I'm afraid medicine has nothing for you. I recommend three things. A protective wall of human community. Real religious insight. And a group of friends with whom you can be honest. John Kelly, PhD, paraphrasing Carl Jung's letter to Bill Wilson
Author: Brian Coon
Recovery Alliance Initiative: Proposed Principles and Stages of Care
Below is a document I've prepared at the request of the Recovery Alliance Initiative (RAI) leadership. It outlines some basic information that will be helpful for community-based leaders to better see the big picture of the RAI model, as it applies to helping the individual. Recovery Alliance Initiative: Proposed Principles and Stages of Care Principle … Continue reading Recovery Alliance Initiative: Proposed Principles and Stages of Care
Sentences to Ponder (Norman Hoffmann, PhD)
If your theory doesn't match the folklore, it's time to adjust your theory. The first time Norm said this to me I knew I was learning from someone who knew what they were talking about. Norm told me how, from an academic standpoint and from a research standpoint, the lives of large numbers of people … Continue reading Sentences to Ponder (Norman Hoffmann, PhD)
A Metapsychology of Addiction, Addiction Recovery, and Human Beings
It seems to me that addiction: is dynamic has a form consumes energy and manages affects is influenced by genes and is also developmental has substructures that are simultaneously independent and interdependent adapts to reality. Let me expound each of those points in turn. Addiction is fluid, not static. Once in place it undulates within, … Continue reading A Metapsychology of Addiction, Addiction Recovery, and Human Beings
The Concept of “Mental Relapse” Is Being Lost
During my first two and a half decades working in addiction treatment, I was surrounded by the term mental relapse. Let’s talk about that term. What is mental relapse? How is it defined? For starters, mental relapse frames relapse as a process, not an event. It’s the process that begins before using resumes. To be clear, mental … Continue reading The Concept of “Mental Relapse” Is Being Lost
Understanding Before Language
I did not grow up knowing what anything meant. I don’t mean that in a poetic or existential way. I mean it literally. I spent most of my childhood in Hong Kong in the 1970s. I was in the most densely populated place on earth, surrounded by a language that had no alphabet, no phonetic … Continue reading Understanding Before Language
You may have heard of “urge surfing”. Let’s add “recovery surfing”.
Some years ago, it dawned on me that we lacked a concept that seemed important. And that we also lacked a term for it. Or we at least lacked a concrete awareness of this idea with a shared language for it. My solution was to coin the term "recovery surfing" as the name for the … Continue reading You may have heard of “urge surfing”. Let’s add “recovery surfing”.
The Behavioral Health Recovery Management Statement of Principles
As the years go on the importance of this document looms larger and larger to me. I urge everyone to read it. It's only a couple of pages long. BHRM Statement of PrinciplesDownload We used these principles in a very focused way during the ten-year BHRM project. We would look at and study a program … Continue reading The Behavioral Health Recovery Management Statement of Principles
A brief overview of quality-related methodologies
Clinicians in our work are seldom, if ever, provided high-quality education or training by their own organizations on topics related to organizational leadership or administrative management. And most organizations also fail to provide training about how to lead or manage organizational change, even during or in preparation for a change project. So that's two problems … Continue reading A brief overview of quality-related methodologies
2025’s Top Posts – #2 – 6-methyl nicotine is here
Over the next several days, we’ll be sharing 2025’s posts with the most views. Today is #2. Did you know that a synthetic analog of nicotine has been developed and is on the market? It’s called 6-methyl nicotine (6-MN). Before we get into some of the more recent findings about 6-MN, it’s important to understand … Continue reading 2025’s Top Posts – #2 – 6-methyl nicotine is here
Recovery Review 