In a public facebook post, David Sheff rails against "tough love" advice to kick addicted loved ones out of the house: Like so many others, he's been indoctrinated by counselors, therapists, and people in 12 step groups. Al-Anon is wonderful --it helped me-- but it doesn’t tell us to let a child or spouse or … Continue reading Tough love?
Category: Treatment
The “trauma of recovery”
Bill White with Stephanie Brown on the unexpected "trauma of recovery": Bill White: Yes, you used the phrase “trauma of recovery” that just stunned me when I first read it. Stephanie Brown: By 1994/95, we were well into analyzing family data and clearly saw that the experience of trauma, so starkly evident during active addiction, … Continue reading The “trauma of recovery”
Addicts and Disease
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
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
‘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?
On Listening Without Expectations
This is for all of you professional helpers out there. Thinking about this notion of listening and receptivity is a good reminder that when we hit roadblocks with clients, often, the problematic resistance is within us. Some great thoughts on listening well. [emphasis mine] When you’re really listening, you don’t expect anything and you don’t … Continue reading On Listening Without Expectations
“He’d still be alive”
Much has been said this week about the death of Phillip Seymour Hoffman. I've heard two recurring themes. First, that he might still be alive if he had been "treated with an evidence-based" treatment, like buprenorphine. Second, that he might still be alive if he hadn't been inculcated with the disease model, which purportedly fosters … Continue reading “He’d still be alive”
Recovery MAINTENANCE
There's a lot of commentary out there on Philip Seymour Hoffman's death. Some of it's good, some is bad and there's a lot in between. Much of it has focused overdose prevention and some of it has focused on a need for evidence-based treatments. Anna David puts her finger on something very important. [emphasis mine] … Continue reading Recovery MAINTENANCE
“looking past these behaviors”
This article got me thinking about the bigotry of low expectations and the importance of continuing to assert that every addict should be offered treatment services that provide a path to full recovery, not just symptom or harm reduction. If it's not suicide or drug overdoses doing the killing in psychiatric patients after all, how … Continue reading “looking past these behaviors”
Recovery Review 