Reading about addiction and recovery can be overwhelming and confusing. Media reports and experts often make strongly worded statements that are contradicted by statements from other media sources and experts. Other times, they seem to negate or minimize the lived experience of people with drug or alcohol problems and their families. For example, it’s very … Continue reading A consumer’s guide to research on substance use disorders

Demonstrated solutions to alcohol and drug problems will do more to reduce the stigma attached to these conditions than will endless debates about the source of such problems. White, W. (2000). Toward a new recovery advocacy movement. (Photo credit: beware of pity by shawnzrossi)

...I do want to suggest that something got lost along the road to professionalization. What got lost was a relationship between two people that transcended the roles of counselor and client. What got lost was our deep involvement in the community and in local communities of recovery. What got lost was our recognition of the … Continue reading Sentences to ponder: the roles of professionals and community

Eve Tushnet, from a list of 5 things the disease model gets wrong about addiction: It isn’t mercy. If someone genuinely did not choose to do wrong then compassion for that person isn’t mercy—it’s justice. And conversely, if you can only have compassion on someone if you believe she did not choose her misdeeds, then … Continue reading Sentences to ponder: mercy or justice?

Photo by Brett Jordan on Pexels.com For most of my career, I've been responsible for managing treatment programs. I believed strongly in those programs. At one of those programs, we developed a continuum of care that provided treatment and substantial, structural recovery support for more than 2 years for people with high severity, high chronicity, … Continue reading Treatment as usual isn’t cutting it (same for research as usual)

Photo by Miguel u00c1. Padriu00f1u00e1n on Pexels.com I think the future rests in seeing harm reduction and recovery as strategies to be uniquely combined and sequenced across the stages/styles of drug use / drug addiction and the stages of recovery rather than as warring ideologies. William White from Bamber, S. & White, W. (2011). Bamber-White … Continue reading Sentences to Ponder

("Wrong Way" by Jack Zalium is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.) More and more frequently I'm hearing self-identified and publicly recognized recovery advocates state that providing harm reduction services with the goal of moving people toward recovery or treatment constitutes "doing it wrong." This perspective isn't limited to a few outliers, I heard it voiced at a SAMHSA … Continue reading Doing it wrong?

I recently stumbled on this educational page about stigma from the National Harm Reduction Coalition. It's well done and illuminates the assumptions and goals for their stigma reduction efforts. They frame responding to drug use as a choice between liberation and stigma, with harm reduction as the path to liberation. While it may work for … Continue reading Addiction, Stigma, and Liberation

For 28 years, an important part of my professional identity has been "addiction professional." Over that 28 years, addiction professionals have never been a very harmonious group. There have always been disagreements about things like policy, the best treatment models, credentialing, and many other controversies. Despite these disagreements, I never really questioned whether we all … Continue reading Addiction professionals? Substance use professionals? Recovery professionals?

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com The common name addiction is reserved for severe SUD, defined by 6 or more symptoms and found in approximately 4% to 5% of adults. Those with mild to moderate SUD (ie, 2-5 symptoms) comprise a much larger proportion of the adult population (13%) and thus account for far more substance … Continue reading Sentences to Ponder