THE STEPS PROCESS: A HYPOTHETICAL AND SUPPLEMENTAL THERAPY FOR SUBSTANCE USE DISORDER IN AMERICAN FIRST RESPONDERS

Despite the valiant efforts of doctors, clergy, and mental health workers in the field of substance use disorder(SUD) recovery, there remain several demographics whose circumstances are overlooked by contemporary therapies and therapy developers. Rural first responders in America are one especially overlooked group, whose unique situation - and the stigmas and biases associated with SUD - makes it difficult for them to fully benefit from existing therapies. Given this issue, I propose in this thesis a hypothetical therapy - the "STEPS process" - intended to supplement existing SUD therapies through a combination of behavioral modification and cue exposure therapy. This combination would subvert a patient's conditioned responses to mind-altering substances into more beneficial behaviors that would facilitate recovery. In addition to describing the therapy and its intended application, this thesis also examines the physiological and behavioral basis of SUD, as well as the specific circumstances of American rural first responders.