The question of how to describe and categorize addiction has been the subject of several of my recent posts. Some people scratch their heads about why I care so much about whether we think of it as a disease. Bill White summarized the stakes well here: If AOD problems could be solved by physically unraveling … Continue reading 2022’s #9 post: Is it harmful to frame addiction as a disease?
The question of how to describe and categorize addiction has been the subject of several of my recent posts. Some people scratch their heads about why I care so much about whether we think of it as a disease. Bill White summarized the stakes well here: If AOD problems could be solved by physically unraveling … Continue reading Is it harmful to frame addiction as a disease?
A version of this post was originally published in 2018 and is part of an ongoing review of past posts about the conceptual boundaries of addiction, the disease model, and recovery. The narrative that the opioid and overdose crisis is a product of despair has become very popular. The logic is that people in bad … Continue reading The opioid crisis as a disease of despair?
Who are you? My name is Michael Joseph Harney, Jr. I was born in Newport News, Virginia at Riverside Hospital. I grew up in the city called Hampton, Virginia. When people ask me where I’m from I say “Hampton, Newport News” and they can’t figure out which one I’m from, but that was the peninsula. … Continue reading Addiction Professionals in the Pandemic – Michael Harney
So . . . a week and a half ago, Indivior, the manufacturer of Suboxone, was charged with conspiracy, health care fraud, mail fraud and wire fraud. Prosecutors said: Indivior misled doctors and government health programs into believing that the drug, Suboxone Film, was safer and less likely to be abused than rivals, the Justice … Continue reading Follow up – Responses to charges against Invidior
[Note: This is a repost from 1/19/18. This narrative has continued to gather steam over the past year. It’s not that this narrative contains no truth, it’s that it’s incomplete and misleading.] The narrative that the opioid and overdose crisis is a product of despair has become very popular. The logic is that people in … Continue reading The opioid crisis as a disease of despair?
The narrative that the opioid and overdose crisis is a product of despair has become very popular. The logic is that people in bad economic conditions are more likely to turn to opioids to cope with their circumstances, and that their hopeless environmental conditions make them more likely to die of an overdose. This model … Continue reading The opioid crisis as a disease of despair?
I usually bristle at attempts to correct and manage other people’s well-meaning speech. However, this headline from the Washington Post grabbed me. It doesn’t take a warrior to beat cancer. It takes a treatment that works. How true this is for addiction, too. There is a treatment that delivers long term abstinence rates north of … Continue reading It takes a treatment that works.
Residential treatment has received a lot of criticism and skepticism over the last several years, especially for opioid use disorders. (Some of it is deserved. Too many providers are hustlers and others provide little more than detox with inadequate follow-up. Of course, many of the same criticisms have been directed at medication-assisted treatment. But, that’s … Continue reading Opioid users complete residential at higher rates than other patients
We talk a lot about the effects of stigma on addicts and policy. However, other than policy ramifications, like poor funding, we do not talk much about the effects of stigma on treatment professionals and their field. How does stigma shape our thinking? Our behavior? The ways we treat each other? The ways we interact … Continue reading Dirty work and courtesy stigma
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