Working with drug and alcohol users, my new book should be out in a few months. Here is a video where I provide a brief monologue about the book. In it I talk about the dependent drug user and how there are three solutions. The dependent user is what is usually seen as the addict type of drug user unlike the recreational user.
As I note in the video the largest group by far are the recreational users but they rarely seek any drug counselling because the drugs do not cause them any disquiet. Instead it is one of the smallest groups (the dependent user) who use up most of the drug counselling resources.
With the dependent user the three solutions are:
Switching the addiction
Growing out of the addiction
Therapeutic solution (which is a variant of the switching the addiction solution)
I talk about AA and that as one way where the the user can switch the addiction from alcohol to the AA organization and philosophy. Here is a snippet from the book where I talk a bit about this.
“In addition Kelly et al (2009) notes other features of AA that are seen to make it more successful. "The main benefit of AA in aiding addiction recovery may lie in its accessibility and its long-term, 'extensive', focus."(p.254) People can have exposure to the therapeutic elements on demand and self regulate the intensity of their self dosing for as long as they desire. AA is also free, usually available everyday of the week most importantly during high risk periods of relapse, a close and at times intense relationship with the sponsor is also a central feature of the AA system. These features fit the criteria of a symbiotic relationship between a person and in this case an organization.” (end quote)
Children are taught to take drugs early on in life.
Graffiti
It's really sad. In the uk, a 60 stone teenager had to have a wall of their home demolished to get them out to hospital as they couldn't fit through the front door. I saw a documentary this week about fat fetishes and there were interviews with feeders and gainers. Can anyone really be happy when they are so fat they can't get out of bed? In my simple world, I figure anorexia and obesity are just different manifestations of the same issues. Is that true. I feel more sorry for obese people than anorexic people. As for switching addictions, how can you switch a food addiction when you still have to partake in it everyday? I am so lucky I had my chrohns disease that I can eat a lot and not have to worry about my weight.
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