A recent paper on collegiate recovery experiences highlights an important dynamic in recovery advocacy, recovery science, and recovery policy. I've commented a lot on the conceptual boundaries of recovery in the blog -- the relationship between addiction (or SUD or other compulsive behaviors) and recovery; whether recovery is a process, a direction, or an outcome; … Continue reading Am I in recovery?
Author: Jason Schwartz
I have been an addiction professional and social worker since 1994. I started blogging in 2005 as the Clinical Director at Dawn Farm. I no longer work at Dawn Farm and am now the Director of Behavioral Medicine at a community hospital, and a lecturer at Eastern Michigan University’s School of Social Work.
Views expressed here are my own.
Keep in mind that the field, the contexts in which the field operates, and my views have changed over time.
Partnering in pursuit of truth and recovery
Bill Stauffer recently shared Bill White's keynote from this week's Consortium on Addiction Recovery Science. It's a great speech and there's a lot to absorb. I'm sure more will be said about it on this blog. White frames recovery research as emerging from a gaping hole in professional/clinical and scientific/research knowledge related to recovery. To … Continue reading Partnering in pursuit of truth and recovery
Unclaimed
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4y2o9uoa2q Of course, all of these people didn't have addiction. But, for the ones that did, this really pulls at my heart. So sad -- their deaths and the ways they die. Overdose prevention, rightly, gets a lot of attention. I wonder how many were offered a pathway to recovery with treatment of adequate intensity, … Continue reading Unclaimed
“these things take courage, and they encourage each other”
Read Spotted Newt book shop, Hazard, KY When Bill White called for an overhaul of our treatment models (Recovery Management) and our treatment systems (Recovery Oriented Systems of Care), there was an emphasis on community organization and "hope-based interventions" to reduce stigma by making recovery more visible and voluntarily attract more people into treatment and … Continue reading “these things take courage, and they encourage each other”
Drug “poisoning” or “overdose”?
The NY Times has an article on the debate between characterizing drug deaths, fentanyl deaths in particular, as poisonings or overdoses. Much of the argument focuses on destigmatizing drug-related deaths. “If I tell someone that my child overdosed, they assume he was a junkie strung out on drugs,” said Stefanie Turner, a co-founder of Texas Against … Continue reading Drug “poisoning” or “overdose”?
A War on Recovery?
STAT ran an article this week that seemed to conflate treatment, recovery, and mutual aid groups: The recovery group Narcotics Anonymous — perhaps the country’s largest provider of addiction treatment Lev Facher. (2024, March 5). How the U.S. is sabotaging its best tools to prevent deaths in the opioid epidemic. Retrieved March 7, 2024, from … Continue reading A War on Recovery?
The pendulum swings again. We can do better.
Oregon's legislature voted, by large margins, to roll back its move toward full decriminalization of drug possession, public consumption, and selling drugs. Now, San Francisco voters approve a ballot measure allowing drug testing recipients of public assistance and making assistance contingent on participation in treatment. And, it wasn't close. One way to think about responses … Continue reading The pendulum swings again. We can do better.
Better than well recovery, attraction, coercion, and the elephant in the room
The elephant in the room Nicholas Kristof shares his experience attending a graduation ceremony for Women in Recovery, a program for court-involved women in Oklahoma. As I watched the graduation, my imagination soared: What if everyone with a drug problem who was caught up in the criminal justice system had access to a comprehensive and … Continue reading Better than well recovery, attraction, coercion, and the elephant in the room
Drug apartheid, pro-drug cultures, wellness boosters, and sober drug use
This week produced an interesting collection of articles about drugs, their place in society, and drug policy. I thought they were worth sharing because they paint a picture of the contradictions of the moment we're living in. Drug Apartheid On Tuesday, TalkingDrugs, an international drug policy advocacy news platform, published an article proposing apartheid as … Continue reading Drug apartheid, pro-drug cultures, wellness boosters, and sober drug use
Opioid use disorder, the acute care paradigm, and cause for alarm
[Historia Medica by W. van den Bossche, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons] I thought long and hard about whether to respond to the tone and this article [‘This is Cause for Alarm’: Abstinence-Only Opioid Treatment Is Deadlier Than None, Study Says] about a recently published study on mortality rates for people receiving treatment with Medication … Continue reading Opioid use disorder, the acute care paradigm, and cause for alarm
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