failed to copy /home1/mh716md/public_html/wp-content/plugins/NewsBuilder-DFY/cron.php to /home1/mh716md/public_html//cron.php... addiction treatment – Mental Health Topics http://mentalhealthtopics.com Mental Health Blog Tue, 22 Oct 2019 17:29:41 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.3.2 Recovery Rising Excerpt: Use of Self in Service to Others http://mentalhealthtopics.com/2019/10/22/recovery-rising-excerpt-use-of-self-in-service-to-others/ http://mentalhealthtopics.com/2019/10/22/recovery-rising-excerpt-use-of-self-in-service-to-others/#respond Tue, 22 Oct 2019 16:27:07 +0000 http://mentalhealthtopics.com/2019/10/22/recovery-rising-excerpt-use-of-self-in-service-to-others/

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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Recovery Contagion within the Family http://mentalhealthtopics.com/2019/10/22/recovery-contagion-within-the-family/ http://mentalhealthtopics.com/2019/10/22/recovery-contagion-within-the-family/#respond Tue, 22 Oct 2019 16:27:03 +0000 http://mentalhealthtopics.com/2019/10/22/recovery-contagion-within-the-family/

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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