If you read my last blog post you’ll know I’m in some turmoil. It’s as if the rug has been pulled out from underneath my feet. My belief system around addiction is being challenged. Today I read something settling and reassuring.
William L. White* is a leading voice in the field of addiction and offers a clinical commentary on the essential nature of social networks for recovering people. He describes the shift from “I” to “WE” being critical in the success of recovery. Based on my own Master’s degree research in the 1990’s, albeit on a micro scale, this is exactly what I found. Enduring recovery from alcohol and other drugs was less to do with participation in twelve-step programs (which is what I’d anticipated establishing) and more to do with the person’s support network. Of course, it’s better if the support is from other sober people. Bars, pubs and dealers don’t constitute support. Here’s a link to his article, well worth reading.
http://www.williamwhitepapers.com/blog/2015/07/recovery-of-social-networ…
*“William L. White is an Emeritus Senior Research Consultant at Chestnut Health Systems / Lighthouse Institute and past-chair of the board of Recovery Communities United. Bill has a Master’s degree in Addiction Studies and has worked full time in the addictions field since 1969 as a streetworker, counselor, clinical director, researcher and well-traveled trainer and consultant. He has authored or co-authored more than 400 articles, monographs, research reports and book chapters and 18 books. His book, Slaying the Dragon – The History of Addiction Treatment and Recovery in America, received the McGovern Family Foundation Award for the best book on addiction recovery. Bill was featured in the Bill Moyers’ PBS special “Close To Home: Addiction in America” and Showtime’s documentary “Smoking, Drinking and Drugging in the 20th Century.” Bill’s sustained contributions to the field have been acknowledged by awards from the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers, the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, NAADAC: The Association of Addiction Professionals, the American Society of Addiction Medicine, and the Native American Wellbriety Movement. Bill’s widely read papers on recovery advocacy have been published by the Johnson Institute in a book entitled Let’s Go Make Some History: Chronicles of the New Addiction Recovery Advocacy Movement.”