Dirk Hanson has a great post on resistance to the disease model. I'm a believer in harm reduction as part of the continuum of addiction interventions, but there is often a chasm between the way harm reductionists and treatment providers frame the problem. This can make it difficult to work together. Dirk does a great … Continue reading Addicts and Disease
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 currently serve as the Director of Social Work and Spiritual Care for a healthcare system. I've also served as the Director of Behavioral Health at another hospital. I'm also 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.
The choice argument and pleasure cont’d
The NY Times recently had a Room for Debate feature on addiction. They published opinions from 6 different people on addiction with one being a clear advocate for the disease model. This is a little like publishing a debate feature on climate change and having 1 of 6 experts believe that global climate change is … Continue reading The choice argument and pleasure cont’d
Mind Over Matter: Beating Pain and Painkillers
Findings were recently published on a study of a mindfulness based intervention for chronic pain and opioid misuse. To test the treatment, 115 chronic pain patients were randomly assigned to eight weeks of either MORE or conventional support group therapy, and outcomes were measured through questionnaires at pre- and post-treatment, and again at a three-month … Continue reading Mind Over Matter: Beating Pain and Painkillers
Amplified Recovery
Bill White, illuminating real recovery and the how necessary it is for helpers to maintaining direct connections to people with "amplified recovery": The addictions field has been so fixated throughout its history on addiction-related pathologies that we know very little about these amplified states of recovery. We as addiction professionals need to periodically remind ourselves … Continue reading Amplified Recovery
Tribes of the recovering community – Clergy
We'll wrap the tribes of the recovering community series with a few mutual aid groups for recovering clergy. Clergy Recovery Network - The Clergy Recovery Network exists to support, encourage and provide resources to religious professionals in recovery. If you are a pastor, missionary, religious professional--or a spouse of one--and you need help . . .welcome … Continue reading Tribes of the recovering community – Clergy
A new smoking culture?
But now a new threat is emerging. The use of e-cigarettes is rising rapidly, with teenagers a key target of marketing efforts. “Vaping” is making smoking acceptable—even cool—once again as the tobacco industry returns to its old ways, putting e-cigarette commercials back on the airwaves for the first time since the 1970s. Right now, e-cigarettes … Continue reading A new smoking culture?
‘Recovering Alcoholic’: Words That Stigmatize or Empower?
• The more the individual identified him/herself as a recovering alcoholic (addict) the higher was his/her level of self-efficacy.• Higher self-efficacy was associated with more months clean and/or sober.• The more the individual leaned toward the recovering identity the less likely she/he was to report having relapsed into drinking or drug use during the pervious … Continue reading ‘Recovering Alcoholic’: Words That Stigmatize or Empower?
Sentences to ponder
The more than 16,000 overdose deaths from prescription opioids each year disproves the idea that it's easy to regulate addictive drugs if they are produced and provided legally. We can reduce the violence in markets, but we’ve paid a real cost in public health harms and in safety failures from reckless corporate behavior. via 100 … Continue reading Sentences to ponder
Recovery vs. Treatment
Hopeworks Community's blog speaks from the perspective of a mental health care patient advocate. He draws some important distinctions between recovery and treatment: Is treatment a necessary or a sufficient condition for recovery?? The answer is clearly on both counts no. Mental health professionals have stolen the notion of recovery and defined it as the result of … Continue reading Recovery vs. Treatment
What we project onto Philip Seymour Hoffman
Jen Matesa pushes back against some of the commentary framing Philip Seymour Hoffman's attempt to re-establish his recovery through a 12 step program as a product of stigma. (This, in spite of the fact that he had previously maintained recovery using this path for 23 years.) I find it astonishingly patronizing that some are suggesting … Continue reading What we project onto Philip Seymour Hoffman
Recovery Review 