December 17th, 2020 He who shows himself at every place will someday look for a place to hide. –African Proverb Earlier blogs in this series explored the benefits and limitations of public recovery disclosure, the potential risks to multiple parties involved in such disclosure, and the ethics of recovery disclosure. In this final blog in … Continue reading Guidelines for Personal Safety and Public Recovery Self-Disclosure (Bill White, Bill Stauffer, and Danielle Tarino)

Ethics involves the application of moral principles to promote good and prevent harm. Ethical decision-making within our service and advocacy activities is an assessment of the ratio of potential benefits to potential harms in any course of action—with a particular emphasis on “first do no harm.” Such decision-making involves asking ourselves three questions. First, what … Continue reading The Ethics of Public Recovery Self-Disclosure (Bill White, Bill Stauffer, and Danielle Tarino)

December 3, 2020 A central goal of public recovery self-disclosure is to challenge myths and misconceptions about addiction and recovery through the elements of our personal stories. Recovery advocates must avoid contributing to false narratives by having selective parts of our stories appropriated while ignoring the central recovery message. Addiction/treatment/recovery-related social stigma and its untoward … Continue reading Pillars of Stigma and Recovery Storytelling (Bill White, Bill Stauffer, and Danielle Tarino)

A central strategy of the new recovery movement is sharing our stories in public and professional venues to change public perceptions and public policies related to addiction and recovery. Drawing from earlier social movements, we learned that “contact strategies”—increasing personal contact between marginalized and mainstream populations—is one of the most effective means of reducing stigma … Continue reading Personal Privacy and Public Recovery Advocacy (Bill White, Bill Stauffer, and Danielle Tarino)

“How Can an Academic Field Come So Far and Then Erase Itself?” – Andrea Mitchell Et Al, Collective Amnesia: Reversing the Global Epidemic of Addiction Library Closures (2012) Libraries and Librarians are unsung heroes--knowledge custodians who have played a critical role in human endeavors across the eons. Every major institution has seminal documents and generations … Continue reading Preserving & Building on Our Knowledge: The Vanishing Role of Special Libraries – Bill Stauffer & William White

(Originally posted 2017) So it is not our job to pass judgment on who will and will not recover from mental illness and the spirit breaking effects of poverty, stigma, dehumanization, degradation and learned helplessness. Rather, our job is to participate in a conspiracy of hope. It is our job to form a community of hope which surrounds … Continue reading Toward a “Conspiracy of Hope” (Bill White and Jason Schwartz)

A version of this post was originally published in January 2018. [Cross-posted at williamwhitepapers.com] Addiction counseling has become an increasingly professional and pristine affair, and service relationships reflect a more detached process than in years gone by. And yet one worries about the loss of something precious in our current fixation on the technical mastery … Continue reading Love and Addiction Counseling (Bill White and Jason Schwartz)

A version of this post was originally published in January 2018. [Cross-posted at williamwhitepapers.com] Addiction counseling has become an increasingly professional and pristine affair, and service relationships reflect a more detached process than in years gone by. And yet one worries about the loss of something precious in our current fixation on the technical mastery … Continue reading Love and Addiction Counseling (Bill White and Jason Schwartz)