Disclaimer: nothing in this content should be taken or held as clinical instruction, clinical supervision, or advisory concerning patient care. Recently, I was asked if I had heard some comments about, “Almost everything you think you know about addiction being wrong…”, and what I thought about those comments. From that, my guess was that the … Continue reading Topic From the Field: The “Rat Park” Experiment
Global Family Recovery Alliance: Launch of a strengths-based approach to family recovery
Authored by: David Best, Caroline Beidler, Mulka Nisic Through the writings of William White, we have come to recognise that recovery is a form of social contagion spreading ripples across the surface of a tranquil pool that operates in two senses: It typically spreads from one person in recovery to another, through processes of social … Continue reading Global Family Recovery Alliance: Launch of a strengths-based approach to family recovery
Revisiting the Algorithm of SUD Care Discrimination
In May of 2022, I wrote about the use of algorithms in substance use care and related discrimination against persons with substance use disorders, this is a revisit on that piece. The recent article in Wired Magazine, Eventbrite Promoted Illegal Opioid Sales to People Searching for Addiction Recovery Help, on how data about peoples addiction … Continue reading Revisiting the Algorithm of SUD Care Discrimination
The “Preserving the Message” Website
The "Preserving the Message" website is up, publicly available, and it's an amazing resource. Here's the address: https://preservingthemessage.org/ What purpose does the Preserving the Message website serve? From the site: "Preserving the life-saving message of Narcotics Anonymous by archiving and sharing its history" The searchable archive of documents and media files is amazing all on … Continue reading The “Preserving the Message” Website
“we just didn’t harm reduction hard enough”
A conversation with a colleague yesterday brought to mind the recent study that found no statistically significant impact from an NIH-funded project distributing naloxone, increasing access to MOUD, and providing overdose education. These findings seem like they would have been big news. These interventions have been the centerpieces of the national response to the opioid … Continue reading “we just didn’t harm reduction hard enough”
A Recovery Disoriented System of Care
Bill Stauffer and Kevin Hyer, Esq. CEO of The Hyer Calling Foundation, Inc. There has long been a dream of a care and support system that would be informed by, facilitated by and funded to offer what people need to heal over the long term from one of our most pressing challenges, substance use disorders. … Continue reading A Recovery Disoriented System of Care
Compassionate, or enabling?
Photo by Tania Swan on Pexels.com I've generally avoided reading commentary on addiction and Hunter Biden because there's so much more to his story than addiction. However, a few lines in a printed Washington Post conversation grabbed my attention because it introduced questions about enabling Hunter. Alexi: In some ways, Hunter’s trial gives President Biden … Continue reading Compassionate, or enabling?
Toward a “Conspiracy of Hope” (Bill White and Jason Schwartz)
(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)
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)
Nora Volkow on More Realistic And Pragmatic Addiction Treatment
(This post was originally published on 2/6/2022) Source: NIDA There is and can be no ultimate solution for us to discover, but instead a permanent need for balancing contradictory claims, for careful trade-offs between conflicting values, toleration of difference, consideration of the specific factors at play when a choice is needed, not reliance on an … Continue reading Nora Volkow on More Realistic And Pragmatic Addiction Treatment
Recovery Review 