Download journal – Therapeutic Communities: The International Journal of Therapeutic Communities

SESANATE PAPER PUBLISHED

I was part of a group today that spoke of healing by telling the truth. That playing games and conning others can send people down a path of self destruction which isolates them. Being honest can be so freeing and liberating. We can even find that others do accept us “warts an all”. People all have stuff that they hide from others in the hope to not feel shame or show vulnerability. With this we are not always honest and keep secrets or shaming habits to ourselves. Being able to be real and honest can show us that others can identify with this a may have their own ways of dealing with life and protecting themselves.

Dr Garrett O’Connor shares discoveries from decades of experience on how to recover from addiction: the role of shame, resilience, spirituality and survival in mending broken people, commonalities with survivors of Auschwitz, training doctors – and protecting the next generation.

Successful psychotherapy

As long ago as April 1980, the American Journal or Psychiatry (Judd Marmor MD) published The Six Elements Critical for Successful Psychotherapy. In 1983, Margaret Yates and I followed up with The Correlation of 12-Step Approach with The Six Elements Critical for Successful Psychotherapy. These were and are:

1. release of emotional tension in the context of hope, and expectation of recieving help – steps 1,2,3,4,5,7
2. identification with the method – steps 1,2,3
3. suggestion and persuasion – 1-12
4. operant re-conditioning – 4,5,8,9
5. repeated reality testing – 4,5,9,10,12
6. cognitive learning about the basis for one’s difficulties

Science has caught up with practice to the extent that neuroscientist Professor Carlton Erickson stated at the UK/European Symposium on Addictive Disorders in May 2013 that “AA and NA are now regarded scientifically as evidence-based interventions for the treatment of addiction”.

Falling use of traditional drugs is offset by relentless supply of new ones.

The internet has created new routes for supply and use, with the market now pivoting less round “plant based substances shopping over long distances to consumer markets in Europe”.

Published alongside EMCDDA’s 2013 drug trends survey, the report claims that there have been positive developments in the use of more established drugs, with fewer new users of heroin, less injecting of drugs, and declining use if cannabis and cocaine across Europe. But any optimism must be tempered by concerns that youth unemployment and cuts in drug treatment services could lead to a re-emergence of old problems.

The UK still has the greatest levels of cocaine consumption in Europe, and the largest number of heroin users in substitution treatment, 177,093 at the last count.