Addiction and the Stages of Healing

Over the next several days I’ll be posting on a topic I have titled “Addiction and the Stages of Healing”.

The plan is for 11 posts to cover 13 areas of my original writing. References and suggested readings will also be shared.

I formulated this concept in the Fall of 2017 and completed building a slideshow in the Spring of 2018 for lecture presentation of the content. I presented the lecture for the first time at the Lowcountry Mental Health Conference in Charleston, SC on August 2, 2018, and recorded a live desktop lecture of the slideshow later that month. Next, I began presenting the lecture to small groups of clinicians within my workplace for continuing education purposes. Public lectures were given in October of 2018 and July of 2019. The recorded desktop presentation was transcribed into text during the Summer of 2019 and I transformed that raw material into a full written version during November of 2019. I reduced that document to a set of text blocks suitable for posting as this blog series.

The sections will be posted as follows:

OVERVIEW
GETTING WELL IS LONG; MEASURING IS SHORT
A CLEAR IMAGE
WHAT SHOULD IMPROVE, AND WHEN?
“CARE FOR THE LIFETIME OF THE VEHICLE”
WHOLE PERSON HEALING: THE PERSON, THE SYSTEM & RESEARCH
CURRENT PRACTICAL PROBLEMS; PRACTICAL EXAMPLES
INVITATION TO A THINK TANK
STAGE THEORIES RELATED TO ADDICTION
IMAGINE THE DAY; WHAT CAN WE DO RIGHT NOW?
“BUT THAT COULD NEVER HAPPEN”

My earlier post titled “Planes, Car Repair Shops, and Dentists” on this blog sits at the center of the Addiction and the Stages of Healing notion. Consider reading that post if you have not already; it is a fitting warm-up for the upcoming series.

Lastly, I would like to acknowledge April Martin for the work completed in transcribing the desktop video lecture into a verbatim text version of that presentation.

Up Next: OVERVIEW.