Talking Therapies: Still a Key to Better Emotional, Psychological and Social Health Therapy may have its roots in treating severe mental disorders, but it has since gone mainstream. You don't have to have a mental illness to benefit from therapy -- and seeking therapy does not mean you are mentally ill. Nor is it a sign of weakness. In contrast, it's a sign of resourcefulness. When life feels like it's spinning out of control, therapy is one tool to help you control the spin. Therapy provides tools for solving problems and enhancing quality of life, says psychologist Parinda Khatri, PhD. These tools may include relationship skills, anger management, or techniques for controlling thoughts and actions. "You don't have to go into past issues," Khatri tells WebMD. "You can be very focused on the present and specific problems you are targeting." Source: Therapy: Myths, Facts, and More (webmd.com)
“Sustained abstinence from alcohol after treatment for alcohol use disorder is associated with substantial recovery of neural and non-neural tissue that contributes to the thickness of the human cortex.”
A recent scientific study has unveiled promising news for individuals recovering from alcohol abuse. Researchers discovered that the brains of those who abstained from alcohol for approximately 7.3 months exhibited significant improvements in brain structure, suggesting a remarkable potential for recovery. This new finding, published in the journal Alcohol, provides hope for people with alcohol use disorders and underscores the importance of sustained abstinence. (Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S074183292300263X)
I'll speak generally here, because the lessons I've learned from my near 35 years of experience are mainly universal, and not necessarily from within the confines of my own family. Some have been observed through other close relationships in my personal life , which is to say, they aren't my stories to tell.
However, if I feel a lesson is beneficial to this community, I'll share it , just in a respectful way. The last thing I'm out to do is hurt anyone's feelings or speak out of turn. That being said, I have plenty of experience on the matter at hand, in many different facets and forms. While I may be nonspecific at times, understand it's out of empathy, not shame or fear.
Real substance abuse problems absolutely tear families apart over entire lifetimes if families allow it to go unaddressed for that long. And many do. Many do because they don't know what else to do, other than what they've always done. Be it drinking or a drug. If they’re the user or acting like they don't know what the user is doing or if they’re the loved one.
It not only tears apart entire close families, but it does so from the inside out, in the most merciless, unforgiving, and ugly of fashions imaginable. Addiction and alcoholism don't care about you or your family's feelings. They don't care what happens to your wife, husband, mother, father, brother, sister, or kids.
They [addicts] lie because they think it is the truth that will crush their loved ones, but again, just the opposite is true. While yes, lies or omitting certain truths may be easier in the moment or at first, they are never the real solution. I don't care who tells you otherwise or how they justify it, they can spin it any way that helps them sleep at night. Lies are never better.
I know from watching how lies and omitting truths destroy entire families, with the root almost always being a drink or a drug…
Results: Respondents were 71.5% male; the mean age was 38.1 years; 68.2% were White; and the principal drug problems comprised cocaine (28.5%), heroin (27.5%), other opiates (13.4%), methamphetamine (12.9%), alcohol (8.6%), marijuana (6.6%), and other stimulants (2.5%). Eighty-seven percent had prior treatment for a substance use disorder. On average respondents had first encountered NA at age 26.9, they had been abstinent an average of 5.7 years at the time they filled out the questionnaire, and 47.5% had served as sponsors. Ninety-four percent designated themselves as spiritual, and only 29.6% designated themselves as religious.
Conclusions: NA offers support for long-term abstinence from diverse misuse of drugs among users of different backgrounds.
Portraying Abstinence Recovery as Puritanical Is in the Interest of Those Who Sell Addictive Drugs:
Abstinence has long been a central facet in recovery as defined by people with severe SUDs as their lived experience. Abstinence is critical for people on the far end of this spectrum for whom use often leads to suffering and death. Lumping it all under the term recovery is unhelpful at best, doing so conflates substance misuse that may respond to attempts to moderate with more severe conditions in which a person uses until death unless they abstain from use
…We also have to be careful to do so in ways we do not normalize problematic drug use and addiction in ways that we allow people to continue to suffer under the guise of choice. Addiction is a brain condition impacting cognition. This movement is unintentionally creating additional suffering for persons with severe SUDs.