A few decades ago, the mental health community’s explanation for addiction and recovery was individual-focused. Where’s the problem? What do we need to fix? Who’s to blame? The answer was the addict or alcoholic: “They’re lazy, selfish, weak-willed, and the sooner we fix them, the sooner they’ll stop being a burden on themselves, their family and loved ones, and society.”
There are two problems with that approach. One, everything that we have learned about addiction and recovery in the last one hundred years, neurobiologically, psychologically, and socially, all agree on one point: it is not the addict’s or alcoholic’s fault that they are addicts or alcoholics. They are not addicts because they are lazy or selfish. They are not alcoholics because they are weak-willed or broken. They are not addicted by choice, any more than a cancer victim has cancer by choice. They are addicts and alcoholics for neurobiological, psychological, and social reasons beyond their individual control.
The other problem with the individual approach is that all of the attention and resources go to the addict or alcoholic, and the rest of the immediate family and friends get ignored. The actions and consequences of those actions don’t just affect the addict or alcoholic. They affect those around them also. Damaged relationships with spouses, parents, children, friends and family, co-workers and strangers. Addicts and alcoholics have recognizable patterns of progression, and those in relationships with them go through the same patterns. This is why we call the family and friends the co-addicts and co-alcoholics.
I approach addiction and recovery in a comprehensive manner, using the most innovative, advanced methods in the 21st century.
In addition to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Emotionally Focused Therapy, Narrative Therapy, and Existential Therapy, I also use Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), SMART Recovery, Refuge Recovery, and an understanding of Twelve Step methodologies to help clients approach addiction and recovery in a comprehensive manner. Get started today.