I thought I was done, but here are a couple more smart takes. Both support maintenance but appreciate the article raising awareness of important problems. From The Institute Blog: And as the articles (and the comment section) demonstrate, the use of buprenorphine to treat addiction and prevent substance use-related harms is messy. Interlacing text and video, … Continue reading NY Times / Suboxone redux
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.
Tribes of the Recovering Community
This week's tribe is International Doctors In Alcoholics Anonymous: IDAA is a group of approximately 6000 recovering health care professionals of doctorate level who help one another achieve and maintain sobriety from addictions. IDAA strongly supports mainstream AA as the basis for everyone's recovery program and that needs to be first and foremost. We are not … Continue reading Tribes of the Recovering Community
Knowing laughter
In The Gifts of Imperfection, Brene Brown describes "knowing laughter" In I Thought It Was Just Me, I refer to the kind of laughter that helps us heal as knowing laughter. Laughter is a spiritual form of communing; without words we can say to one another, “I’m with you. I get it.” True laughter is … Continue reading Knowing laughter
What makes treatment effective?
This will be my post in response to the NY Times' series on Suboxone. This post originally ran on 7/19/13 and addressed a lot of our concerns. * * * I've been catching a lot of heat recently for posts about Suboxone and methadone. (For the sake of this post, lets refer to … Continue reading What makes treatment effective?
no hint of opinion here
To me, the most important line in the NY Times Suboxone series was this one, "[Dr. Sullivan] considered opioid addiction "a hopeless disease'". We believe that maintenance approaches are rooted in the belief that most opiate addicts are not capable of recovering in the same manner that doctors recover. Most of the arguments for maintenance treatments … Continue reading no hint of opinion here
NYT Reax
This blog has a point of view. We're not fans of maintenance. (Though we still think Suboxone can be a very useful detox tool.) If you want to read defenses of Suboxone, you can find a couple here: The Media Needs to Stop Stigmatizing Our Best Weapon Against Heroin Addiction - "tainted, to bourgeois eyes" New York … Continue reading NYT Reax
“a hopeless disease”
The NY Times has another article in its series on Suboxone. Buprenorphine was developed as a safer alternative to methadone for treating heroin and painkiller addiction, a take-home medication that could be prescribed by doctors in offices rather than dispensed daily in clinics. But in some areas a de facto clinic scene, unregulated, … Continue reading “a hopeless disease”
Addiction Treatment With a Dark Side
The NY Times has a new piece on Suboxone. First, on its blockbuster status: Suboxone is the blockbuster drug most people have never heard of. Surpassing well-known medications like Viagra and Adderall, it generated $1.55 billion in United States sales last year, its success fueled by an exploding opioid abuse epidemic and the embrace of federal officials … Continue reading Addiction Treatment With a Dark Side
Who’s guarding the hen house?
From the NY Times: Addiction experts protested loudly when the Food and Drug Administration approved a powerful new opioid painkiller last month, saying that it would set off a wave of abuse much as OxyContin did when it first appeared. An F.D.A. panel had earlier voted, 11 to 2, against approval of the drug, Zohydro, … Continue reading Who’s guarding the hen house?
Tribes of the Recovering Community
The Daniel B. Sobel Friendship House is at the center of the Jewish recovering community in Oakland County, Michigan. It provides support and guidance to individuals and families struggling with addiction, isolation and other life crises through a welcoming Jewish recovery community that offers friendship, support, and a variety of programs that facilitate lasting success. They … Continue reading Tribes of the Recovering Community
Recovery Review 