From Slaying the Dragon by Bill White …what addiction professionals have done for more than a century and a half is to create a setting and an opening in which the addicted can transform their identity and redefine every relationship in their lives, including their relationship with alcohol and other drugs. What we are professionally … Continue reading opportunity, choice and hope
Tag: hope
raising hope up and living our mission
From Victoria Safford via Maria Popova (emphasis mine): I have a friend who traffics in words. She is not a minister, but a psychiatrist in the health clinic at a prestigious women’s college. We were sitting once not long after a student she had known, and counseled, committed suicide in the dormitory there. My friend, … Continue reading raising hope up and living our mission
treat them with hope
“If you want to treat an illness that has no easy cure, first of all, treat them with hope.”—George Vaillant
Privileged access
Peg O'Connor offers an interesting perspective on self-trust in addiction. Complicating the matter is the belief that each person knows herself better than others can know her. In philosophy we call this “privileged access.” On this view, each person has an access to her beliefs, desires, thoughts, emotions that no one else can have. Each of us can … Continue reading Privileged access
Faith is given in sufficient quantities to communities
I recently listened to an interview with Nadia Bolz-Weber. There were a lot of keepers in the interview (even for a non-believer). She's described as a recovering drug addict. Her recovery shines through in this, "fake it till you make it" discussion: Ms. Tippett: So a sermon of yours I wish I could have heard is … Continue reading Faith is given in sufficient quantities to communities
Hope
I'm reading a book that has nothing to do with addiction but is a father's search for reasons for being hopeful about the future, so that he can share them with his son. We talk a lot about the role of hope in initiating recovery at Dawn Farm, so I thought a few snippets from … Continue reading Hope
Hope and Recovery
Pat Deegan reflects on her own experience an shares about the need for hope in recovery: He said, I should retire from life and avoid stress. I have come to call my psychiatrist's pronouncement a "prognosis of doom". He was condemning me to a life of handicaptivity wherein I was expected to take high dose … Continue reading Hope and Recovery
hope is a function of struggle
From On Being, some insight on hope and how people can foster it or inhibit its development: Ms. Brown: You know, one of the most interesting things I've found in doing this work is, you know, something the wholehearted share in common is this real profound sense of hopefulness. And as I got into the literature … Continue reading hope is a function of struggle
The adjacent possible and hope
I heard a radio show this morning about where ideas come from. They interviewed a guy who wrote a book and gave a TED talk on the topic. During the interview he discussed the concept of the adjacent possible and it's importance in forming new ideas. During the interview, he described it as the building … Continue reading The adjacent possible and hope
Hope is created in community
Across the disciplines, we see a movement away from individually focused understandings of hope to more communally and relationally dependent models. Many focus on connectedness as a central aspect of hope. This takes the form of friendship, solidarity, and bearing witness as central relational aspects of hope. Within the recovery model and other models of … Continue reading Hope is created in community
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