Abstain, Maintain ?

Working in the drug and alcohol field can be physically and emotionally demanding, and moreso, very frustrating. The frustration doesnt always stem from the tragic and often dire stories from the client group though; there is and always has been a division on how to address the "needs" of people with a drug and/or alcohol problem.

Harm Reduction accepts and acknowledges the fact that the use of mind altering substances has been part of the human race for thousands of years, and will continue to be. This approach does not make any judgments about users, it simply works with them at their pace whilst implementing ways and means of reducing the harm that over - use of drugs can and does cause. Abstaining from using drugs isnt always an option for some people until they are ready. No preachy preachy.

Abstention, Abstaining from the use of drugs and / or alcohol, has long been the favoured approach of the church, employing the 12 steps approach as devised by two Christian doctors from Minessota, also known as the Minnesota method. This approach declares addiciton is an illness or a disease and requires you to put you sanity, life and decision making in the hands of your God. It used to be God, now it's YOUR God as you understand God, to be more accomodating and accepting of other faiths. Often accused of being a recruiting cult, the 12 steps practitioners deny such allegations and do indeed help many people through some very difficult times of their lives.

Here are the 12 steps :

1. We admitted that we were powerless over our addiction, that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

4. We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7. We humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

8. We made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. We made direct amends to such people wherever possible except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. We continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to addicts, and to practise these principles in all our affairs.”

This division which I mentioned earlier is splitting the work of some very dedicated people from both approaches and is, in my opinion, doing fuck all to actually serve the best interests of the clients who need the services.

A "new" "RECOVERY" movement is gaining momentum and would have everyone believe that approaches such as controlled drinking and long term methadone programmes are ineffectual and damaging to the lives of addicts.
In the interests of trying very, very hard to be neautral, I'll leave any more research into these two differing approaches to anyone who comes across this blog.