Choice Theory

Many studies find relationships between homeless individuals who have mental health and substance abuse disorders as well as those who are not actively engaged in treatment. These studies identify individuals who avoid public health services, who come from homeless shelters, or who frequent popular homeless sites. These relationships between homelessness, mental health disorders, and substance abuse disorders have led to findings that one of the other impact the other and influence continued negative outcomes. Baker, Elliott, Williams Mitchell, & Thiele (2016), recorded that a high amount of individuals experiencing chronic, long-term homelessness also come from low economic social statuses and have a co-occurring disorder. This is another
Choice Theory developed by William Glasser (1998) is based on the assumption that we choose everything we do. According to Glasser, as summarized by Gladding (2004), health is based on healthy relationships where one does not feel the need to change those in the relationship. Glasser assumes that a person’s desire to change dysfunctional relationships is the cause of mental health distress. According to Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman (2016) when the picture in our mind and the picture of reality are different, we attempt to reduce the difference between the two by behaving in ways that we think will help us obtain the picture we want this can be done constructively or irresponsibly and/or manipulatively. These perceptions or pictures are said to be created before birth and as the person continues to live life, he or she strives to expand these pictures by satisfying five needs, these five needs are: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman, 2016). According to Glasser, symptoms of many illnesses are based on unhappiness and unsatisfying relationships, including an unsatisfying relationship with them. The state of one’s relationships and how we choose to go about fixing them essentially affect one’s satisfaction with life. Choice theory explains why and how we make the choices that affect our lives (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman,
Sharon Wegscheider’s Theory states that addiction as a family disease affects each individual (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman, 2016). She writes that a family dealing with addiction would naturally assume roles to protect and hide the addiction. The roles are as follows: the mascot, the hero, the enabler, the lost child, and the scapegoat. She also asserts that there are rules that a family of addiction abide by that maintain the problem and enable the dependent person from taking responsibility. When enabling occurs, it not only prevents the chemically dependent person from accepting responsibility, but it also means family members are accepting a responsibility that is not theirs. The attempts to cure or control the addiction of the chemically dependent only creates great damage to the family system, such as stable housing. Alford (1998), identified roles existing within families, linking them to a child's birth order. Viewing the family as a system of people in related roles, Alford (1998) proposed that parental alcoholism has an impact upon the normal role definitions within the family system. Those who provide treatment to adult children of alcoholics (ACOA) have written that the therapeutic issues of such clients are the result of roles--rigid patterns of behavior from childhood--that were adopted to survive emotionally in a family rendered dysfunctional