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Substance Abuse
an interesting TED talk on addiction
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<blockquote data-quote="SuZir" data-source="post: 685464" data-attributes="member: 14557"><p>I think one reason for abysmal success ratings of rehabs is boredom and lack of connection. A person goes to rehab (maybe after short detox) for a month or three. While getting out from their lifestyle with drugs and alcohol sounds good, rehab doesn't give much answers what to do instead. In rehabs days are filled with lectures and meetings, and what I have heard, mostly people are very bored in them. You meet new people, maybe have some connection to them, but after that month or two they are often gone from your life. Rehab gives an addict a break from their life, but often it doesn't bring much to fill their lives, long term at least, instead of drugs or alcohol.</p><p></p><p>They do recommend people to fill their life after rehab with meetings (and work), but honestly, I think most of us would find it extremely boring to go same meetings day after day and or even more often than once a day. To mull the same things over and over. Some do find an environment where there is also other things to do beside meetings with those same people and they click with those people and fill their time with that. And while sober houses etc. require their clients to work, the type of work an addict just out of rehab is likely to get, is not something almost any person would feel building their life around. Not something they could commit or find interesting or even semi permanent. </p><p></p><p>Many people out of rehabs are in this limbo, without any direction, without real life goals (I mean, not drinking/drugging really isn't much of the goal, even if you word it 'to stay sober', it still in the end means you avoid doing something. Avoiding something is not much a goal, even though it is so important with addicts) or much connection to their surroundings. In many studies out-patient, in-community treatment have been much more effective both for addicts and in mental health issues than institutions and in-patient rehabs and I think that is partly the reason. Our common sense says, that if someone is doing badly in their surroundings, it would be best to take them out from there and give them a break, but in reality institutions are not able to give their patients enough to substitute the life people were having before being institutionalised. And after they leave an institution (rehab, mental health facility, whatever) people end up to places they have very limited ways to fill their lives. They are lacking connections and lacking the experience of having a place and meaning in life. We ask them to build from zero, and it is not a wonder they fail.</p><p></p><p>For some people religion may fill that void. For some people it may be an other ideology (they may become very devoted twelve steppers for example), but for most neither happens and addiction treatment systems are very bad in introducing their patients to more varied kind of options to fill the void. </p><p></p><p>People I know, who have been severely addicted and recovered have all found other things to devote their time and efforts and stopped or lessened the use of their object of an addiction through that process. Some did some rehab stints, most tried twelve steps groups, but none really took on. None of this people who have had addiction problems and are more or less overcome them whom I know go to meetings anymore. For my dad it was both his art and falling in love and starting a new life with her, one of my friend started to mountain climb instead of drugging, other one started a business and one old colleague went back to Uni and change her career. Having a child have stopped more than one people I know to their tracks and made them change their lives. Daughter of an acquaintance and her boyfriend moved to the countryside and started a small farm and craft business month or two after they started Suboxone treatment for their heroin addiction. To my knowledge they are still doing fine and it will soon be 5 years. Though I think the guy is also back to school to become an it engineer, because small farm and craft business is so much work and so little money. I mean, for people I know, who have been successful with their addictions, it seems they have needed something that is important and interesting to them, to do instead.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="SuZir, post: 685464, member: 14557"] I think one reason for abysmal success ratings of rehabs is boredom and lack of connection. A person goes to rehab (maybe after short detox) for a month or three. While getting out from their lifestyle with drugs and alcohol sounds good, rehab doesn't give much answers what to do instead. In rehabs days are filled with lectures and meetings, and what I have heard, mostly people are very bored in them. You meet new people, maybe have some connection to them, but after that month or two they are often gone from your life. Rehab gives an addict a break from their life, but often it doesn't bring much to fill their lives, long term at least, instead of drugs or alcohol. They do recommend people to fill their life after rehab with meetings (and work), but honestly, I think most of us would find it extremely boring to go same meetings day after day and or even more often than once a day. To mull the same things over and over. Some do find an environment where there is also other things to do beside meetings with those same people and they click with those people and fill their time with that. And while sober houses etc. require their clients to work, the type of work an addict just out of rehab is likely to get, is not something almost any person would feel building their life around. Not something they could commit or find interesting or even semi permanent. Many people out of rehabs are in this limbo, without any direction, without real life goals (I mean, not drinking/drugging really isn't much of the goal, even if you word it 'to stay sober', it still in the end means you avoid doing something. Avoiding something is not much a goal, even though it is so important with addicts) or much connection to their surroundings. In many studies out-patient, in-community treatment have been much more effective both for addicts and in mental health issues than institutions and in-patient rehabs and I think that is partly the reason. Our common sense says, that if someone is doing badly in their surroundings, it would be best to take them out from there and give them a break, but in reality institutions are not able to give their patients enough to substitute the life people were having before being institutionalised. And after they leave an institution (rehab, mental health facility, whatever) people end up to places they have very limited ways to fill their lives. They are lacking connections and lacking the experience of having a place and meaning in life. We ask them to build from zero, and it is not a wonder they fail. For some people religion may fill that void. For some people it may be an other ideology (they may become very devoted twelve steppers for example), but for most neither happens and addiction treatment systems are very bad in introducing their patients to more varied kind of options to fill the void. People I know, who have been severely addicted and recovered have all found other things to devote their time and efforts and stopped or lessened the use of their object of an addiction through that process. Some did some rehab stints, most tried twelve steps groups, but none really took on. None of this people who have had addiction problems and are more or less overcome them whom I know go to meetings anymore. For my dad it was both his art and falling in love and starting a new life with her, one of my friend started to mountain climb instead of drugging, other one started a business and one old colleague went back to Uni and change her career. Having a child have stopped more than one people I know to their tracks and made them change their lives. Daughter of an acquaintance and her boyfriend moved to the countryside and started a small farm and craft business month or two after they started Suboxone treatment for their heroin addiction. To my knowledge they are still doing fine and it will soon be 5 years. Though I think the guy is also back to school to become an it engineer, because small farm and craft business is so much work and so little money. I mean, for people I know, who have been successful with their addictions, it seems they have needed something that is important and interesting to them, to do instead. [/QUOTE]
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an interesting TED talk on addiction
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