The Omnipotent Clinician: A Potential Source of Iatrogenesis

 

Emotional Incest in Group Psychotherapy

 

This is Me Trying - a song about addicts

In The Long Pond Sessions, Taylor Swift explains the inspiration behind the songs from her album Folklore. The fact that she faced her own fears about COVID and the quarantine with these beautiful songs is pretty astonishing but her wisdom beyond her years in her songwriting is even more amazing. About her song, This is Me Trying, she says:

"I've been thinking about addiction and thinking about people who are either suffering through mental illness or suffering through addiction or they have an every day struggle. No one pats them on the back every day, but every day they are actively fighting something. But there are so many days that nobody gives them credit for that. How often must somebody, who’s in that sort of internal struggle must want to say to everyone in the room, You have no idea how close I am to going back to a dark place.”

Jack Antonoff concurs speaking from the voice of the person struggling: "You guys have no idea how hard it is to get to the point where you guys think is still shitty. ... The idea of doing your best, or trying, is one that only the person knows -- and you know when you're doing it -- and it's so hard... when you're doing your damn best and it's not good enough."

Honestly, though, it IS good enough. The fighting every day to not drink or use a drug, or eat our meal plan or not gamble, or all the ways we run from ourselves. That daily fight is good enough and it leads to long-term recovery.

I traveled a long way seeking God

 

I traveled a long way seeking God
by Lalla

English version by Swami Muktananda

I traveled a long way seeking God,
but when I finally gave up and turned back,
there He was, within me!

O Lalli!
Now why do you wander
like a beggar?
Make some effort,
and He will grant you
a vision of Himself
in the form of bliss
in your heart.

https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/blog/2016/04/29/lalla-i-traveled-a-long-way-seeking-god-2/

Teach-Out: Solving the Opioid Crisis

 

Teach-Out: Solving the Opioid Crisis

I am always reading about and following up on the latest research for the opioid crisis, especially as it regards the treatment. High profile people like Michael Jackson and Prince who die from the misuse of these drugs makes the problem even more public.

My experience is with a young woman that I was trying to help in the program. I go to AA and I think addicts should be allowed there, as well, but that's another issue. This young woman had been to detox and was living in a halfway house. She was attending meetings, working, and trying to stay clean. She was also taking Suboxone to help her to recover. What she said was that the other women in the halfway house -- what is supposed to be a refuge and a home -- were stealing her and everyone else's medications. If that is your recovery environment, a place of active addiction in a home for recovering addicts, you have a very hard road ahead of you. And, even in the best of circumstances, we all know that recovery from drugs and alcohol is "trudging the road of happy destiny."

This course addressed the multi-faceted nature of drug abuse and recovery and is a welcome discovery.

The presenters:

Michael Smith, PharmD
Pooja Lagisetty, MD
Dan Clauw, MD
Jay Lee, MD
Amy Bohnert, PhD
Rebecca Haffajee, JD, PharmD
Romesh Nalliah, DDS
Larry Gant, PhD
Rachel Janzen, RN
Vicki Ellingrod, PharmD

Young People Especially at Risk

What I find so disconcerting as I read about the myriad of issues with drug and alcohol treatment is that young people are so much more vulnerable to these flaws. It is a serious failure of our health care system.

This essay, Radical Transformation of Treatment,  reminds me that Gary's son is not alone in having been failed by our treatment programs. During my experience with one of the marginal treatment centers of the 90's, a young teenager from private school in St. Louis came to this treatment community. After a few days, she left because it was, well, really weird -- EST Lite. Where we were usually charged with supervising our fellow recovering addicts, this time the leader said to just let her go. She was dead within a few days.

A friend's son was a successful graduate of a recovery boarding school, but the after care for these kids or young adults is so inadequate. Only one high school in the large metropolitan area where I live has an addictions coordinator for their 1000 students. A few high schools have recovery meetings on the premises, but most have no support at all. One of the critical pieces of my recovery story is that I had access to "young people" meetings. My friend's son died after a return to drinking.

The ranches and boarding schools, hospitals and recovery communities, all have broadly good intentions. They are certified or licensed at a minimal level, like daycare centers, and many other allied educational and therapeutic organizations, but there is a lot of room for fraud, incompetence, and abuse. They must be better regulated, run based on evidence-based therapies and sound medical care.

AA is not a Cure-all