This comment on a previous post caught my attention:
Drugoholism is a field, a combination of various processes, internal and external. "As the twig is bent the branch doth grow." is an old adage. I have realised that IN PRACTICE this is true for many. At times the only PRACTICAL solution, apart from the exceptional few is amelioration.
I'm reminded of this post from a few years ago:
Ideas like this are rooted in despair, rather than hope. (see here, here, here) We get overwhelmed by the problem. (here) We're too cheap to offer adequate help. (here) We don't believe that these people can recover. We think they have no chance. We're scared that they'll hurt us and get us sick. (here) So, we offer them these kinds of interventions. Often, these programs represented in the name of choice, (here) when, the addicts themselves, want better from us. (here, here) They actually want to get well, but often lose hope that it's possible for them. The system starts patting them on the head an encouraging them to be more realistic. (here, here, here) What they need from professional helpers is for us to lend them our hope to cultivate some of their own. (here, here) They need a system that stops talking about if they recovery and starts talking about when they recover. (here)
"If you want to treat an illness that has no easy cure, first of all, treat them with hope." --George Vaillant
1 comment:
David Best, writing in the Herald this morning underlines the need to reach higher in our aspirations.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/health/ex-addicts-network-plan-to-aid-recovery-1.1056170
Here's a quote:
Dr Best also called for a fundamental change to the culture and attitudes of drug workers, calling for them to be more aspirational on behalf of addicts.
He said too many treatment services perpetuated a language of failure.
“We have to get out of this mindset that says that if someone is a heroin addict all we can do is keep them alive and out of jail. We need a much more aspirational model; to say that if we embed them in communities of people who are also in recovery there is every chance they will become good parents and active members of society,” he said.
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