Posts Tagged ‘recovery support’

Not All Serious Addictions End In Heartbreak – Just Look At John

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

The first time I spoke with John he was leaving treatment. He said his life was much better on heroin, and he had no interest going to meetings or working with a sponsor. John was adamant about not seeing a therapist because it never worked in the past, and his main goal was to finish his time in the sober house he felt forced to live in and get a job to move in with his girlfriend, who was supposedly sober at the time.

While he stayed in a sober house his family had enrolled him in the Recovery Assistance Program (RAP), hoping he might come around with a little push and the creation of some boundaries. Though this was the hope, it took a while for reality to catch up.

I was his caseworker, responsible for helping him in his recovery, providing support and acting as liaison for his concerned family. Every check-in for a few months John wanted nothing to do with recovery, and two months after leaving treatment he was kicked out of his sober house for denying a drug test – he admitted he would test positive for heroin and marijuana.

————-

A week later John went to jail for shooting up heroin in a bus stop. He was released and had to spend the night in a shelter. Afterward he went to stay with a friend. I worked with his family, urging them to stick to the recovery plan, not pick him up and let him experience the streets he will call home if he continues his drug use – “raising the bottom” so to speak, while being there for and leading the family we created accountability and allowed him to experience the real world he chose by refusing help

A couple weeks later John overdosed on heroin twice and ended up in the hospital. The family and I worked with the court system to make sure they made him go to treatment. The day he appeared in court for shooting up heroin in the bus stop was the day his life began to turn around.

He was ordered by the judge to retry treatment. John went to an in-patient rehabilitation center for 90 days and came out a completely different person, committed to recovery and finding himself as the caring, bright guy he had once been and discovered he could be again.

John has been sober for over a year now.  He has a sponsor and sponsors four other recovering young men. He attends meetings every day and remains very involved in the sober community, even bringing meetings to treatment centers. He took care of all his court appearances, probation and consequential volunteer work from previous arrests.  John’s life has turned around; he now has a full time job and still shows up for aftercare at the treatment center a year later.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Blog | No Comments »

E! Special Sheds Light on Prescription Drug Abuse of Everyday People

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

Flipping through the channels this weekend, I was pleasantly surprised to see E! going deeper than the celebrity deaths due to prescription drug abuse. Their new special looked into everyday people’s struggle with prescription painkiller and sedative addictions.

The show profiled different types of people—from the typical juvenile druggie, to the overachiever, to the unintentional addiction of someone simply prescribed poorly—and discussed how each became hooked, the steps they took to find sobriety and family reactions throughout. All of this was done with compassion and an absence of judgment, potentially leading viewers to gain the footing to seek help in response.

While I applaud them for delving out of their ordinary murder mysteries and celebrity documentaries by looking at the effects of the disease on normal people outside the Hollywood spotlight, the program ended without educating the audience as adequately as it could.

The show’s depictions neglect the concept of “continuing care” (the receipt of guidance after one leaves treatment), a crucial step in the recovery process to which the general population and media have yet to catch on, instead only going through the routine of intervention, treatment and either success or failure.

I don’t mean to rag on E!, but this special is another example of TV programs with the right idea yet lacking the correct and complete education to properly comment on the subject. Discussing recovery of any kind as a behavioral health problem by only highlighting intervention and treatment but missing continuing care is like missing the bread in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich; the other parts have the opportunity to be really satisfying, but without the boundaries, they just fall apart.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Blog | No Comments »

Addiction Shows On The Rise, But To What Aim?

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

The last couple years have brought a surge of TV programs dealing with addiction, intervention and recovery for both celebrities and the everyday person. VH1, A&E and now TLC have all taken on the topic, but to what aim?

Do shows like this affect people into action, seeking help for their own addiction or those of a loved one? Or does it simply serve as drama-heavy entertainment portraying people apparently worse off than the viewer?

While any awareness should be good awareness, it appears these shows don’t do much in the way of prompting professional action, but instead create a sense of professionalism within the families who care. A sort of pop-psychology for addiction intervention and treatment. This can lead to some pretty dangerous and misguided side-effects.

What seems to be missing upon many of these shows is the effects of addiction on those around the person with the disease. With the exception of the new TLC show, it’s very rare to see families involved beyond the intervention phase, and when this occurs, families simply participate in attempting to urge the loved one to receive help, rather than making the family (and viewer) aware of the family’s responsibilities in this matter and the effects they have on the progress of their loved-one.

Watching the previews for TLC’s new “Addicted” program, I did hear a sound bite of the interventionist saying “I believe firmly that addiction is a family disorder,” and we couldn’t agree more, but what I hope to see from this new take on the old game is families involved in the progress of recovery for all affected by the disease, and an emphasis on the need for professional intervention rather than make-shift family confrontations.

Another disturbing problem with these shows is the lack of conversation about the need for aftercare. It appears  that for most shows treatment is the be-all, end-all for addiction. If one relapses he or she must return to treatment and try again. Money down the drain time and again, and no true hope in sight. VH1 has expanded this closed scope to include “Sober House,” which puts cast members from previous seasons of “Sex Rehab” and “Celebrity Rehab” into a sober living environment. But even here, where is the aftercare discussion. Where is the RAP continuing care?

Relapse seems imminent for most cast members, and on the show’s premier the house manager asks the oft-thought question “What makes one person stay sober and another relapse?”

The answer is actually pretty simple, but lost upon both the asker and apparently the show producers.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Blog | 1 Comment »

WE'RE AVAILABLE

24 hours a day, 7 days
a week at:
877-320-0247