An important truth for professional helpers: “Many times when we help we do not really serve. . . . Serving is also different from fixing. One of the pioneers of the Human Potential Movement, Abraham Maslow, said, "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.' Seeing yourself as a fixer may … Continue reading Sentences to ponder
Category: Mental Health
You can’t organize recovery around nothingness
I'm becoming a big fan: I believe that there is a push to strip recovery from addiction treatment services. She does a great job explaining why an approach like this will fail.
Recovery and the Conspiracy of Hope
A repost from a few years back: I think Pat Deegan does a great job describing the cycle of despair in settings that don't facilitate or witness recovery. I think this translates very well to addiction treatment providers. What it misses is those who step in after hope is abandoned and ennoblize the suffering of … Continue reading Recovery and the Conspiracy of Hope
‘The Illusions of Psychiatry’: An Exchange
First, the NYT Review of Books published a review of three books that cast doubt upon our faith in psychotropics. Then, the Times published a defense of antidepressants. Now, the contentious dialog continues with three letters to the editor from very esteemed psychiatrists and then a response from the writer of the original review. (A former … Continue reading ‘The Illusions of Psychiatry’: An Exchange
Anti-depressant confusion
The NY Times publishes a defense of anti-depressants: IN terms of perception, these are hard times for antidepressants. A number of articles have suggested that the drugs are no more effective than placebos. Last month brought an especially high-profile debunking. In an essay in The New York Review of Books, Marcia Angell, former editor in chief … Continue reading Anti-depressant confusion
Calling out the outliers
From The Fix: Does abstinence from booze, coke, heroin and other substances include medications for common mental health problems like depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, even schizophrenia? Many people in recovery—particularly those in 12-step programs—seem to think so. And some, often out of an excess of conviction, attempt to persuade fellow members that "clean and sober" … Continue reading Calling out the outliers
Non-recovery vs. recovery culture
I feel like I've seen this before in Deegan's writing, but this table focusing on recovery culture vs. non-recovery culture in mental health services is pretty amazing. Again, it highlights many of the concerns about methadone and other meds, but it also shines a light on some failings of drug-free treatment. What a great too … Continue reading Non-recovery vs. recovery culture
Identity, mental illness and recovery
“Once I became my diagnosis, there was no one left to recover.” Holy cow! This really captures something very important! It articulates what concerns me most about the rush to diagnosis for people in early recovery. It's much less any intellectual concern, concern that a medication might be unhelpful or some concern about purity of … Continue reading Identity, mental illness and recovery
Continue to continue to continue…
An article about living with bipolar offers and important insight for anyone living with a chronic illness, including addiction: You can’t choose to have or not have an illness, but you can choose the way you opt to cope with it. You can choose to lie in bed all day and think negative thoughts, and … Continue reading Continue to continue to continue…
Depression and Alcohol
A new meta-analysis of studies looking at depression and alcohol cast doubt on self-medication theories: The analysis revealed that the presence of either disorder doubled the risks of the second disorder...evidence suggests that the most plausible causal association between AUD and MD is one in which AUD increases the risk of MD, rather than vice … Continue reading Depression and Alcohol
Recovery Review 