Topic: relapse

But if a community treats a correctional institution as a kind of locked flophouse, what else we can expect?

We’ve come a long way in treating addictions, but we’re still not very successful at convincing a patient to stick to a treatment regimen.

I felt detached from life and the people around me. I felt like a failure, but I had no other choice but to get back on my feet and try again.

It may seem to the individual as if it happens by itself– the result of an autopilot, set to return home.

But given the experience in other fields of healthcare, a return to the old lifestyle, however destructive, may be little more than human nature.

I’ve come to view it more as a tool for harm reduction than a path to long term recovery, with some notable exceptions.

That’s the mystery: Not why some people become addicted to certain substances, but why others do not.

Like a stroke patient who suddenly finds himself needing to relearn basic skills that were once automatic, it may require a level of personal commitment unseen for many years.

Clinicians… feel as if they’re always missing at least one extremely important tool that would make all the difference.

Rehab isn’t intended to effect a cure for someone’s addiction. We don’t have a cure for anybody’s addiction.