Free, special addiction education opportunity

george-vaillant I wanted to make sure all of you know what a special opportunity this week’s Dawn Farm Education Series presentation offers.

The presenter will be George Vaillant. Who is he?

Well, he’s the source of one of our favorite quotes: “If you want to treat an illness that has no easy cure, first of all treat them with hope.”

Here are a few more things he’s known for:

Professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School
Study Director for the Grant Study, a 75 year longitudinal study of more than 200 men
Wrote the Natural History of Alcoholism Revisited
Member of AA’s General Service Board

That alcoholism is as much a social as a medical condition. “Alcoholism can simultaneously reflect both a conditioned habit and a disease.”
Factors predicting alcoholism were related to ethnic culture, alcoholism in relatives, and a personality that is antisocial and extroverted. An unhappy childhood predicted mental illness but not alcoholism—unless the family problems were due to alcoholism.
That alcoholism was generally the cause of co-occurring depression, anxiety, and sociopathic (delinquent) behaviour, not the result.
That even though alcoholism is not solely a medical condition, it is therapeutically effective to explain it as a disease to patients. The disease concept encourages patients to take responsibility for their drinking, without debilitating guilt.
That for most alcoholics, attempts at controlled drinking in the long term end in either abstinence or a return to alcoholism.
That there is as yet no cure for alcoholism, and that medical treatment can only provide short-term crisis intervention.
Achieving long-term sobriety usually involves (1) a less harmful, substitute dependency; (2) new relationships; (3) sources of inspiration and hope; and (4) experiencing negative consequences of drinking.[3]

You have two chances to see him:<

You can see him on Tuesday night at St. Joe’s – Reception at 6:30 and presentation at 7:30.
You can see him Wednesday night at U of M – Reception at 6:30 and presentation at 7:30.

The presentations are different. So, see him twice!

The presentations are free, there is no registration and there will be free food at the receptions.