The Upward Spiral – Addiction Recovery

We hear more about the downward spiral of addiction than we do the upward spiral – addiction recovery. Substance abuse counselors focused on long term recovery management are fortunate that they witness the miracle of recovery over and over.

Fortunately, most people truly in recovery freely share how they did it in order to give hope to those who haven’t recovered. Recovery stories also give hope to family members struggling with a family member in the throes of addiction. Much work is needed to get the message out that people addicted to alcohol or other drugs can recover and do recover. We also need to change the language we use to describe “substance abuse” — this is from Faces and Voices of Recovery website:

White’s paper states that we must abandon some words while at the same time establish a ‘pro-recovery language.’

I’d like to focus on the negative aspects of the terms ‘abuse’ and ‘abuser,’ and suggest some actions that we at Rhode Island Communities for Addiction Recovery Efforts (RICARES) have taken and are preparing to take to rid ourselves of a term that White calls ‘one of the most ‘ill-chosen.’

White notes that this was recognized as long ago as 1973 when the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse criticized the term and stated that “continued use of this term with its emotional overtones, will serve only to perpetuate confused public attitudes about drug using behavior.’

The statement was prophetic.

This term is ill-chosen because:

• There are heinous crimes committed by horrible people such as domestic abuse, elder abuse, sexual abuse, animal abuse, and child abuse. At some level of consciousness, people associate substance abuse with that group. We don’t belong there.

• If we believe that addiction and the range of substance use disorders are medical conditions, why do we use the term when it is not used for any other condition? People with diabetes are not treated for ‘sugar abuse.’

• Our use of the term ‘substance abuse’ has contributed to the reluctance of many people to accept addiction as a biomedical condition, and continue to believe that the most appropriate and effective way to deal with the societal issue of addiction is as a criminal issue rather than as a public health issue.

• The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 5th edition (DSM-V) has discontinued the designations of ‘abuse’ and ‘dependency.’ The new term is ‘substance use disorder,’ (e.g., alcohol use disorder, cocaine use disorder, etc.). So, the term ‘abuse’ is even diagnostically outdated

I’ve never liked the term substance abuse myself, but it’s used so often and is so familiar with the public I use it because so many recognize the term. I have to use terms that people will search in order to attract readers. I might give this more thought and change the language on the site slightly to achieve both goals.

The reason language is important is because with a medical condition like addiction precise language is vital to understanding the problem and to finding solutions. If the public and even medical professionals perceive addiction and drug use disorders as comparable to domestic abuse, child abuse, animal abuse and such, then addiction and the unhealthy use of drugs and alcohol to cope with life’s pressures will not be treated with empathy and care.

I applaud anyone who goes through life free of all psychological, behavioral and emotional difficulties, but it doesn’t hurt to understand that most people have something they have to deal with at different times during their lives. We don’t excuse anyone with an addiction problem from taking responsibility to deal with the problem, but if the stigma isn’t there, and if more caring and understanding people are willing to help with the problem, then it’s easier for the person to seek help and to recover.

Most of us find ourselves dealing with some “disorder” at sometime during our lives. I’m always suspicious of the judgmental types who shame others who’re dealing with life problems — it makes me wonder if the judgmental person is hiding something. It’s time to drop the judgments and face the problems — addiction is a huge problem that’s amenable to treatment. Even if addiction is seen as a terrible condition that could have been avoided if the addicted person had never used alcohol or drugs to start with, it’s a little late to harp on what should have been. The point is that the person is addicted, or lost in a self-defeating pattern of using alcohol or other drugs to cope with problems, and needs help to recover and live a good, healthy, rich life.

Recovery is possible, and it’s more than likely if more people in society join the effort to eradicate the stigma attached to addiction and alcohol/drug use disorders.