Therapeutic nihilism “None of them will ever get better”, the addiction doctor said to me of her patients, “As soon as you accept that, this job gets easier.” This caution was given to me in a packed MAT (medication assisted treatment) clinic during my visit to a different city from the one I work in … Continue reading 2022’s #5 post: “None of them will ever get better”
Tag: Substance use disorder
“None of them will ever get better”
Therapeutic nihilism “None of them will ever get better”, the addiction doctor said to me of her patients, “As soon as you accept that, this job gets easier.” This caution was given to me in a packed MAT (medication assisted treatment) clinic during my visit to a different city from the one I work in … Continue reading “None of them will ever get better”
Spirituality – steer away or steer towards?
We can no more do without spirituality than we can do without food, shelter or clothing – Bruce Lipton Despite the fact that there are plenty of us about, we don’t have as much information as we would like on people in long term recovery. In one study[1], Mark Galanter and colleagues took the opportunity … Continue reading Spirituality – steer away or steer towards?
Doctors, Nurses and Recovery
Last week a book I had ordered dropped through the letterbox. It’s Adam Hill’s ‘Long Walk Out of the Woods’. He’s a doctor who developed an alcohol use disorder and recovered from it. The book about his journey is next on my reading list. The arrival of Adam’s book triggered thoughts of my own story and then … Continue reading Doctors, Nurses and Recovery
A chronic illness?
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?
Diagnosing ADHD in detox?
Unreal. Someone's got an awful lot of faith in their diagnostic skills. Diagnosing ADHD with addicts in a detox unit? Really? And, now that it's published, it's "evidence". Rates of undiagnosed attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in London drug and alcohol detoxification units Background ADHD is a common childhood onset mental health disorder that persists into … Continue reading Diagnosing ADHD in detox?
Even more on the DSM-V
The Fix follows up on the previous piece about the coming changes in the DSM-V. The writer captures my concerns: I don’t foresee any negative results from dropping those two misguided terms. (abuse and dependence) But what does concern me is the fact that rather than still having two separate and distinct conditions—one, a short-term, … Continue reading Even more on the DSM-V
A New Paradigm for Substance Use Disorder Treatment
From Robert DuPont, MD: Substance abuse treatment is committed to abstinence from nonmedical drug use. Yet, continued nonmedical drug and alcohol use and relapse are so common that they are often defined as part of the disease itself. A “new paradigm” for care management has been pioneered over the past four decades by the state … Continue reading A New Paradigm for Substance Use Disorder Treatment