Research continues to shed light on the neurobiology of alcohol/other drug addiction. Modern research supports much of what was intuitively and experientially believed by the medical specialists who supported the Alcoholics Anonymous program in its earliest days. This program will describe a physician's view of alcoholism, as presented in the literature of Alcoholics Anonymous and updated … Continue reading The Doctor’s Opinion – Dawn Farm Ed Series
Tag: Alcoholism
Tribes of the recovering community – Calix Society
This week's tribe is the Calix Society. Calix is an association of Catholic alcoholics who are maintaining their sobriety through affiliation with and participation in the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. Our first concern is to interest Catholics with an alcoholic problem in the virtue of total abstinence. Our second stated purpose is to promote the spiritual … Continue reading Tribes of the recovering community – Calix Society
Living on the bottom
Debra Jay addresses the belief that families should let an addicted family member hit bottom: Hitting bottom is an old idea, still imposed upon families as if it were an absolute. Many families sadly believe that they must wait for alcoholics to hit bottom before there is any hope for recovery. They rarely stop to … Continue reading Living on the bottom
In Race for Boston Mayor, Former Addicts Back Candidate With a Past
A colleague who specializes in working with at-risk youth was fond of saying that we could look at those kids as predators, victims or resources. Too often we fail to see them as resources. The same could be said of addicts and alcoholics. The NY Times shines a light on a recovering mayoral candidate who … Continue reading In Race for Boston Mayor, Former Addicts Back Candidate With a Past
Tribes of the recovering community
I remember getting sober and learning about the Sober Riders and Fifth Chapter. This recovery stuff was a whole new world, and I never imagined there'd be tribes like them. There are sober MCs (motorcycle clubs) all over the country. Our local Sober Riders describe the MC this way: The Sober Riders is a fellowship … Continue reading Tribes of the recovering community
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
1 in 5 Russian men die of alcohol-related causes
The scale of the alcohol problem in Russia is stunning: Today, according to the World Health Organization, one in five men in the Russia Federation die due to alcohol-related causes, compared with 6.2 percent of all men globally. In 2000, in her article “First Steps: AA and Alcoholism in Russia,”Patricia Critchlow estimated that some 20 million … Continue reading 1 in 5 Russian men die of alcohol-related causes
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
Brain disease does not equal stigma reduction
Yesterday, I posted about The Anonymous People and Dawn Farm's co-sponsorship of an upcoming screening of the film. So...why is this message of recovery so important to stigma reduction? We've spent 20 years trying to convince the public that addiction is a brain disease without too much attention to the potential for this message to … Continue reading Brain disease does not equal stigma reduction
If it wasn’t rational, they wouldn’t be doing it
Ugh. The NY Times has another column promoting a rational addiction model. "When they were given an alternative to crack, they made rational economic decisions.” ... When methamphetamine replaced crack as the great drug scourge in the United States, Dr. Hart brought meth addicts into his laboratory for similar experiments — and the results showed … Continue reading If it wasn’t rational, they wouldn’t be doing it
recoveryreview.blog 