Addiction and Recovery

“Is marijuana a gateway drug?” – Any substance abuse counselor at this point is probably sick of hearing that redundant and often misleading question. The following explanation is time-tested, reasonable and easy to understand for just about everyone. See for yourself:

A Roman bathhouse near Glasgow, Scotland, was the site chosen to trial a project called Recovery through Heritage
(RtH). This provided a convenient archaeological case study through which to explore ideas of historical well-being,
demonstrating the benefits that archaeology can bring to recovery work. The project was run with partners— Phoenix Futures a charity that supports individuals with alcohol and drug problems; and Northlight Heritage — as part
of the Clyde and Avon Valley Landscape Partnership (CAVLP) supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and
Historic Environment Scotland (HES). It piloted a project that worked with service users to design a heritage trail,
enhance archaeological sites and help out on archaeological digs, focusing on the Roman bathhouse at Strathclyde
Park, Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. A range of activities resulted in the successful completion of the project, including positive outcomes for the service users, the wider community, and ourselves as practitioners. This paper outlines the ways in which the Recovery through Heritage project developed, describing the archaeological and
recovery outcomes achieved, the problems and challenges that were encountered, and how these were overcome. The
paper also explores the ways in which current archaeological theory influences the delivery of community-focused
heritage projects, and how theory is deployed in daily professional practice.



http://www.archaeopress.com/ArchaeopressShop/Public/displayProductDetail.asp?id=%7BEEA08FF4-B364-4615-9743-1C5770C73BCE%7D



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evZceroOlvQ

This downloadable PDF is designed to give to students or others being trained as counselors. There is a compehensive list of essential knowledge and skills for counselors focused on engagement with challenging clients with substance use and coexisting mental health issues.

Successfully engaging difficult and resistant clients in substance abuse treatment is a frequent and prevalent obstacle for counselors particulalry when client's insight and motivation levels may be limited or questionable. Learning to utilize a Change Initiative is a critical guildeline for effectively managing these challenges

The book: Taking the Escalator: An Alternative to the 12 Steps explains the assessment of one's Change Initiative as a simple measure for insight and motivation. The following document explains how to use a Change Initiative measure in greater detail specifically for substance abuse counselors who are attempting to engage difficult clients in treatment

Brief Group Module and Icebreaker Collection 1  - Taking the Escalator releases brief icebreakers and group therapy modules about twice per week in the “Forum” section on the Taking the Escalator: Group Activities by Topic page of the website. This is a printable collection of these brief therapy modules and icebreakers released in that forum for the six-month period from October 2020 through March 2021

In todays changing world where treatment has become increasingly client-centered and accepting of incremental change, it makes to sense to re-examine how we view addiction, reccovery, abstinence and sobriety and the overall process of postive change

All counselors need to be prepared to appropriately address client setbacks in with engagement in view. The following is a guide for counselors when addressing setbacks with challenging clients, with a view toward maintaining rapport and positive engagement in treatment

The following is published on the www.takingtheescalator.com website but is also being made available on Academia.edu for review. It is designed for groups as an in-depth look at self esteem from a realistic perspective, with substance use issues in mind.

The vast majority of people in this world have heard about the idea of "hitting bottom" when it comes to addiction and making positve changes,  which can be a reality, but often can be a fallacy. "Topping Out" may be a more crucial consideration for young people who find themselves caught up in a lifestyle of drug and alcohol use, abuse and misuse

Quite often, when people hear the word “trigger” in a therapeutic context, one may immediately think of substance use and “relapse triggers”. Although substance use is part of this discussion for this exercise, it is important to consider that the idea of feeling “triggered” can also relate to many mental and emotional situations and disorders.

For some who have done previous Taking the Escalator worksheets focused on “Setbacks”, this may be a review. The Taking the Escalator methodology is a harm reduction-based, motivational and self- awareness focused philosophy. In the process of learning to recover and change from substance use disorders and other co-existing issues, it is not uncommon that there are many challenges along the way. Abstinence based models, such as the 12 Step Model, usually refer to these challenging periods in recovery as “Relapse”. By contrast, Taking the Escalator prefers the term “Setbacks”.

This is an activity and discussion on how attitude can help us manage challenging emotional situations - If you read into second page you can see this is useful for groups focused on upcoming holiday season and its many challenges for clients with mental health and substance use issues

This activity is designed for active preparation for an upcoming event that may be challenging to deal with as related to substance use and co-occurring mental health issues. Often events can bring with them various triggers and other obstacles that can make it challenging to maintain a course of progress. It makes sense to plan ahead when a challenging event is on the horizon so as to prevent setbacks.

This tool has been edited to correct some formatting errors

This tool is free for download and use. If you or your agency is going to use this tool, please email takingtheescalator@gmail.com just to notify

In spite of the extent of the substance use problem in many parts of the world, the number of available comprehensive substance use assessment tools is limited. Some of the tools that are available are extremely outdated. The E13 Comprehensive Integrated Substance Use Assessment is modern and inclusive as it considers aspects of motivation, insight,  MAT and Harm Reduction as well as including ASAM criteria and DSM 5 diagnosis components. In addition the assessment fully integrates coexisting mental health, medical and behavioral issues as well as multiple other relevant life area assessments.

Free for download and use.  If you plan on using the E13 Assessment in your clinical practice or agency, please simply email takingtheescalator@gmail.com to inform. Modifications can be made in the assessment tool for your specialized needs

Several pilot studies have provided evidence supporting the potential of classic psychedelics like psilocybin in the treatment of substance use disorders (SUDs). If larger trials confirm efficacy, classic psychedelic-assisted psy- chotherapy may eventually be integrated into existing addiction treatments such as cognitive behavioral therapy, contingency management, and medication-assisted therapies. Many individuals seeking treatment for SUDs also join twelve-step facilitation (TSF) programs like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), which are among the most widely available and accessed treatments for alcohol use disorder worldwide. For such individuals, engaging in clas- sic psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy could be seen as controversial, as members of AA/TSF programs have historically rejected medication-assisted treatments in favor of a pharmacotherapy-free approach. We argue that classic psychedelics and the subjective experiences they elicit may represent a special, more compatible case than conventional medications. In support of this claim, we describe Bill Wilson’s (the founder of AA) little known experiences with psychedelics and on this basis, we argue that aspects of classic psychedelic treatments could complement AA/TSF programs. We provide a review of clinical trials evaluating psychedelics in the context of SUDs and discuss their potential large-scale impact should they be ultimately integrated into AA/TSF.

Medically underserved rural communities struggle to meet challenging needs in response to the opioid crisis. The purpose of this study was to measure any benefit of an occupational therapy (OT) intervention group with participants in an addiction recovery program. Supervised OT graduate students implemented a five-week program at a faith-based non-profit organization in a small metro community. A weekly time management occupational-based intervention group based on the Action Over Inertia (AOI) manualized protocol focuses on motivating and providing strategies to successfully reintegrate individuals into the community by using meaningful activity and positively influencing levels of occupational balance and engagement (Krupa et al., 2003). Outcome measures included self-report of time use, occupational balance, occupational engagement, and goal identification, satisfaction, and performance. The need to effectively treat individuals with SUD is a public health priority. Results demon...

Purpose: Community Health Centres (CHCs) are an essential component of primary health care (PHC) in Canada. This article examines health providers’ understandings and experiences regarding stigma toward mental health and substance use (MHSU) issues, as well as their ideas for an effective intervention to address stigma and discrimination, in three CHCs in Toronto, Ontario.
Methods: Using a phenomenological approach, we conducted twenty-three interviews with senior staff members and peer workers, and three focus groups with front-line health providers. A hybrid approach to thematic analysis was employed, entailing a combination of emergent and a priori coding.
Results: The findings indicate that PHC settings are sites where multiple forms of stigma create health service barriers. Stigma and discrimination associated with MHSU also cohere around intersecting experiences of gender, race, class, age and other issues including the degree and visibility of distress. Clients may find social norms to be alienating, including behavioural expectations in Canadian PHC settings.
Conclusions: Given the turmoil in clients’ lives, systematic efforts to mitigate stigma were inhibited by myriad proximate factors that demanded urgent response. Health providers were enthusiastic about implementing anti-stigma/recovery-based approaches that could be integrated into current CHC services. Their recommendations for interventions centred around communication and education, such as training, CHC-wide meetings, and anti-stigma campaigns in surrounding communities.

The cognitive mental functions give humans a particular advantage in terms of creative solution development. Humans are constantly engaging in a process of internal dialogue across a variety of subject areas. Mental distress may be at least partly remedied by verbalizing, understanding, and perhaps modifying the internal dialogue. In persons suffering from chronic dependency as well as anxiety and depression the described technique may be useful.

There is an increasing interest in the scientific study of the association between spirituality and recovery from addiction. While most of these studies have provided evidence for a possible relationship, others have explored the underlying mechanisms and meditators in the relationship. However, generally, many studies and reviews have not approached the issue within a specific theoretical framework of mainstream psychology. In an attempt to fill this gap, the review being reported here undertook a Qualitative Systematic Literature Review (QSLR) of addiction-spirituality literature. QSLR is an orderly manner of searching for academic literature, selecting relevant literature following a set of inclusion/exclusion criteria, qualitatively analysing the selected literature, and reporting the findings in such a way as to generate a set of hypotheses. QSLR focusses on literary data, rather than on numerical data as the tradition Systematic Literature Review and Meta-analysis do. Working ...

Introduction

The aim of the review is to present the complexity of issues related to treatment of gambling disorders, including definition of gambling and diagnostic criteria, the coexistence of gambling disorders and other disorders, epidemiology of the phenomenon, the prevalence of help seeking, the therapeutic offer for gamblers and its effectiveness, motivations and barriers to treatment.
Material and method

The review of the literature was conducted using the MEDLINE database and Google Scholar. Two general search terms: “gambling” and “treatment” were used, and exploration was limited to 2000–2014. A total number of 96 publications were included in the review.
Results

The legalisation of gambling contributed to a growth in the social acceptance for this type of behaviour. Gambling disorders are often associated with mental disorders (mood, neurotic and personality disorders), and psychoactive substance dependence. The vast majority of gamblers do not seek treatment and about one third of them recover without professional help. Among those who decided on treatment, participation in the Gamblers Anonymous meetings is the most preferred form. Cognitive behavioural therapy, brief interventions and controlled gambling are effective forms of treatment as confirmed by evaluation studies. Gamblers decide to take treatment mainly for economic reasons or because of concerns about their mental and physical health. Barriers to treatment are primarily gamblers’ beliefs that they can solve their problems themselves, shame, fear of stigma, lack of information on what the treatment is and doubts about its effectiveness and quality.

There have been several recent lawsuits in which problem gamblers (or those affected by problem gambling) have sued casinos or other gaming companies for damages relating to bankruptcies, suicides, and other negative consequences of compulsive gambling. Although the legal cases have been decided in favor of the gaming companies, it can seem as though there is a moral residue in some of these cases: perhaps some of the actions of the gaming companies, though legal, have been morally problematic. This case invites students to explore this possibility by introducing them to the facts surrounding the lawsuits and highlighting some of the most salient moral considerations. Students will also be asked to reflect on the public policy implications, if any, of their findings.

This theoretical article presents and applies the theories of the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. The article takes as its starting point the observation that current biomedical, social and psychological research does not provide a coherent view of the nature of addiction and there is a great deal of controversy in the field. The material philosophy of Deleuze provides the opportunity to introduce new ideas and bridge the gaps between different theories and approaches. Deleuze's philosophy is especially useful since neurological research on addiction has developed rapidly. Deleuzian concepts have implications not only for the general theory of addiction, but also for different theories on treatment and recovery. A Deleuzian theory, developed in this article, analyzes addictions as situational and interactional processes. Alcohol and drugs are used because they are connected with situations and interactions that enable the production of desire. They change and alter the body. Addiction alters the production of desire and life itself begins to be reduced to alcohol, drugs or a specific mode of behavior. Recovery from addictions is connected with the changes in life that offer subjects an open future. A recovering body must increase its capacity to be affected and be capable of creating new biopsychosocial connections of desire.

Zaprezentowana w monografii kwestia doświadczania problemów alkoholowych przez kobiety jest obszarem atrakcyjnym poznawczo i badawczo. Osią tematyczną jest tu kobiecy problem alkoholowy, usytuowany w kontekście teoretycznym, jakim uczyniono teorie problemów społecznych, zilustrowany wynikami badań własnych (diagnostyczno – weryfikacyjnych). Całość dopełnia opis form działań, podejmowanych w Polsce w obliczu problemu alkoholowego, z zaakcentowaniem ulokowania w nim kobiet i wspierania ich w procesie wychodzenia przez nie z uzależnienia alkoholowego, z ukazaniem realiów w tym zakresie w polskiej rzeczywistości, jak i szans optymalizowania tego procesu.

Background: The impact of substance abuse is profound affecting not only the health status of the substance abuse addicts, but also their social networks from family members to social environments. The authors explore the impact of the Methadone Maintenance Treatment (MMT) program on both crime commission and social consequences among individuals struggling with substance dependence in Iran. Methods: The data were collected from 13 male outpatients, ages 26 to 54 years old, using in-depth interviews. These individuals have undergone treatment at the MMT program for six months to nine years at three main methadone-distribution centers in Esfahan, Iran. The descriptive phenomenological method was employed to discern and interpret themes within the data. Results: Thematic analysis revealed four major themes regarding types of crimes related to substance-abuse: 1) crimes against individuals, 2) crimes concerning property, 3) sale and distribution of drugs, and 4) possession of illegal d...

Burnout as a Psychological Syndrone of Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization and Reduced Personal Accomplishment.
Emotional exhaustion refers to the depletion of psychic energy or the draining of emotional resources.
Depersonalization referes to the development of negative, cynical attitudes towards the recipients of one's services.
Lack of personal accomplishment is the tendency to evaluate one's own work with recipients negatively, and evaluation that is often accompanied by feelings of insufficiency.
At the beginning, the term Burnout was used to describe consequences of severe stress and high ideals in « Helping » professions. Meaning that it focused on Burnout of Healthcare workforce.  However, Healthcare Workforce is not the one that is struggling with the Burnout issue. In fact, PMH(2017) found that nowadays, the term (Burnout) is not only used for these helping professions, or for the dark side of self-sacrifice. It seems it can affect anyone, from stressed-out careerists and celebrities to overworked employees and homemakers.
As a result, Statista (2017) found that Stress and Burnout have become an increasing and often-discussed phenomenon over the last decade. However, despite their role into US Economy and Public Diplomacy, the Burnout of the Celebrities has not been treated as it should be. In fact, the current Creative Economy Era has increased the importance of the Creative Industries in US Economy (James Michael Walker, 2017)  on the one hand and make is making it easier for the Creative People to become Role Models of many teenagers while becoming the drivers of US Public Diplomacy on the second hand.  However, the workpractice of the celebrities and the competitive, commercial and financial pressures they faced are not helping them to be the expected Role Models. In fact, Celebrities are struggling with significant Stress, Depression, Anxiety and Sex, Drug and Alcohol Addictions that in the worst case scenario are taking the lives of some of them. And hardworking, competitive, commercial and financial pressures could be the drivers of these epidemics.
However, beside the above drivers, there are some additional factors that include lack of balanced workpractice as Celebrities can't combine harmoniously hardworking and breaking moment for relaxing. Furthermore, some Celebrities are not rich like we believe they're as they faced significant financial stress that increases the risk of Stress, Depression, Anxiety and Sex, Drug and Alcohol Addictions. Moreover, there's a correlation within Age and  Stress, Depression, Anxiety and Sex, Drug and Alcohol Addictions of Celebrities because Younger actors are more likely to report symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress than those aged over 55 years. In addition some Celebrities don't have the required Business Spirit and Competencies that can help them manage their career in an effective manner.
Therefore, it could be relevant to improve the  Entrepreneurial and Management Skills of the Celebrities. Meaning that it could relevant to integrate some Entrepreneurial and Management Training and Education to Hollywood and other Cinema Clusters in the coming decades. Furthermore, it'll be relevant to bring awareness of role of the Celebrities in the Creative Economy Era that is making it easier for them to become role models of many teenagers and play an important role into Nation's public diplomacy.

As per the Magnitude of Substance Use in India 2019 survey report, over 57 million of the Indian population is in need of professional help for alcohol use disorders and around 7.7 million for opioid use disorders. The increasing demand for addiction treatment services in India calls for professionalising every aspect of the field. Frequent human rights violations and various unethical practices in Indian addiction treatment facilities have been reported in the mass media. This study is a content analysis of newspaper reports from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2019 looking into legal, ethical and professional concerns regarding the treatment of substance use disorders in India. The content analysis revealed various human rights violations, the use of improper treatment modalities, the lack of basic facilities at treatment settings, and the presence of unqualified professionals in practice.

Accountable: adj. – The obligation of an individual to account for his/her activities, accept responsibility for them and to disclose the results in a transparent manner – (www.businessdictionary.com) 

In simple terms, being accountable involves:
 Accepting responsibility for your actions
 Being answerable for the outcomes
 Taking ownership of your mistakes

Resumen
La ayahuasca es una sustancia psicoactiva de origen amazónico, usada tradicionalmente con fines espirituales, médicos y religiosos. En la década de los '90 adquiere gran popularidad, tanto a través de las redes internacionales de espiritualidad y religiosidad, como en el denominado renacimiento de los estudios psicodélicos, donde se retoma la investigación y experimentación sobre los posibles usos clínicos de estas sustancias. El presente artículo tiene como objetivo la descripción y análisis de los procesos de cura de cuatro casos de adicciones tratados en el Instituto de Etnopsicología Amazónica Aplicada (IDEAA), un centro dedicado al tratamiento de adicciones, con pacientes españoles llevados al Amazonas de Brasil. El procedimiento ha implicado una metodología cualitativa del tipo biográfica, bajo una mirada interdisciplinaria que integra enfoques cognitivos y culturales. En los resultados, se describen el proceso de intervención utilizado en el centro y las narrativas biográficas de los casos estudiados. Se realiza una descripción de los distintos tipos de experiencias recurrentes durante los rituales de ayahuasca: revisiones biográficas, insights psicológicos, experiencias emocionales y/o trascendentales. Se analiza la importancia de la memoria de la experiencia, en tanto disparadora de nuevas reconfiguraciones en las narrativas biográficas de los sujetos, mostrándose la centralidad de dicha dinámica en el proceso terapéutico. Se analizan otros mecanismos específicos interviniendo en el proceso de cura de cada caso: psicosomáticos, simbólicos, de cognición social y psiconeuroinmunológicos. Se concluye sobre la relevancia terapéutica del contexto ritual, social y cultural, así como de las estrategias de integración de la memoria de la experiencia en las narrativas biográficas de los sujetos.
Abstract
Ayahuasca is an Amazon psychoactive compound traditionally used for spiritual, religious, and medical purposes. In the 1990s the brew gains popularity, both through the transnational networks of religiosity/spirituality and the renaissance of psychedelic studies, where these kinds of substances are investigated for its possible clinical applications. The goal of the current article is to describe and analyze the therapeutic process of four cases from IDEAA, a center located in the Brazilian Amazon forest, dedicated to the treatment of addicts taken from Spain. An interdisciplinary perspective is proposed, combining cognitive and cultural insights from different fields (medical anthropology, cognitive science of religion, psychoneuroimmunology,
qualitative sociology, cultural psychology). Ritual of ayahuasca will be considered as a way of producing a variety of experiences, and the  memories of these experiences as ways of producing new biographic narratives. Biographic narratives are considered as a higher mental competence that includes functions related to self-knowledge, episodic memory, reflexivity, and psychosocial homeostasis. Under the appropriate set & setting, this process of narrative reconstruction helps the individual to cope with difficult situations, including addictions. The procedure used in this research consisted in a qualitative biographic methodology. The four cases described were treated in the period between 2000 and 2007. They started as poly drug users in the 1980s, at the end of the dictatorship period, when heroin made its entrance to Spain. The results describe the process of intervention used in the center, and the biographic narratives of each case. Most common types of experiences  are mentioned: biographical revisions, psychological insights, emotional and transcendental experiences. Specific therapeutic mechanisms are also described. In the first case, a psychosomatic style of expression, where the subject describes strong embodied  experiences of suffering his illnesses, and embodied expressions of coping with them. In the second case, a therapeutic process that includes the recognition of the former biographic narrative as a “lie”, and a symbolic way of producing new narratives of the self that spins around the presence of the jaguar. This animal acted as symbolic figure that triggered different meanings, useful for the recovery of the patient. The third case is a subject who was involved in drug traffic, robberies, and violent activities. Experiences related to social cognition (e.g. empathy, shame, self-forgiveness) played a major role in his therapeutic process. Last, the narrative of a woman addicted to heroin is analyzed. Biographical remembrances and self-forgiveness played an important role, but also her symbolic experiences with the proximity of death, related to her medical conditions (addiction to heroin, hepatitis C, HIV). The case is also a good example of how the treatment had a positive psychoneuroimmunology impact in the HIV viral load of the patient. As we will analyze, the effect cannot be explained by ayahuasca itself (in fact the scientific literature suggest a negative or neutral impact), but by the therapeutic strategy as a whole, with its various components. The article concludes addressing the importance of the “memory of the experience” of the ritual as catalyzer of new meanings in the biographic narratives of the patients. The new narratives can be considered as system for self-regulation in the different, psychological, social, and cultural levels. Besides, it can also triggers different top-down psychoneuroimmunology and psychosomatic effects. The production of new narratives is related to what is usually called “integration”, and involves different psychological, social and cultural elements that are of great importance for a positive or negative therapeutic outcome.