Interventions For Addiction Recovery: Communication, Humility, Healing Forest, And The 12-Step Program

The 12-step program

Addiction is an insidious illness that quickly takes hold of a person, following its development after prolonged substance abuse (Bell, 2014). The protagonist in the case study grew up in a school that did not have any curriculum, in accordance to the values and standards of the Native and constantly discriminated and expelled the Native students, by citing their poverty, and socio-economic background as the principal reasons. The protagonist adopted the habit of drinking after joining the Navy. Furthermore, the person also learnt that under traumatic circumstances that involve domestic abuse or addiction, the Natives should not seek help from the community services, rather should allow the veterans to voice their opinions. The author also suggests that most often men and women who resort to heavy alcohol consumption become perpetrators and victims of abuse, and misuse the powers that have been conferred to them by the Native society. This assignment will discuss the recovery program for the case study titled, ‘Strengthening Fatherhood’, in relation to the native individual.

The 12-step program comprises of a set of guidelines that are responsible for outlining the course of recovery action from compulsion, addition, and related behavioural problems. According to Dermatis and Galanter (2016) although the 12-steps substantially rely on spirituality, several nonreligious persons have been immensely benefited following the implementation of the program. The language of the program highlights the presence of God as each member comprehends him, permitting for dissimilar understandings and spiritual beliefs. Owing to the fact that recovery from alcohol is a lifelong process, the person will be required to revisit some of the steps encompassed in the program, several times. The Native American theory of medicine wheel will be adapted that helps in the representation of a non-linear model, based on human development. The basic idea of implementing the wheel is to endure balance at the center, during the development of the affected person’s personality.

Some of the strategies that will be taken into account during the implementation of the 12 step program are namely, (1) the person will be made to admit he was powerless over the consumption of alcohol and that the supervision of this addiction had become unmanageable; (2) encouraging the person to believe in the existence of a greater power (god) that had the capability of restoring his life back to sanity; (3) the person will also be encouraged to decide on turning his determination and life to the care of the supreme, while understanding the entity; (4) making a probing and intrepid moral inventory of oneself will greatly facilitate the recovery program; (5) admitting to oneself, the almighty and others on all the wrongs committed; (6) it is imperative to make the native demonstrate an immediate readiness to allow their god help them get rid of all vices in their character, which have made them resort to addiction; (7) the person would also be motivate to humbly pray to god for eliminating all kinds of shortcomings; (8) owing to the fact that addiction results in violence and abuse, the recovery steps would also provide assistance to the person for making a list of all such people who had been harmed, thus demonstrating a willingness to make amendments; (9) encouraging them to make direct compensations would prove imperative for the recovery journey; (10) the affected individual will also be assisted in taking personal inventory, followed by providing help in admitting the instances when he goes wrong (Gillissen et al., 2013); (11) improvement of the conscious contact with god with the help of meditation and prayers; and (12) facilitating the experience of a spiritual awakening will help in disseminating the principles to all alcoholics, and practice them in daily affairs.

Communication and humility in recovery

Communication is an essential component to problem-solving, particularly while attempting to solve addiction among individuals (DiClemente, 2018). Under situations as the case study, when the addicts leave communicating with others, the real causes of their addiction cannot be articulated. This in turn has prevented the person from seeking necessary help from medical professionals, and prevented the development of a healthy relationship with family members. In the words of Best et al. (2016) demonstrating honesty about the situation will act as a key component in recovery of the person.

Effective communication will emphasise on learning and about the person, in order to determine accuracy of collected information. Adopting a style of assertive communication that focuses on respect and dignity will enhance the relationship and ease recovery. The principled choice to relinquish self-status, organise the resources or exert influence for benefit of others is essential owing to the fact that the addict will be made to surrender and accept powerlessness in the 12-step approach (Krentzman, 2013). Taking into consideration that the surrender is both intellectual and emotional in nature, learning humility will help in better understanding of the condition.

These are considered as the deepest roots of the Wellbriety Movement and focus on namely, (1) change occurs from within; (2) development must be headed by a vision; (3) there must be a great learning; and (4) a healing forest must be created (Halvorson, Skinner & Whitter, 2013). Thus, the person will be motivated to display the internal desire of bringing about change in his life, followed by active participation of his community and family in sharing his feelings, and thoughts and taking them forward (Grande, 2015). The great learning would also encompass the cultivation of personal healing and continuing self and public knowledge, besides implementing education in contemporary life. Creation of a healing forest will sum up all the 4 laws of change and will promote optimistic community change, thus enhancing the recovery.

The Healing Forest Model acts in the form of a basis and an inspiration for change programs and community healing, exploited by both Native and non-Native communities. The numerous social issues related with alcohol and substance abuse are considered as symptoms. This calls for the need to address the original psychic and cultural concerns that generate guilt, shame, anger, and fear, thus creating an unhealthy territory in the forest representation (Lahad & Berger, 2013). Therefore, these four toxins in the soil of the gruesome forest have been considered responsible for the commencement of addictive behaviours and intergenerational trauma in the Native. In other words, an effective healing community will act in the form of a healing forest that will allow the roots grow down for overcoming the prevalent mental health issue and addiction.

According to Slade et al. (2014) the medical model holds belief in the fact that mental illnesses are direct manifestation of physiological disorders, and treats all such illness as physical ailments by implementing medication. In contrast, the social model proposes that the structure and attitudes of the society are largely responsible for resulting in such abnormalities in the mental health status of an individual (Aneshensel, Phelan & Bierman, 2013). Some of the key social aspects that were directly responsible for addiction in the protagonist were labelling, prejudice, ignorance, and lack of financial independence. Thus, the recovery program faces conflict due to the contradictory ideas imposed by these two different world views, and might impeded the retrieval process.

Conclusion

To conclude, it can be stated that there is a need to focus more on maintenance plan, with the aim of preventing relapse of addiction symptoms. Building a life that supports the affected person in not resorting to the use of alcohol will expedite the process of resisting unhealthy choices. Therefore, recovery maintenance is not just restricted to a well-rounded plan, by will emphasise on the need of the person to live healthy and well. Rather than placing an emphasis on ways by which relapse can be prevented, appropriate recovery maintenance will help in development of a plan on the steps that need to adopted, in case of relapse.

References

Aneshensel, C. S., Phelan, J. C., & Bierman, A. (2013). The sociology of mental health: Surveying the field. In Handbook of the sociology of mental health (pp. 1-19). Springer, Dordrecht.

Bell, J. (2014). Addiction and recovery. BMJ: British Medical Journal (Online), 349.

Best, D., Beckwith, M., Haslam, C., Alexander Haslam, S., Jetten, J., Mawson, E., & Lubman, D. I. (2016). Overcoming alcohol and other drug addiction as a process of social identity transition: the social identity model of recovery (SIMOR). Addiction Research & Theory, 24(2), 111-123.

Dermatis, H., & Galanter, M. (2016). The role of twelve-step-related spirituality in addiction recovery. Journal of religion and health, 55(2), 510-521.

DiClemente, C. C. (2018). Addiction and change: How addictions develop and addicted people recover. Guilford Publications.

Gillissen, F., Hoff, C., Maessen, J. M., Winkens, B., Teeuwen, J. H., von Meyenfeldt, M. F., & Dejong, C. H. (2013). Structured synchronous implementation of an enhanced recovery program in elective colonic surgery in 33 hospitals in The Netherlands. World journal of surgery, 37(5), 1082-1093.

Grande, S. (2015). Red pedagogy: Native American social and political thought. Rowman & Littlefield.

Halvorson, A., Skinner, J. E., & Whitter, M. (2013). Provider Approaches to Recovery-Oriented Systems of Care: Four Case Studies. Journal of Drug Addiction, Education, and Eradication, 9(4), 333.

Krentzman, A. R. (2013). Review of the application of positive psychology to substance use, addiction, and recovery research. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 27(1), 151.

Lahad, M., & Berger, R. (2013). The healing forest in post-crisis work with children: A nature therapy and expressive arts program for groups. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Slade, M., Amering, M., Farkas, M., Hamilton, B., O’Hagan, M., Panther, G., … & Whitley, R. (2014). Uses and abuses of recovery: implementing recovery?oriented practices in mental health systems. World Psychiatry, 13(1), 12-20.