Cured? Don’t Count on It
Folks who expect treatment to ‘cure’ an addiction often resume use once they’ve satisfied themselves that now, with a period of abstinence behind them, the problem has been resolved.
Tag: relapse
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Medical Relapse Trap
That is not the doc’s fault, and frankly, it isn’t really James’, either. It’s what happens where addiction rules. If not at that moment, then the next.
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Lessons Not Learned
Treatment staff know from their long experience that someone with a severe substance problem who insists on relying solely on willpower is very likely to fail.
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First Person: Scared Silly
The question is, when you have all those years of apparently successful recovery, why throw it aside? How could that improve your situation?
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Is Relapse a Crime?
But if a community treats a correctional institution as a kind of locked flophouse, what else we can expect?
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Tossing the Playbook
We’ve come a long way in treating addictions, but we’re still not very successful at convincing a patient to stick to a treatment regimen.
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Relapse is Not Failure
I felt detached from life and the people around me. I felt like a failure, but I had no other choice but to get back on my feet and try again.
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Is it Recovery Yet?
It may seem to the individual as if it happens by itself– the result of an autopilot, set to return home.
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The Medicine They Don’t Take…
But given the experience in other fields of healthcare, a return to the old lifestyle, however destructive, may be little more than human nature.
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In Again, Out Again
I’ve come to view it more as a tool for harm reduction than a path to long term recovery, with some notable exceptions.
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War Within
That’s the mystery: Not why some people become addicted to certain substances, but why others do not.
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Three Challenges
Like a stroke patient who suddenly finds himself needing to relearn basic skills that were once automatic, it may require a level of personal commitment unseen for many years.
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Miracle Max
Clinicians… feel as if they’re always missing at least one extremely important tool that would make all the difference.
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