Addiction runs in families, but far less known is the fact that recovery also runs in families. Both of these phenomena have captured my attention in recent decades and been the focus of numerous articles.
Scientific studies are unravelling the factors that combine to elevate risk of intergenerational transmission of addiction and related problems. These mechanisms of transmission include genetic and neurobiological influences, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, assortative mating (attraction of those exposed to parental addition to individuals who share this family history), co-occurring conditions, temperament, developmental and historical trauma, family dynamics (e.g., parental/sibling modeling and collusion), early age of alcohol and other drug (AOD) exposure, and disruption of family rituals. (See Here for review of studies). Rigorous studies have yet to be conducted on the prevalence, patterns, and mechanisms through which addiction recovery of one family member increased the probability of other addicted family members also initiating a recovery process. The purpose of the present blog is to offer some observations on these issues drawn from decades of observation of families impacted by and recovering from severe and persistent AOD problems. The following suggestions should be viewed as hypotheses to be tested via scientific studies and more expansive clinical observations.
*Innumerable patterns of recovery transmission exist within families. Recovery transmission may occur intergenerationally (e.g., parent to child) and Intragenerationally (between siblings) and reach the extended family and social network. The recovery influence may also be bi-directional, e.g., mother in recovery to addicted child, child in recovery to addicted mother). Recovery transmission, like addiction, can also skip generations.
*The probability of recovery initiation of an addicted family member increases as the density of recovery within an addiction-affected family network increases. The contagiousness of recovery and the push and pull forces towards recovery increase exponentially as other family members initiate recovery and as overall health of the family system improves.
*The mechanisms of recovery transmission within affected families include:
1) infusion into the family of increased knowledge about addiction and recovery by the family member(s) in recovery,
2) withdrawal of family support for active addiction,
3) truth-telling about the addicted family member’s behavior and its effects on the family, 4) elicitation of hope,
5) recovery role modeling,
6) active engagement and recovery guidance by family member(s) in recovery,
7) assertive linkage and co-participation in recovery mutual aid and other recovery support institutions,
8) assistance when needed in accessing professional treatment,
9) post-treatment monitoring and support, and
10) adjustments in family life to accommodate recovery support activities for recovering members and family as a whole.
These individual mechanisms achieve heightened power when sequenced and combined over time.
*Recovery of a family member can spark personal reevaluations of AOD consumption of other family members, resulting in a potential decrease in AOD use and related risk behaviors, even among family members without a substance use disorder. This may constitute a hidden benefit of recovery in lowering addiction-related costs to community and society.
*The recovery contagion effect on other family members exists even when the recovering family member isolated themselves from the family to protect his or her own recovery stability. The family’s knowledge of the reality of his or her continued recovery and its effects on their health and functioning exerts pressure towards recovery even in absence of direct contact.
*One of the most complicated forms of recovery contagion is between intimate partners who both experience AOD problems. The recovery of one partner destabilizes the relationship and increases the probability of recovery initiation of the other; addiction recurrence in one partner increases the recurrence risk in the other partner. Recovery stability is greatest when each partner established their own recovery program in tandem with activities to support “couple recovery.”
*Where conflict exists between a family member in recovery and a family member in active addiction (e.g., a father in recovery and an actively addicted son), the conflict can serve as an obstacle to recovery initiation of the addicted family member. Though recovery initiation may be slowed, recovery prognosis is still increased and the conflicted relationship is often reconciled when both parties are in recovery. When not reconciled, conflict can continue to be played out via different pathways of recovery.
It is rare to escape injury to family within the addiction experience. Such injuries increase progressively within families in which multiple people are experiencing AOD-related problems. For those of us who find ourselves in such circumstances, the greatest gift we can offer our family is our own recovery.
Related Papers of Potential Interest
Evans, A. C., Lamb, R., & White, W. L. (2014). Promoting intergenerational resilience and recovery: Policy, clinical, and recovery support strategies to alter the intergenerational transmission of alcohol, drug, and related problems. Philadelphia: Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services. Posted at http://www.williamwhitepapers.com/pr/2014%20Breaking%20Intergenerational%20Cycles%20of%20Addiction.pdf
Navarra, R. & White, W. (2014) Couple recovery. Posted at http://www.williamwhitepapers.com/blog/2018/03/couple-recovery-robert-navarra-psyd-lmft-mac-and-bill-white.html
White, W. & Savage, B. (2003) All in the Family: Addiction, recovery, advocacy. Posted at http://www.williamwhitepapers.com/pr/2005AllintheFamily.pdf
White, W. (2014) Addiction recovery and intergenerational resilience Posted at http://www.williamwhitepapers.com/blog/2014/07/addiction-recovery-and-intergenerational-resilience.html
White, W. (2017). Family recovery 101. Posted at http://www.williamwhitepapers.com/blog/2017/12/family-recovery-101.html
White, W. Addiction/Recovery as a family tradition. Posted at http://www.williamwhitepapers.com/blog/2017/12/family-recovery-101.html
White, W. (2015) All in the family: Recovery resource review. http://www.williamwhitepapers.com/blog/2015/11/all-in-the-family-recovery-resource-review.html
White, W. L. & Chaney, R. A. (2008). Intergenerational patterns of resistance and recovery within families with histories of alcohol and other drug problems: What we need to know. Posted at http://www.williamwhitepapers.com/pr/2012%20Intergenerational%20Resilience%20%26%20Recovery.pdf
White, W. L. & White. A. M. (2011). Tips for recovering parents wishing to break intergenerational cycles of addiction. Posted at: http://www.williamwhitepapers.com/pr/Tips%20for%20Recovering%20Parents.pdf
]]>I was feeling creaky after a transatlantic flight, limbs having been shoved into 90-degree angles for more than nine hours. Despite compression socks, my ankles were swollen, and my mind was foggy thanks to the multi-hour marathon of movies and recycled air.
Then I remembered a conversation with Chef Julia Jaksic, the mastermind behind Cafe Roze, an all-day eatery in my Nashville neighborhood. With its millennial pink accents and storefront windows streaming in sunshine, Cafe Roze is a small restaurant making a big impact on plant-forward, healthy eating in Nashville.
Cafe Roze sells lattes and other drinks infused with CBD (cannabidiol), the non-psychoactive compound in the cannabis plant—widely available as CBD oil derived from hemp—that’s credited with everything from boosting relaxation to reducing pain and inflammation. Jaksic herself has been taking CBD as a supplement for years to calm anxiety. She created Cafe Roze’s CBD offerings, including CBD dressings for the restaurant’s generous salads, for customers who were curious about the benefits.*
“It is shocking how popular it is,” she told me.
If there was ever a day I wanted a natural anti-inflammatory and mental fog-lifter, it was after that plane ride. So I headed to Cafe Roze for a matcha and orange blossom latte whose earthy texture reminded me of when I was loyal to a daily wheatgrass shot. Five spheres of CBD oil floated on top of the thick green foam.
From the first sip, I felt connected to the power of plants again.
Research varies on how long it can take to feel the effects of CBD. It’s certainly not like popping an Advil (at least not for me), but after the drink, I did feel a little more focused and less stiff. By the time I made it from Cafe Roze to my gym, my ankles were back to preflight size.
Later in the week, I headed to Walden, a neighborhood bar, for a nonalcoholic CBTea made with chamomile tea, pear juice (another anti-inflammatory), aquafaba, and demerara. (Nab this CBTea reipe!). The lack of stiffness continued. I don’t know that I can credit CBD entirely, but it was enough to make a journalist curious about who’s cooking with CBD and why.
Making healthy dishes even better
“More people are healthy and aware of the health benefits of food now than in any other time in my life,” says Tony Galzin, the chef and co-owner of Nicky’s Coal Fired, a Nashville restaurant that has added CBD to special dishes on an experimental basis. “I’m interested in the health benefits,” he says of CBD, “but also the natural flavors, for me, are a culinary challenge. It is like working with turmeric and ginger.”
The addition of CBD is a good fit with the philosophies behind a plant-based diet, making plant-centric menus good candidates for CBD-infused foods.
Throw a CBD-themed dinner party
Part of the fun of being a home cook is experimenting with new ingredients with friends and family. Let your guests know what you’ve got planned in advance and empower them to manage their own CBD intake.
Place card-style signage with the dosage in each dish may be helpful, and CBD recipe developer Leah Vanderveldt suggests designing a few dishes that guests can add their own CBD oil or CBD-infused sauce to (so that they can skip it for a course or two if they prefer). Note that CBD might not be appropriate for all people, including pregnant women and people on certain blood thinners or medications that are changed by the liver.
La vie en roze Chef Julia Jaksic of Cafe Roze in Nashville has pioneered CBD-infused dining in the city. Left: “The GateWay,” available as a vegan mocktail at Cafe Roze, is one of THE RESTAURANT’S CBD creations.
“I consider CBD a plant medicine, so using it in combination with other plants just made sense to me,” says Leah Vanderveldt, author of The CBD Kitchen. “It’s an area of cooking that encourages my creativity and makes me think about ingredients from both the perspective of nourishment and the environment.”
I asked visionary chefs and recipe developers like these for their tips on making vegan eats and drinks with CBD, as well as recipes to get anyone cooking confidently with CBD (see CBTea recipe).
Here’s what they had to say.
Choose your method
Vanderveldt supports taking CBD as a supplement and using it in food and drink. “To me, the advantage of cooking with it is being able to combine it with other health-promoting foods for supercharged benefits, as well as masking the sometimes strong flavor that doesn’t always agree with people,” she says.
What’s that flavor? Think earthy and similar to herbs like oregano and cilantro, says Vanderveldt.
Galzin, meanwhile, leans into the flavor when possible. He recently created a pizza, the base of which had a hemp flower pesto (with garlic and olive oil) that gave the pizza an earthy aroma. He sliced pineapple and compressed it with CBD oil in a Cryovac vacuum-packaging machine, allowing the pineapple to absorb the oil. (You can replicate this process at home by marinating pineapple in CBD oil and a sea salt solution in a resealable bag in your fridge. It’s a chef hack that’s ideal for fruits in salads and other dishes.)
Galzin’s CBD supplier uses CBD suspended in coconut oil, which the chef concedes may not be his first choice in an Italian recipe, but is perfect with pineapple, imbuing the fruit with a subtle coconut taste.
Beau Kelly-Fontano, bar director at Entente, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Chicago, has had great success with a spirit-free CBD cocktail he’s got on the menu. He also uses hemp-derived CBD in a coconut oil base, in part because the CBD is then visible as a pearlescent globe floating on top of other liquids. He likes working with more transparent CBD oils, as opaque varieties can have a lotion-like texture.
Don’t like it hot
Industry pros note that CBD is being added to beverages at a more rapid pace than to foods. At Cafe Roze, CBD oil can be added to any drink for an additional $5, and Jaksic says most customers opt to add it to lattes (in which hemp milk is also an option).
Charlotte Kjaer, a chef based in the United Kingdom who specializes in CBD-infused vegan and vegetarian dishes, notes that hemp has a low smoke point. Heating the CBD too high will potentially destroy any functional properties, and, she adds—just as important to any chef—it won’t taste good. You don’t have that concern with most drinks.
“You do not want to throw it in a pan and sauté with it,” agrees Jaksic. Treating CBD oil like a cold-pressed oil is a good guideline, she says.
Baking with CBD makes a lot of sense, particularly with CBD suspended in coconut oil. The coconut oil supplies some of the necessary vegan fat for baking, as well as a nutty flavor. Remember to bake your goods at moderate temperatures—preferably 350 F or lower.
Just because you’re not blasting it with heat doesn’t mean you can’t cook with CBD. Kjaer has spent years developing dishes using CBD, including a pesto on pasta (we’ve got the recipe on p. 57!), scrambled chickpea tofu, and a cauliflower steak marinated in za’atar served with tahini cream with CBD oil. Vanderveldt’s The CBD Kitchen includes recipes for sauces, entrees, and more—all of them plant based (peep three of our favorites here – CBD Leek and Zucchini Soup, CBD Raw Oatmeal Cookie Bites, and Grilled Lettuce, Chickpea, and Radish Salad with Miso and Garlic CBD Vinaigrette).
The deal with dosages
Playing around in the kitchen with CBD requires paying attention to dosage, just as you’d watch the quantity of sodium or spice you’d add to another recipe. Most CBD manufacturers provide dosing information on their oils and tinctures, and chefs tend to adhere to those, as the manufacturers know the concentration of their products. You’ll need to read product labeling carefully and engage in some trial and error. Remember: It’s easier to add than subtract, so start small and then up the dosage if you’re not getting the desired results.
In general, Kjaer adds 3 to 4 mg per serving for starters and desserts and 5 mg for entrees. “Don’t overdo it,” she cautions. When baking, for example, she’ll make a cake with traditional vegan ingredients and then put the CBD in the frosting. She might have a starter, an entree, and a dessert on a menu that all contain CBD, but she and others recommend not trying all three at once.
Basically, you’ll want to ease into CBD eats and drinks and pay attention to how your body responds.
“It is one of those things that is different for everyone,” says Jaksic. “Some people treat it like a novelty, and some look for specific benefits. But we see all walks of life come in and try it.”
Where to find delicious vegan CBD eats and drinks
These American restaurants are adding CBD tinctures and oils to their plant-based offerings, and we’re here for it.
- Plant Miami offers vegan and kosher foods with a signature aesthetic synonymous with the local Florida landscape. Nab the orange ice cream sandwich made with CBD and essential oil.
- Fuel, a Philadelphia chain with plant-based options, will add CBD oil to acai bowls, smoothies, and anything else on the menu for an extra $2.95.
- VegeNation, Las Vegas’s plant-based community eatery, has a number of beverages made with its CBD-infused tea.
- Zenbarn isn’t entirely plant based, but options like seitan make it a vegan-friendly destination in Waterbury, VT. Salads can be topped with CBD dressings.
One caveat: Because enforcement of laws governing CBD in foods are in flux (see “Regulation of CBD in restaurants: It’s complicated ”below), it’s wise to check ahead before you go to a restaurant to find a specific CBD dish. Expect to pay an additional $3 to $5 for CBD as an ingredient.
Regulation of CBD in restaurants: It’s complicated
While hemp-derived CBD is legal in America, CBD in food sold by restaurants is a complicated gray area. The 2018 Farm Bill (officially the Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018) legalized hemp, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hasn’t approved CBD as a food additive.
At the state and local level, regulations vary wildly. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, for example, has stated that “the use of all parts of the industrial hemp plant is allowed as a food ingredient in Colorado.” Some other states and health departments don’t allow CBD in food. Earlier this year, New York City health inspectors told restaurants to stop selling foods and beverages containing CBD. Health inspectors have also cracked down in Los Angeles.
Many chefs are optimistic that laws will change quickly to allow CBD in restaurants across the country. Indeed, the FDA issued a statement in July that acknowledged the agency “is exploring potential pathways for various types of CBD products to be lawfully marketed.”
Of course, it’s simple (and legal and affordable) to experiment with cooking with hemp-derived CBD at home!
For when you’re feeling fancy – delish CBD recipes from chefs
CBTea
Hemp and Carrot Top CBD Pesto with Pasta
Ready to go all in?
There are plenty of other hemp-derived ingredients worth introducing to your kitchen. In addition to CBD oils, some chefs use hemp flour and hemp seeds. These products are derived from other parts of the hemp plant, and they don’t contain CBD. They can add an earthy taste to dishes, not to mention additional protein (always a plus in vegan cooking!).
For when you’re in a hurry – easy recipes from the CBD Kitchen
CBD Leek and Zucchini Soup
CBD Raw Oatmeal Cookie Bites
Radish Salad with Miso and Garlic CBD Vinaigrette
Want to know more? We recommend reading – Your CBD Schedule.
CBD Leek and Zucchini Soup; CBD RAW OATMEAL COOKIE BITES; Grilled Lettuce, Chickpea, and Radish Salad with Miso and Garlic CBD VinaigrettE; and “Your CBD Schedule” excerpted from The CBD Kitchen by Leah Vanderveldt, published by Ryland Peters & Small ($19.95). Photography by Clare Winfield © Ryland Peters & Small.
Used with permission from the publisher.
You know that eating a good mix of foods from the plant kingdom ensures kids get plenty of vitamins, minerals, fiber, and phytonutrients. You’re probably aware that children who are raised on a variety of plant-based foods have a reduced risk of obesity—and a lower likelihood of developing heart disease, cancer, and diabetes later in their lives.
What you may not know is how to get your kids to eat enough veggies to actually reap all those benefits. Or how to get them off junk food and onto better-for-them treats. With these delicious, wholesome dishes, you can do both … without breaking the bank or breaking a sweat.
Cozy Vegetable Soup
Creamy Avocado Pasta Salad
Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Here are five ways to help preserve the life and growth of a good idea when circumstances mean we can’t follow it up right now, ways to stop it becoming just another weighty addition on a “to do” list.
Great ideas and creative inspiration can come with little warning. There you are, minding your own business, and suddenly an idea strikes: the creative process is flowing, you ride along with it for a little while, start fleshing out extensions and connections and growing the idea. But often we aren’t able to set aside enough time or attention right at that moment to ‘complete’ all the details and nuances of the idea right then and there. We set it aside temporarily, intending to return to it later — and then, sometimes, we find ourselves still trying to implement the idea weeks or months or even years later.
Over time, what was once a sparkling ember of possibility can become a cold, dark lump that we carry around with us, either literally or metaphorically. Maybe it lives in an actual notebook; many academics, authors and entrepreneurs have collected stacks of paper notebooks over the years. It might get stored electronically on a phone or computer. Or perhaps it just sits in the back of the mind, awaiting its turn while other matters occupy us. Whatever the medium, the end result is similar: the idea goes dormant, becoming a “to do”, an awaiting task to go back and recapture that creative process and flesh it all out again.
Unfortunately, that task of recapturing the creative process can become more and more difficult as time goes on. When it’s forming, an idea is like a growing crystal, one with a huge surface area where new structures are created and new connections are made. But when it’s rattled around in the mind with too many other things for too long, even if only as a vague awareness of something we jotted down in a notebook or on a computing device, it can get ground down until it’s shiny and smooth, like a marble. (Alternatively, I think of the round lead weights, or ‘sinkers’, that I used to attach to a fishing line when I was a child, before we all realised that throwing pieces of lead into lakes wasn’t a good idea.) The original nugget might still be very recognisable, clearly visible and solid and beautiful even, but it lacks those all-important edges and faces that allow it to accrete new additions to itself and grow.
This can happen to anyone, with any kind of idea, from the grandest plan for a groundbreaking novel to the most straightforward strategy for reorganising the garage. Some of us are still lugging around marble-ideas from years ago, still unimplemented, still awaiting their turn! Inoculating yourself against the problem probably is impossible, but here are a few thoughts on ways to shift the odds in your favour.
- Capture it!
- Jot the idea down, including as many of the extensions and connections floating around with it as you can manage, however potentially irrelevant or pointless they might seem. This isn’t the place for a concise, polished, focused “to do”; rather, it’s a whole messy and disorganised “brain dump” of an idea; irrelevancies can be pruned away in the future. An entirely unedited snapshot like this can help later on to create a new creative flow that is informed by the one you had the first time, offering a glimpse at the living nature of the idea and preventing it from shrivelling into a wrinkly raisin of an idea.
- Let it go.
- With a snapshot safely preserved, go ahead and let the idea drift away as far as it may from your attention, releasing yourself from the obligation to carry it with you, rattling around within your awareness. But — and this is a big but — combine this with a routine of some kind to go back periodically and review what you’ve captured and saved. The reviewing process needn’t be particularly thorough or time consuming; even a cursory glance can provide an opportunity to pick up a saved idea again. You can have faith that the idea won’t be lost when you let it go.
- Make space.
- Making some mental space to just “be” and to allow creativity to start to flow again — or, sometimes, not to flow at all — can help make the process of creativity feel more like a close friend and frequent visitor who drops around for a casual chat all the time and less like a long lost relative who must be hugged and squeezed and fussed over whenever they appear. Accepting that sometimes, the creative juices aren’t going to flow anyway, regardless of how much space we make, reinforces the sense that we’re just “being”, not forcing or grasping at anything.
- Be confident.
- Have confidence that however difficult the creative process might seem at any given point in time, you will create again. It’s not like you’re limited to only a certain number of ideas per lifetime, and then you run out. Struggling to recover one of those saved snapshots and generate new thought processes akin to those that once surrounded it? No problem: it happens! But that idea came from your mind in the first place; what better environment could there be to welcome it back to active growth? Like Arnie in a Terminator film: it will be back!
- Cut yourself some slack.
- Not every great idea needs to be followed up according to some particular timeline; not every great idea needs to be followed up at all. Some you may even reject later after reassessing their greatness, maybe because your views have shifted, your experience has deepened, or external factors have changed the context in which the idea would be implemented. That’s OK.
All clinical material on this site is peer reviewed by one or more clinical psychologists or other qualified mental health professionals. This specific article was originally published by on and was last reviewed or updated by Dr Greg Mulhauser, Managing Editor on .
https://counsellingresource.com/features/2019/03/25/great-ideas-lead-weights/