your respective counties crisis service hotline or their local mental health agency or insurance company. If it is an emergency situation, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.
[00:42:03] Speaker B: Hey, you're listening to brain matters on 90.7, the capstone. If you have any questions for us tonight or if you have any ideas or any suggestions for topics, email those to me at brain mattersradiobuafm.ua.edu Tonight we are talking about understanding addiction trends on college campuses with regards to substance usage. My guest is Dr. Caleb Lee. Dr. Lee is assistant professor over in Human development and Family Studies and teaches a class specifically on this understanding addiction and is maxed out for this semester. Are you going to be teaching this in the summer?
[00:42:42] Speaker C: Not really, but I will teaching it in the next.
[00:42:47] Speaker B: In the fall.
In the fall. So Dr. Lee is from South Korea originally and actually worked at his university where he graduated with a bachelor's and a master's degree. He also has a doctorate from Texas Tech University. Right.
But he worked in the counseling center at his alma mater back in Korea. And so he has some experience and understands what I'm talking about and what I do here at the counseling center on our campus. But when we left off, we were talking, you mentioned basically accidents that people have, you know, for when they have a substance usage problem issue. And some, and the university or people, staff even, who need to get this person or students help for this. And we have resources, fantastic resources on this campus. What are some other health implications other than accidents, you know, because I hear about that a lot. I really do. I hear a lot. And a lot of students will just kind of blow that off. Like, you know, I had a student one time who fell down and busted her teeth out. You know, I know it's hard to talk about and that's just one example. I've had many others that have been drunk and blacked out and had accidents. So that's one health implication that you probably hear the most of, I guess. Do you know any more?
[00:44:22] Speaker C: Well, the overdose case is like very like, kind of like, let's say like ugly situation. But other than that, as you simply mentioned before, like their addictive behavior can hurt their academic performance or their personal health and their social like life and like social like friendship or something.
[00:44:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:44:48] Speaker C: So I taught some like there's some indicators that we can recognize like whether diversity is my friend or my roommate have their addiction problem or not. There are some like criteria kind of thing and we can just reach out and ask and like keep connection. Keep making connection is really helpful for like finding out or like helping them to recover from their addictive problem. Because basically this is the quote. But the opposite of the addiction is the connectivity. I really like that quote from some researcher side.
So we have to make some connections with the people who try to hide their addiction problem.
I use this analogy, but they really want to just dancing with the addiction problem. They will dancing only with the addiction. With not wanting like with someone else. Like even with their friends or parents.
[00:46:00] Speaker B: Yeah, family, you're right.
[00:46:01] Speaker C: Yeah. So we, we try to like reach out to them and make the connectivity. So that can be the one way to help and that can be the one like house implication. That's right. Yeah, that's right.
[00:46:18] Speaker B: I don't know how much you talk about this in your class either, but alcohol poisoning. I remember a time not too long ago where we had a year where it was just. I don't know what it was, but it was just really. That year was really challenging for students. I mean with alcohol poisoning. I'm sure it's still out there, but I might not hear as much about it because we do have crisis intervention services on campus now.
But alcohol poisoning is a huge health implication for the substance usage I know on this campus. Or it can be. What about, I want to mention before we close, how much does the lack of social skills influence substance use? People who don't have good social skills. Do you ever talk about that in your class?
[00:47:19] Speaker C: Yeah, when I touch the. The social factors that can contribute to the addictive behavior. I mentioned about like their peer culture as well. But the social relationship is also really important thing. And there is a theory that I usually use for my research, so called self determination theory.
[00:47:40] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:47:41] Speaker C: Inside that theory they explained about the human basic psychological needs which is autonomous relatedness and competence.
So if one of them is not satisfied or if it's like thwarted in their environment, people feel like less motivated and people will get. Am very like unhappy.
[00:48:09] Speaker B: So it's like they don't feel like they have control over their home. Oh, their own life.
[00:48:15] Speaker C: Yeah, right, right, right. And the, the three things are autonomous competence and relatedness. The relatedness is also very important because human behavior human is the social animals. Right?
[00:48:31] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:48:31] Speaker C: So if we feel like a lack of religion relate relatedness, lack of Belonging from others around them. They feel like, unhappy. They. They have like, mental problems. And they. It might contribute to their addictive behavior as well. So that's the big chunk of the research in the academy field. Like, we measure their psychological needs, and we measure the association between the lack of needs, lack of satisfaction of their needs, and the addictive problems.
[00:49:05] Speaker B: Yeah, that's very telling. That's very informative for them and the therapist who's working with them. Finally, finally. Before we go, I want to read this excerpt from the article that I am referencing about Greek life. Greek life, encompassing sororities and fraternities, has been linked to increased substance use among college students. Well, duh. According to this one study, students in Greek life engage in binge drinking. And the social dynamics within Greek organizations, along with the traditions and rituals they uphold, can create an environment that normalizes. That's important. Normalizes excessive alcohol consumption and other forms of substance abuse. How do you fight against that? And I don't mean to use the word fight, but, you know, how do you like, conquer that or treat that when they normalize it, basically. And that is what's happening on this campus.
[00:50:02] Speaker C: Well, I've never experienced with before. It's the new thing for like, we don't have that in Korea, but I've only watched that in the. In the hate movie or something. But yeah, the point is, normalizing is really important thing. It's like a social normal norm in their peer culture. Right. So the social norm is one of very like a powerful contributor to their alcohol use disorder down the road. So actually, to be honest, I have no idea how can we fight against with that kind of social norm. But I've heard there is another type of sorority, sorority house that is very religious.
[00:50:54] Speaker B: Yes, there are.
[00:50:55] Speaker C: Yeah, there are options.
[00:50:57] Speaker B: There are alternatives. I'll say.
[00:51:00] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. In that kind of like protective culture or that kind of very like healthy culture, they. They show the opposite way. So the thing is, like, we can contribute to help them to force from the healthy culture rather than forming like overdose culture.
[00:51:22] Speaker B: Yeah, well, yeah, yeah, that's challenging here. It really is.
[00:51:27] Speaker C: Yeah, I know.
I heard some. Some kind of campus, they put some like emergency kit, like a narcom or nalosome kit to help students to get help when they got like, overdose situation. So we can try to provide them to. To each sorority or fraternity houses, like, to like, for emergency situation, for like a harm reduction strategy.
[00:51:56] Speaker B: Harm reduction? Yeah. It all comes down to the, you know, the strategies that are used. Harm reduction as opposed to abstinence I did a show on that years ago and that was controversial as everything. It was an interesting show that though. But I'm sure the Collegiate Recovery and Intervention Services, I mean they know what they're doing and they're probably more up to date than even I am.
[00:52:24] Speaker C: Right, right.
[00:52:25] Speaker B: I mean I'm embarrassed to say that, but that's not my specialty here necessarily at the Counseling Center.
That's not the only thing that I focus on here. All of us are generalists here at the Counseling center. So that's fascinating though. Well, thank you so much for being on the show. It goes by fast. I tell everybody know it's really interesting and I think you're gonna continue to have interest in your class. You may even have to open up a second section.
[00:52:54] Speaker C: I hope so.
[00:52:55] Speaker B: I think you will. I really do. I appreciate you being on the show.
[00:52:59] Speaker C: Yeah. Thank you so much for. Yeah.
[00:53:01] Speaker B: And for listeners, don't forget our shows are recorded and podcasted on The Apple Podcast, audioboom.com and Voices UA. Eduardo, just type in Brain Matters and you'll find some of our past shows. There's also a link to Voices UA Edu on our Counseling Center's website and that's Counseling UA Edu. I always like to thank the people who have made the show possible. In particular our executive director here at the counseling center, Dr. Greg Vanderwaal, of course, my producer and my colleague Katherine Howell, my colleagues here at the Counseling center and Kathryn Ratchford, she is wonderful. She edits our shows for WVUA over and actually they have moved their offices and I think they're. I'm not sure where the station is right now because we don't record in station anymore. So I'm not sure where Catherine does the editing, but I appreciate it. And also I want to thank Caleb, Dr. Caleb Lee. I just said that. But I want to thank him again for being on the show. Don't forget we're on next week. This will be our second show next week and we're going to be talking about college students and realistic self care. So that's a good. I think this is a good time of the year to go ahead and talk about that before it gets a little crazier, you know, in February and March it gets more stressful for students. So hang with us this semester and come back and listen on 90.7 the capstone. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you here next week. Good night.
[00:54:45] Speaker A: This show was not intended as a substitute for professional counseling. Further, the views, opinions and conclusions expressed by the show hosts or their guests are their own and not necessarily those of the University of Alabama, its officers or trustees. Any views, opinions or conclusions shared on the show do not create a relationship between the host or any guest and any listener, and such a relationship should never be inferred. If you feel you are in need of professional mental health and are a UA student, please contact the UA Counseling center at 348-3863. If you are not a UA student, please contact your respective county's Crisis Service hotline or their local mental health agency or insurance company. If it is an emergency situation, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.
