The idea of self-medicating was touched upon during our interview at Lowell House Inc a generation ago. We’ve also touched upon its relevance to our mention of deinstitutionalization laws from a few generations ago. Furthermore, in the designing and implementing of our U.S. Constitution many generations ago, we mentioned how a crucial element is missing: a seven generations ahead sustainability clause when making new laws. As an example of how important such a political clause is to sustain our quality of life, simply look at current conditions of our main resource for drinking water today, the Merrimack River.
We can see something similar with the lack of follow-up for the deinstitutionalization movement void of consideration for our future generations of those ill and dysfunctional. New cases, prior to diagnosis, revert to medicating themselves and often in unhealthy ways. Then, along comes ideology pertaining to substance abuse. This inadvertently incites misconceptions that self-medicating is a bad thing, unhealthy human behavior, and/or a violation of social norms. Is it though? Is the human behavior of self-medicating unhealthy? Absolutely not when viewed in the context of our human process being comprised of both psychological and physiological growth and development. Thank you Dr. Khantzian!
And now, some Pavlovian dribble from our founder:
Dear Providers-nim,
When Bill, Mr. Tell, assigned our theme and topics for this month, I am sure his concept of “providers” referred primarily to addiction treatment providers: psychiatrists & psychologists, prescribing medical doctors, and the like. Experiences, training, and academic background prevent separation from environmental contexts though, as judicial, executive, and political dynamics influence addiction remission treatment and options. In other words, we’re all in the same boat with respect to our HADs (homeless addiction disorders).
Because our editor’s group is nudging for more videos with our News Briefs, I am keeping this personal note to our addiction remission providers short and sweet. First is thank goodness for a colleague earning his PhD during a similar time interval. We were designing our research proposals and his was about therapists’ burnout. I thought, what an interesting topic area, a primary prevention concept, as we were still working on our degrees to become providers. It stuck with me as I climbed those twelve marble stairs up to our office. It wasn’t long before realizing a case load of a dozen active addiction disorders was pushing the limits as a single provider. To properly administer an ARMOR Program requires agency collaboration, networking with associates, affiliates, and of course, clients.
In closing, substance use, substance abuse, and self-medication will benefit with better comprehension, clarity, and consensus amongst providers of what these terms actually mean! What are their operational definitions. If we extinguish or remove an addiction disorder’s target substance or behavior, can we be sure to prevent suicidal ideation, violent reactions, and other dysfunctional conduct based on delusional thinking? Are many of our lethal overdoses actually intentional? These questions are extremely difficult to discern, no doubt! Understanding the Modulation process of our internal chemistry, especially when self-medicating (w/behaviors or substances) helps inform client-centered approaches for treatment, care, training, prescribing medications, and whatnot. Hope our video offers insight into ARMOR’s Modulation element. A handshake, hug, or smile all influence our internal chemistry – easily leveraged as medication. And oh yeah, it’s ok to have fun achieving sustained remission!
Yours in Remission, Doc