The point here is not that I was unique, but that we are all simultaneously unique and the same. None of us are perfectly equipped to facilitate the process of addiction recovery. We will all find ourselves mismatched to those with whom we seek to help if we add enough qualifiers. We will all encounter others who make us feel like impostors posing as helpers. The key is to find a way to use what we have to build avenues of connection. We have to find a foundation of experience from which we can reach across whatever barriers separate us from those we serve. The emotional core of addiction is a mixture of isolation (in the end, only the drug exists), desperation (over rapidly fading power and control), and shame (over the loss of control of the drug and ourselves and the damage we are inflicting on ourselves, our loved ones, and the world). Each of us must reach into ourselves and find the imprinted memory of such feelings if we are to enter into relationships with our clients from a position of moral equality and emotional authenticity.
The issue is not whether we share or don’t share an addiction history or a particular drug choice; the issue is whether we can connect with our own experiences of isolation, desperation, and shame with the hope that infuses all communities of recovery. The issue is whether we have witnessed parts of ourselves die so other parts could be born. The issue is whether we can reach into our own broken state as passage to accept the woundedness of others, and then reach again to find the hope that today burns within us that others so desperately need. What I thought was my uniqueness turned out to be the ground upon which I would connect with people across the recovery spectrum. That is the ground that each of you in your own way must find.
For those who do bring recovery experience to the field, my story underscores why it is advisable for people in recovery to have a few years of recovery behind them before they enter the professional service arena. I entered the field early in my own recovery, which was common at that time. The reason that this first chapter is more about me than the clients I worked with is that the opening chapter of my career was focused more on me than anything else. This is not to say that everyone working in this field cannot grow personally through what they experience in the professional arena. But it does suggest that one must have sufficient maturity to separate one’s own needs from the needs of individuals, families, and communities. Like many of my peers in communities around the country in the 1960s and early 1970s, I used what was available to me in an era when Narcotics Anonymous was unavailable in most communities, when AA meetings were closed to “drug addicts,” and when few other resources were available for long-term recovery support. The enmeshment of my personal life and work life sometimes created problems for me, my clients, and the organizations for which I worked, but I was fortunate to have supervisors who gracefully and skillfully guided me through these difficulties. Many others in that era who tried to mix these personal and professional journeys were not so fortunate.
What I know today is that we must build our service to others on a foundation of personal healing, if not health. I also know that only a few bring such optimal health when they enter the addictions field and even fewer continually sustain such health throughout their careers. This is not about recovery experience or the lack of it. No one enters this field without personal wounds that they bring to their helping relationships with others. Our wounded imperfection is the very source of the empathy, authenticity, and moral equality that is so crucial to our work with others. We all bring some past or current relationship with alcohol and other drugs that creates blind spots and distorting filters. We have all experienced breakthroughs of self-perception, unexpected windows of opportunities, crossroads, and turning points of profound significance.
The ideal helper is not a therapist or recovery support specialist with a blank slate, but a person who recognizes the nature of his or her woundedness, understands the healing process, and separates his or her own experiences from those with whom they work. The goal is not perfection, but assurance that our imperfections do not injure those we are pledged to serve. We achieve that by entering clinical work at a time (and only at a time) that we are ready for such responsibility and by seeking outside-of-work professional help to manage issues that could impede our therapeutic effectiveness. We also achieve that goal by seeking supervision to help us stay grounded in our service work, and by continually self-monitoring our own health and its relationship to our helping activities. The latter includes removing ourselves from helping relationships or work with particular types of people during periods of heightened vulnerability or impaired effectiveness. Each of us brings to each helping encounter a smorgasbord of life experiences, attitudes, beliefs, character traits, emotional baggage, knowledge, and skills. The skilled, self-aware therapist and recovery coach learns to actively manage these dimensions. They find a way to keep their “stuff” out of their client’s “stuff” (pardon the highly technical language here.)
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I was invited in 2000 to do a presentation for the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment Recovery Community Support Program grantees meeting. I chose for my topic “Toward a New Recovery Advocacy Movement” and prepared a paper to share with attendees that constituted one of the first descriptions of the rise of grassroots recovery advocacy organizations at the dawn of the new millennium. That paper included the rationale for a new recovery advocacy movement and offered historical lessons and principles that might guide this fledgling movement. Below are some excerpts from that first paper, delivered almost 20 years ago, that readers may still find of interest.
Call to Action: It is time for a recovery movement. The central message of this new movement is not that “alcoholism is a disease” or that “treatment works” but rather that permanent recovery from alcohol and other drug-related problems is not only possible but a reality in the lives of hundreds of thousands of individuals and families….In our enduring debate over whether the roots of addiction lie in the medical arena (a problem of susceptibility) or the moral arena (a problem of culpability), we have lost touch with real solutions to addiction, the evidence of which is in the transformed lives of recovering and recovered people across America…. . It is time we (the remnants of the existing alcoholism/treatment movements) redirected our energies from an emphasis on pathology to an emphasis on resilience and recovery.
Treatment versus Recovery Interests: Treatment is best considered, not as the first line of response to addiction, but a final safety net to help heal the community’s most incapacitated members. The first avenue for problem resolution should be structures that are natural, local, non-hierarchical and non-commercialized. The interests and agendas of the recovery community and the treatment field overlap but are not the same….Professionally-directed treatment services are not the same as the broader umbrella of recovery support services. Indigenous people who lack professional training should not be involved in the former, while the latter may be best designed and delivered by the recovery community. Those providing treatment services and those providing recovery support services play different but complementary roles in the long-term recovery process.
Movement Structure: Co-mingling mutual aid and policy advocacy functions usually creates an organization that will either perform both functions poorly or sacrifice one function for the other. It is usually best to separate the service functions of mutual support, professionally-directed treatment, and social policy advocacy into separate agencies (or at least separate organizational units), but there are exceptions to this rule..…For a besieged people (community), personal recovery may be inseparable from the broader issues of social policy advocacy and cultural revitalization.
Kinetic Ideas: To alter public opinion, successful movements condense complex ideas and needs into easily digestible slogans. Once these have achieved broad social acceptance, they may need to be de-constructed for the movement to move toward full maturity. Where such maxims become concretized and reified, the movement sets itself up for a future ideological backlash.
Multiple Pathways of Recovery: Rather than fight with each other over THE right way to recover, it is time to acknowledge what anyone with any observational skills and common sense has known for a long time: people with myriad patterns and circumstances surrounding their problematic relationships with alcohol and other drugs are finding diverse ways to initiate and sustain their resolution of these problems. It is time we celebrated the growing pluralism of the culture of recovery.
Cost of Recovery: The most important elements of sustained recovery–the commitment of self and the support from family, friends, and other recovering people–come without a price tag, and it is the nurturance and mobilization of those elements that are the primary mission of the new recovery movement.
One People, Many Voices, One Message: The long-term fate of this movement may hinge on its ability to tolerate differences and tolerate boundary ambiguity while forsaking calls to create a closed club whose exclusiveness would leave many suffering people refused entry at its doorway. Somewhere in this movement’s maturation, a message of unification needs to be extended that psychologically and socially links the growing number of recovery groups and solo flyers into a community of shared experience that can transcend differences and allow it to speak powerfully on one issue: the very real hope for permanent recovery from addiction. It is crucial that a way be found to transcend the internalized shame that turns members of stigmatized groups upon each other in frenzies of mutual scapegoating. The most serious battles fought by this movement are best waged, not with each other, but with more formidable forces in the culture that seek to objectify, demonize, and sequester all those with AOD problems.
Changing the Face of Recovery: The faces of barely sober addicts on television screens need to be replaced by the faces of people from all backgrounds who have survived addiction to live full lives. With no other disorder do we ask people in the earliest days of recovery to speak as if permanent recovery had already been achieved. It is not that the floundering, newly sober celebrity is not welcome in the culture of recovery; it is that portraying this person as the culture of recovery is a gross misrepresentation of reality. It is also a fact that thrusting individuals in the earliest stages of recovery into the limelight is to invite disaster for them as well as the movements they represent.
Language of Recovery: One of the challenges of the recovery movement will be how to reduce the stigma attached to a condition and those who suffer from it with a cultural language that is heavily laden with the stigma…. In the addiction recovery arena, two sets of language may be required–one for internal and one for external communications.
Professionalization and Commercialization: The twin threats of professionalization (preoccupation with power/status) and commercialization (preoccupation with money/property) have often proved fatal to advocacy movements. The professionalization of helping systems can inadvertently undermine indigenous supports for recovery, shift the focus of a movement from experienced knowledge to second-hand knowledge, and shift the service relationship from one that is enduring and reciprocal to one that is time-limited, hierarchical, and commercialized.
On Money: It is better to have an unfunded or under-funded movement than to have a well-funded movement whose mission is corrupted by the source or level of that funding. It is better to have the inception of a movement postponed than to have that birth prematurely induced by money that deforms its subsequent development. Strategies of financial support that work in the short run can sometimes undermine a movement in the long run. Movements can die from a lack of resources, but they can also die from the turmoil, restrictions, and diversions that resources can bring. To the new generation of grass roots advocacy organizations I would say: Carefully heed the adage ‘he who pays the piper picks the tune’; find your own voice and sing only your own song. Be aware of seeking funding from any source that changes, no matter how subtly, your thinking, your vocabulary, your mission, or your methods. Find a way to use money temperately to achieve your mission; money has no value and becomes destructive when it takes your “eyes off the prize.” If you evolve into funded treatment agencies, you will have failed by professional absorption.
Stewardship: The principle of stewardship demands that we monitor the resources that flow into and out of recovery movement organizations to assure that resources that once passed through the organization into the community, do not begin to remain in the organization.
Risk of Premature Victory: There is danger that movements focusing on reducing stigma prematurely claim victory in the face of a positive media attention or sudden (but often superficial) shifts in public opinion. The fastest way to kill anything in America is to turn it into a superficial fad that dies from distortion and over-exposure…. The most insidious death of the recovery movement could occur if the essence of that movement died while the illusion of its continued existence remained. This would be an invisible death–a death by value dilution and corruption.
Mission and Methods: Congruity: Social movements often go awry when their emerging methods conflict with their mission and core values. The means used by movements to achieve their mission must be congruent with that mission. Recovery movements must be, above all, grounded in recovery values: honesty, simplicity, humility, gratitude, and service.
Inclusion/Exclusion: Before the recovery movement can confront stigma in the larger society, it must confront how that same stigma gets acted out as a destructive force inside the movement. Developing an inclusive recovery movement requires skills in cross-cultural communication, conflict resolution processes, and safe sanctuaries where healing and cross-cultural communication and relationship-building can occur….Movements that are created to advocate on behalf of the most disempowered often leave these very individuals behind as the focus of the movement seeks wider social acceptance.
Backlash: Movements that acquire visibility and influence often generate their own counter-movement. Once movements become visible on the cultural horizon, they become a target of those institutions whose interests they threaten. The degree of success of any movement–the civil rights movement, the environmental movement, the gun control movement–cannot be fully ascertained until that movement has weathered the counter-movement that it generates…. Counter-movements germinate within the soil of a movement’s excesses.
Need for Recovery Research: The future of the recovery movement does not hinge solely on recent or future scientific data on the etiology of alcohol and other drug problems/addictions. It hinges on the emergence of a science of recovery extracted from the lives of those who have achieved such recovery.
I will leave it to my readers to judge how these earlies reflections have stood the test of time. The full paper is available HERE.
Photo: Senator Wellstone and Representative Ramstad at 2001 Recovery Summit.
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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
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Federal officials have tentatively identified the potential source of recently reported vaping-related respiratory illnesses and deaths. The culprit appears to be vitamin E acetate, a substance long used as a nutritional supplement and topical skin treatment but whose oily consistency may make it quite toxic when inhaled via vaping. While these findings are preliminary and require confirmation in multiple studies, the unfolding story of vaping-related injuries is pregnant with implications for those on the frontlines of harm reduction, addiction treatment, recovery support, and recovery advocacy.
The vaping illnesses and deaths affirm several principles that can guide our monitoring of emerging drug trends. New technologies that increase the efficiency of drug consumption by altering per episode and lifetime drug dosage, drug purity, or route of drug administration may require a fundamental rethinking of the risks associated with particular drugs.
While the toxic effects of new drugs and new ways of using known drugs are usually identified early in their social emergence, the nightmare scenario would be a Trojan Horse that possessed few if any short term negative effects but devastating effects linked to long-term use. That is precisely the scenario that forced a radical rethinking of the effects of smoking tobacco over the past century. When toxic drug effects become quickly apparent before widespread use, mass public health damage can be minimized. In the case of tobacco smoking, short term studies would not have revealed smoking as the ticking time bomb that it is. We must be vigilant in identifying other drugs and patterns of drug consumption that may share a similar trajectory.
This is the only point I wish to make in this blog. Those at the forefront of dealing with addiction are in a unique position to identify such threats early in their emergence. Through careful listening and observation we may be able to identify new threats to the health of individuals and communities early in the history of their emergence. Seeing such threats, we can communicate what we are observing to public health and community leaders, and by so doing, arouse action to reduce the numbers of people exposed to such threats as well as get people already exposed the help they need as quickly as possible. Listen. Observe. Help. Advocate. We are a crucial part of a desperately needed early warning network.
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In 2012, I authored a monograph reviewing the results of 415 studies published over more than a century that reported rates of addiction recovery. Major findings of that review included 5.3% to 15.3% (25-40 million adults) of the adult population who reported once having but no longer having an alcohol or other drug (AOD) problem—either through sustained abstinence or reductions in AOD use. Substance use disorder (SUD) remission rates in studies published since 2000 were 53.9% in community samples and 50.3% in clinical samples (follow-up studies of addiction treatment). The wide range of estimates of prevalence and remission rates can be attributed to different problem definitions, different definitions of remission, and duration of follow-up (also see Mellor et al., 2019), but these studies collectively confirm a substantial population of people who reported having resolved an AOD problem in their lifetime.
Two recently published studies led by McCabe (2018) and Kelly (2017, 2018) offer additional date on recovery prevalence in the United States. Major findings from the McCabe study, based on data from the 2012-2013 Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions, include the following:
- 25.4% of the adult U.S. population reported meeting criteria for a DSM-5 SUD in their lifetime, with one-fourth of these reporting multiple SUDs.
- Among those with prior SUD, past year status was reported as: abstinence (14.2%), asymptomatic use (36.9%), partial remission (10.9%), and persistent/recurrent SUD (38.1%).
- Persistent/recurrent SUD status was associated with being 18-24, current tobacco use, higher levels of education and income, never married or divorced/separated, no prior addiction treatment, and stressful life events.
Major findings from the Kelly study, based on a U.S. adult population survey, include the following:
- 9.1% of U.S. adults reported once having but no longer having an AOD problem (Kelly, Bergman et al., 2017)
- At the time surveyed, more than 64.5% reported stable remission of more than five years (Kelly, Bergman et al., 2017)
- 53.9% of those reporting having resolved an AOD problem reported having used either formal addiction treatment, a mutual help group, or recovery support services to aid resolution of their problem. Assisted recovery was associated with greater problem severity and complexity. (Kelly, Bergman et al., 2017)
- Recovery identity status of those reporting once having but no longer having an AOD problem is as follows: 45.1% identify as being in recovery, 39.5% never identified as being in recovery, and 15.4% once identified but no longer identify as being in recovery (Kelly, Abry, et al., 2018).
The McCabe and Kelly studies add further evidence that tens of millions of American have experienced an AOD problem and have found sustainable and varied solutions to that problem. Two key tenets of the recovery advocacy movement are: 1) Recovery is a reality in the lives of individuals, families, and communities, and 2) There are multiple pathways of recovery and ALL are cause for celebration. The latest scientific studies simply add an empirical “Amen” to those declarations.
References
Kelly, J. F., Abry, A. W., Milligan, C. M., Bergman, B. G., & Hoeppner, B. B. (2018). On being “in recovery”: A national study of prevalence and correlates of adopting or not adopting a recovery identity among individuals resolving drug and alcohol problems. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 32(6), 595-604. doi: 10.1037/adb0000386.
Kelly, J. F., Bergman, B., Hoeppner, B., Vilsaint, C., & White, W. L. (2017). Prevalence, pathways, and predictors of recovery from drug and alcohol problems in the United States Population: Implications for practice, research, and policy. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 181, 162-169.
Kelly, J. F., Bergman, B. G., Hoeppner, B., Eddie, D., Vilsaint, C., & Hoffman, L. (2018). Recovery from alcohol and other drug problems in the U.S. population: Prevalence, pathways, and predictors. Journal of Recovery Science, 1(2), c1. https://doi.org/10.31886/jors.12.2018.11
McCabe, S. E., West, B T., Strobbe, S., & Boyd, C. J. (2018). Persistence/recurrence of and remission from DSM-5 substance use disorders in the United States: Substance-specific and substance-aggregated correlates. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 93, 38-48.
Mellor, R., Lancaster, K. & Ritter., A. (2019). Systematic review of untreated remission from alcohol problems: Estimation lies in the eye of the beholder. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, March, DOI: 10.1016/j.jsat.2019.04.004
White, W. L. (2012). Recovery/remission from substance use disorders: An analysis of reported outcomes in 415 scientific studies, 1868-2011. Chicago: Great Lakes Addiction Technology Transfer Center; Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental disAbilites; Northeast Addiction Technology Transfer Center.
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For more than a decade, I have regularly corresponded with Mr. Hossein Dezhakam (HD), founder of the Congress 60 recovery community within the Islamic Republic of Iran, on the subject of addiction recovery and the challenges faced by leaders of recovery community organizations (RCOs). A recent increase in questions posed to me about RCO leadership has prompted me to review my past communications with Mr. Dezhakam (HD) and my earlier writings on this subject. Below are excerpts from these communications (used with permission) and my own writings (WW) that I hope will be of interest to my readers.
On Unique Leadership demands of RCOs
A leader in other organizations leads through thoughts; however, a recovery leader must rule the hearts. In other words, management of other organizations can make changes by issuing edicts, raising salaries, or through discipline, but a recovery leader must communicate with affection within and without. Such a leader must be able to turn enemies into friends. A wise person is constantly changing enemies into friends and an ignorant person is in the business of making enemies. (HD)
Mr. Dezhakam’s observation about leading from the heart reminded me of the following observation of Van Jones in his book Beyond the Messy Truth: “You can’t lead people you don’t love. You can’t rally people you don’t respect.”
Messiness of Movements; Leadership Vulnerability
Movements, including recovery movements, are about struggle, which means they are not for the faint of heart. Movements are turbulent, messy, unpredictable and, at times, very primitive. Movements can magnify the best and worst in us. We went through such messiness in the early days of the new recovery advocacy movement—rampant paranoia about which person and organization would lead the movement, underground gossip rather than direct communication, fears of secret deals being made, and the scapegoating of early leaders. I think these processes are endemic to all important social movements, but they can get magnified in a community of recovering people or in other historically disempowered groups. It’s a form of historical trauma that gets acted out in our intragroup relations. That’s why nearly all of the recovery mutual aid organizations before AA self-destructed, as did many of their leaders. It wasn’t from the lack of a personal recovery program; it was their failure to find principles that could rein in these destructive group processes. (WW)
Vulnerability of Recovery Advocacy Leaders
Such [leadership] roles can bring deep fulfillment, but they also come with hidden risks. Vulnerability may be an aspect of all leadership roles, but this may be particularly pronounced in organizations organized by and on behalf of persons from historically disempowered groups. I recall one of my friends once noting of the civil rights organizations in which he was involved, “We don’t elect leaders; we elect victims.” He was referring to the tendency of these organizations to scapegoat their leaders while the leaders are living only to later reify them–often after their deaths. Within any stigmatized group, we want our leaders to excel—to model the best of what we can be. And yet the shadows of shame and inferiority buried inside us get projected onto our leaders in the form of doubt, criticism and attack. (WW)
It is the awareness that standing by the hundreds and thousands reduces the enormous vulnerability that comes from standing in isolation to confront stigma and its multiple manifestations. Put simply, it is not safe for us to stand alone. Attention can make the most stable recovery tremble. The glare of the camera and the beckoning microphone can be as intoxicating as any drug. Like Icarus flying too close to the sun, we are doomed in the face of such self-absorption—whether from overwhelming feelings of unworthiness or, perhaps worse, from the feeling that we are the most worthy. It is only when we speak from a position of WE that safety and protection of the larger cause is assured. When asked, “Who is your leader?” we should declare that we are without leaders or that we are all leaders. (WW)
The risk is the virus which can penetrate the recovery leader. This virus is deviation from the original recovery path. What I am trying to convey, is that a leader must have proper capabilities and capacity. Avery poor person who receives a huge amount of money in an instant may lack the capacity to adapt to that money or fame and can be easily destroyed. This is exactly why AA and NA recovery leaders warned the next generations that they must avoid some issues to be safe. I have known recovery leaders who were so kind, humble, and spiritual. They were always with their people but once they became famous, they changed! People couldn’t meet them easily anymore, they hired secretaries and it wasn’t easy to have meetings with them. They asked a lot of money for their time, and at last they hurt their group. They steered their group to darkness. (HD)
RCO Leadership Qualities
Leaders must have minimal defects of character so that they can be duplicated. A flawed leader will only duplicate bad models. Worldview [personal values and philosophy] must be the strong suit of recovery leaders so that they can identify and fix their defects. They must sustain their health and be on sound financial footing. (HD)
Working within recovery service roles does not require complete perfection. If it did, none of us would qualify. But it does require reasonable congruity between the message and the life of the messenger. The leader must by definition be a recovery carrier—a person who makes recovery contagious by the quality of their character, relationships and service. (WW)
Leaders of a recovery community must model the service ethic or belief that is at the heart of such communities. It is a prevailing belief within Congress 60 that: Others planted and we ate; we must plant so others could be fed. This is a figure of speech of course and it means that others helped us to gain our health and we must serve others on a voluntary basis too. That begins with the actions of the leader. (HD)
A leader must have a long-term vision. A wise man once said: if you are looking to get results within three months, then plant greens, tomato, or watermelon. if you are looking for results in one year, then grow sheep. If you are looking to get results within 10 years, then plant a tree. However, if you are planning to educate a human, then plan for a 100 years. Therefore, our jobs requires a long time and is continuous. We will hit challenges and obstacles along the way for sure. But eventually success will embrace us in the end. (HD)
Ethical Leadership
Recovery leaders must be spiritual leaders as well. Thus, ethics play a unique role in a recovery leader. In my opinion, a recovery leader must not hunger! A hungry ego is incorrigible. A person could be poor but not hunger (desiring more and more) at the same time. Beware of those whom hungry eyes! They will never get satisfied! They have eaten all the foods and they are dying of fullness! Still they are looking for more to eat! They are like someone who has stopped smoking heroin 20 years ago, but for the past 20 years their thoughts and eyes have been fixed on heroin. After 20 years of sobriety they still dream about Heroin! They suffer from a hungry ego. (HD)
On Value and Dangers of Charisma
Charismatic leadership functions in a way that people listen to the leader out of deep trust. This type of leadership can lead to a faster pace in terms of getting jobs done. It can prevent debates and divisions, and people will give up many things upon the request of the leader. As for the risks, if people chose the leader wisely this type of leadership will produce great results, however, if a bad person with charisma is chose then the results will be devastating and destructive. We can see this type of bad choosing in non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or companies or even countries, take Adolf Hitler for instance. (HD)
Charisma is a blessing and a curse to recovery mutual aid and recovery advocacy movements. It is something of a paradox that such movements often cannot survive their infancy without charismatic leaders, but cannot reach maturity without transcending charismatic styles of leadership. Alternatives to cult-like leaders require concerted leadership development efforts and the progressive decentralization of decision-making throughout the organization. This does not mean that we have to challenge and extrude our charismatic figures to achieve maturity, but it does mean that we have to help such figures redefine their roles and relationships—in short, to join the movement as members. When that doesn’t happen, the organization/movement moves towards incestuous closure and the risk of eventual implosion (WW).
RCO Leadership Development
A recovery leader is often one who never thought about becoming a leader when he started the work, but he ends leading. Recovery leaders must gurgle like a spring. They must contemplate deeply while taking benefit of consulting with others. They must utilize elders for legislation, just like Congress 60’s watchman which consists of 14 elders. Then the leader must take an approach in which all the members get familiar with these elders and respect them. In return, the elders must treat people with affection and honesty. Therefore, in absence of leader (illness or even death) this counsel can take control. The leader also can choose an individual out of this counsel to take the leadership role in case of his absence. (HD)
I believe a non-governmental organization (NGO) must be planned somehow to engage all members in related activities. It should not be up to few people to plan and execute everything. That’s why all members of Congress 60 are active in a special group, and these groups are called legions. For instance: treatment legions, musical legions, tree planting legions, Marzban legions, cleaning legions, cyber legions, and financial legions. (HD)
On Financial Sustainability
In each branch, those who are financially gifted (travelers or companions) can take part in financial legions with payment annually. Their task will be to plan for receiving donations from members of that very branch. The members of each financial legion are 10 to 50 members for each branch. The gathered donations will be allocated as below: 80 % of it will be allocated to the same branch and the rest will be sent to central office in Tehran (just like Federal system), and this 20% will be allocated to research or helping other branches. As you can see, in our system it is not only up to me or few others to think about financial status. We have hundreds of other members whose job is to fix the budget of branches. We have many members within Congress 60 with more than 15 years of recovery, many have achieved financial status and therefore they are helping Congress 60. (HD)
On Leadership Transition
Perhaps the greatest of such challenges is the transition in leadership between the founders of recovery advocacy organizations and the second generation. That is always a litmus test of viability, just as it is in recovery mutual aid societies. Organizations and larger movements that are successful find ways to decentralize leadership through structures that provide for leadership development and rituals that facilitate regular succession. Even under the best circumstances, these transitions can be difficult for the organization and for the individuals involved….The movement itself is best conceptualized as a marathon run as a relay—people engaging and disengaging as needed over a prolonged period of time. Many people will come and go or return at particular times in the life of the movement, while others will be part of the daily struggles of the movement for the duration. That’s just the way social movements are; this is not to say one style is superior to another. I am a great admirer of endurance and tenacity, but movements also need those who help in short bursts. (WW)
On Recovery Community Organization Sustainability
A.A. found creative solutions to the forces that had limited or destroyed its predecessors. Through the principles imbedded in its Twelve Traditions, A.A. forged solutions to the pitfalls of charismatic and centralized leadership, mission diversion, colonization by other organizations, ideological extremism and schisms, professionalization, commercialization, and relationships with other organizations and the media. A.A. created a historically unique organizational structure (a blend of anarchy and radical democracy relying on rotating leadership, group conscience, intentional corporate poverty, etc.) that even its most devoted early professional allies believed could not work. That structure and those principles have protected A.A. and offer a case study in organizational resilience. (WW)
On Non-affiliation
Supporting other political or religious groups is a devastating mistake which is like an earthquake for a recovery organization. For instance: if the leader of recovery organization is in favor of blue color then the fans of red color will be against him and vice versa. We need to be friends with blue and red or in other words with all regardless of political or religious views or other ways humans divide themselves. The obligation of a non-governmental organization (NGO) is to help people without taking sides. We have achieved this goal within Congress 60 and it is a source of our strength. All sides and groups respect Congress 60. (HD)
Recovery leaders must maintain balance in all of their communications within and without the recovery organization. Their distance with outside and inside entities must be kept exactly just like the distance between earth and sun. If our planet gets too close to sun, we will burn, and we will freeze to death if the reverse happens. Recovery leader must plan in a way to be independent. They must not be financially dependent to governments or other organizations. (HD)
On Evaluating Effectiveness of Recovery Community Organizations
The prime capital of a business organizations is money. Everything is measured by the amount of money. In a recovery community the capital is in terms of sociality. To measure sociality, we must pay attention to:
A: The increased rate of the NGO members annually! If a recovery community performs well then the rate of members must increase fast. For instance, during last year about 10,000 individuals were added to Congress 60’s members.
B: The occupational, financial, educational and social status of the members.
For instance; when we decide to start a new building for Congress 60, since we have all sorts of people with different occupations within Congress 60, this is what happens.
One person donates bricks, another donates plaster, or girder. One takes care of electricity, and another handles the paper work or the administrative process. The sum of these things constitutes the sociality of a NGO.
C: The popularity of the NGO in social media like newspapers, radio, TV, seminars, universities, public, etc.
D: And last but not the least is the effectiveness of that very NGO in its own field using measurable recovery benchmarks. (HD)
Photo: Mr. Hossein Dezhakam Addressing the 2017 International Addiction Science Symposium
Of Related Interest:
Hill, T. (2005). Commonstrength: Building leaders, transforming recovery. Published by Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership 2006.
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A recent study led by Dr. Roger Weiss provides optimism about recovery from prescription opioid addiction. Weiss and colleagues followed 375 patients admitted to buprenorphine-naloxone treatment with different intensities of counseling. Patients were formally evaluated at 18, 30, and 42 months following admission as part of the Prescription Opioid Addiction Treatment Study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. At month, 42, 80% of those who remained in opioid agonist treatment reported opioid abstinence and 50% of those not in agonist treatment reported opioid abstinence. Participants with any history of past heroin use were less likely to be abstinent at follow-up.
Two factors were associated with opioid abstinence: opioid agonist treatment with buprenorphine or methadone and participation in recovery mutual aid groups. Interestingly, those patients who were currently in agonist treatment were more likely to also be involved in recovery mutual aid groups. Outpatient counseling at time of follow-up was not associated with opioid abstinence.
Now here is a key point in their findings: “while receipt of agonist treatment and attendance at mutual-help meetings were both helpful, neither detracted from nor enhanced the abstinence effect of the other. Rather, the benefits were independent and additive.” This finding challenges my previous assertions on the potential multiplication (synergism) effects of combining medication and recovery mutual aid involvement, but it does support my advocacy in combining both interventions. Here is the authors’ final conclusion in the study report:
“While opioid agonist treatment was most strongly associated with opioid abstinence among patients with prescription opioid dependence over time, mutual-help group attendance was independently associated with opioid abstinence. Clinicians should consider recommending both of these interventions to patients with opioid use disorder.” (page e1)
Reference
Weiss, R. D., Griffin, M. L., Marcovitz, D. E., Hilton, B. T., Fitzmaurice, G. M., McHugh, R. K., & Carroll, K. M. (2019). Correlates of opioid abstinence in a 42-month posttreatment naturalistic follow-up study of prescription opioid dependence. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 80(2). doi: 10.4088/JCP.18m12292
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Headaches are very common in children. By the time they reach 18, essentially all kids will have had at least one. Most children get them rarely, usually with an illness. But some children get recurrent headaches. About 5% of kindergartners experience this problem, and the percentage goes up as children get older. By the time they get to the end of high school, that number is up to more than 25%.
Recurrent headaches often run in families. There are two types: primary and secondary. Primary headaches come from the nervous system itself, while secondary headaches are caused by something affecting the nervous system, such as an illness.
Migraines and tension headaches
Migraine and tension headaches are the two most common primary headaches in children.
- Migraines cause pain that a child can point to, usually on both sides of the head. It is throbbing and gets worse with activity. Light and noise can make it worse, and children will sometimes have nausea or vomiting. About 10% of children also have an “aura,” meaning that before the headache they have changes in their vision, like blind spots or sparkling lights, or other things like weakness or tingling.
- Tension headaches tend to be all over and less easy to point to. They don’t throb like migraines or get worse with activity. As with migraines, light and noise can make them worse. However, they don’t cause nausea or vomiting, and there isn’t an aura.
What causes secondary headaches?
The most common cause of secondary headaches is illness, like a bad cold or the flu. Other common causes include bumps to the head (from a little knock to a concussion) and side effects of medicines. Kids can also get headaches from taking over-the-counter pain medications too often — more than three or so times a week — which many parents don’t realize. There are more serious causes of secondary headaches, like high blood pressure, tumors, or increased pressure on or bleeding in the brain, but those are very rare.
What should you do about recurrent headaches?
If your child is having recurrent headaches, call your doctor. Even though it’s likely to be nothing serious, your doctor should know about it. Keep a diary of the headaches: what they are like, any symptoms that happened at the same time, the medicines you gave, and what was going on that day. This will help you and your doctor figure out what to do.
Acetaminophen and ibuprofen can help in the moment, but don’t immediately reach for medicine unless your child is very uncomfortable. Not only can giving pain relievers too frequently make things worse, but much of the time medicine isn’t needed. Have your child rest, perhaps with a cool cloth over their eyes. Get them something to drink (water is fine) and something light to eat if they haven’t eaten in a while.
Preventing recurrent headaches
To help prevent recurrent headaches, make sure your child
- gets enough sleep (eight to 10 hours a night)
- gets daily exercise
- eats and drinks regularly throughout the day.
Stress can cause headaches, so be mindful of your child’s stress level. Keep lines of communication open, and make sure that your child has downtime every day to relax and do whatever makes them happy.
To learn about when headaches in children can be a sign of a problem, check out 8 things to watch for when your child has a headache.
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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
