Bill White responds to a recent article that has gotten a lot of attention by Gene Heyman, a disease model critic. Heyman (and a couple of other recent articles) question whether it's accurate to call addiction a chronic illness. If there is anything that the full scope of modern research on the resolution of AOD problems is … Continue reading A chronic illness?
Tag: addiction
Addiction and quality of life
David Best recently wrote a piece on addiction and quality of life. On the role of community in recovery: At the heart of the recovery movement is a shift of emphasis away from “treatment” as a model reliant on professionally delivered interventions. Rather, the movement sees the recovery journey an intrinsically social process and … Continue reading Addiction and quality of life
Tribes of the recovering community
Yoga of 12-Step Recovery (Y12SR) thinks of itself as an adjunct to 12 step recovery. Founded in 2012, The Y12SR Foundation is a program of Off the Mat, Into the World® (OTM). Our mission is to empower the lives of individuals and families affected by substance and behavioral addictions with relapse prevention practices that enhance … Continue reading Tribes of the recovering community
How full do you want your recovery to be?
Bill White on the importance of primary care: The Philadelphia survey goes beyond affirming the significant prevalence of recovery in the general population to provide a detailed profile of the health of people in recovery. The results are sobering. People in recovery, compared to citizens not in recovery, are twice as likely to describe their … Continue reading How full do you want your recovery to be?
If it wasn’t rational, cont’d
All right, last one. This time, Sally Satel makes the case that recovery comes down to choice and "grit and conviction." It's not just American Enterprise Institute fellows who make these arguments. I've heard people in recovery say to other AA members in relapse, "You need to make a decision!" Of course, the relapser has … Continue reading If it wasn’t rational, cont’d
If it wasn’t rational, cont’d
Sam Wilkinson responds to the the coverage of Hart's research (That crack and meth addicts in a lab will decline drugs for money.) and agrees that addiction is rational. Hart has found the same thing. It isn’t the addicts are powerless; it’s that nothing on the other side of the scale weighs as much as … Continue reading If it wasn’t rational, cont’d
The adoption of 12-step practices and beliefs.
We're seeing a growing body of research on the mechanisms of change in 12 step recovery. Tonigan and Greenfield recently published an article in Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. Working the 12 steps is widely prescribed for Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) members although the relative merits of different methods for measuring step work have received minimal attention and … Continue reading The adoption of 12-step practices and beliefs.
As the ACA expands coverage for addiction, can the system deliver?
The AP recently ran an article looking at the horizon for addition treatment under the Affordable Care Act expansion in insurance coverage: The surge in patients is expected to push a marginal part of the health care system out of church basements and into the mainstream of medical care. Already, the prospect of more paying patients … Continue reading As the ACA expands coverage for addiction, can the system deliver?
Let’s sensationalize recovery
It just so happens that Dawn Farm is co-sponsoring a screening of the film next week. One Crafty Mother has a post responding to The Anonymous People. That last bullet point is the one I want to focus on. [There are over 23 million people in long term recovery in America alone.] Changing the public's … Continue reading Let’s sensationalize recovery
More on choice and addiction
From Kevin McCauley: The argument against calling addiction a disease centers on the nature of free will. This argument, which I will refer to as the Choice Argument, considers addiction to be a choice: the addict had the choice to start using drugs. Real diseases, on the other hand, are not choices: the diabetic did … Continue reading More on choice and addiction
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