Persistence in Life and Recovery So we are now about two weeks into the New Year. That’s long enough that the great enthusiasm we had for our 2018 goals has dimmed a bit, or worse. So now what? Life is a continuing challenge of balancing short-term and long-term satisfactions, as SMART Recovery’s 4th Point, Lifestyle Balance, reminds us. Your goals for the year were very likely about enhancing your long-term satisfactions. Of course, we easily get side-tracked. Something shiny, fun, escapist, or whatever side-tracks us, and off we go, setting aside, for now, the long-term goal. This brief blog is a reminder that even if it is set aside, the long-term goal, and the satisfaction it will bring, is still there, still worth pursuing, and still worth having even if it takes us a long t...

Federal Crackdown on Cannabis 2018 by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. On January 4th 2018, Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions issued a memorandum to all United States Attorneys stating that the federal government’s hands-off approach to enforcing cannabis laws was “unnecessary.”  The memorandum rescinded the federal government's hands-off approach to cannabis, effective immediately, due to “Congress’s determination that marijuana is a dangerous drug and that marijuana activity is a serious crime.”  Few crimes are more serious than cannabis activity, thus the memorandum from the AG is an important step towards restoring law and order in our increasingly chaotic society.  States with legal cannabis beware, Ol' Jeffy and his legion of justice warriors are coming to reinstate discip...

Hollywood Scandals Remind Us of Addiction's Roots by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. What does Hollywood have to do with addiction's roots? The recent wave of sexual abuse revelations in Hollywood is simultaneously tragic and inspiring.  The courage, resilience, and fortitude demonstrated by victims publicly disclosing some of the most disturbing and traumatic details of their lives in the hope of catalyzing positive change reveal the best of human nature.  The details the courageous victims continue to share expose the darkest underbelly of humanity’s depravity.  The attention generated by the Hollywood sexual abuse scandals is finally pushing the issue of sexual abuse into the forefront of our consciousness, which will hopefully manifest change across many levels of society. Addictio...

Language of Addiction: Using Treatment Jargon to Describe Treatment By Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. The insulting, dehumanizing rhetoric of the addiction ‘treatment’ industry never ceases to amaze and dishearten. The language of addiction used by the industry is purportedly used for the addicts' own good - to break them down so they can be rebuilt. People who are hurting and vulnerable are called manipulative, junkie liars so often that such language is widely accepted and implemented in treatment settings by so-called professionals.  What if we fought fire with fire and the same critical, cruel language used to ‘shame addicts into change’ was mirrored back to describe the addiction treatment industry?  Well, let us indulge the imagination a bit and give the addiction treatment industry ...

The Entire Aim of Addiction Treatment is Off by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. The goal of nearly the entire field of addiction treatment is to help people stop using substances forever. However, a closer look at the goal of stopping forever reveals fatal flaws. This article aims to expose the flaws in the goal of stopping forever while proposing the broader, more effective goal of changing. The Flawed Goals of Addiction Treatment A goal of stopping substance use forever is problematic in two fundamental ways. The first fundamental flaw in a goal of stopping forever is that the goal is set in negative terms. Effective goals are constructed in a positive framework, which means goals are phrased in terms of what will be done rather than what will be avoided. For example, a goal set as ...

by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. In modern, “sophisticated” society we like to believe in our lofty righteousness.  We are dignified, upstanding examples of integrity.  We parade about in our chrome-wheeled, semi-electric metal boxes. We adorn ourselves in proper fitting attire from a respectable department store. It is a nice, comforting bubble most of us float around in. Meanwhile, those folks who choose methods of consciousness alteration deemed immoral and unrighteous by the moral majority often experience a dark, shameful underbelly of vindictive tribunals and torturous treatment. Teen boot camps are perhaps the most shameful, immoral stain on the dark underbelly of America’s moral majority and its multi-billion dollar “treatment” industry. When it comes to hypocrisy, there’s nothing ...

Is a Higher Power in Recovery Necessary? By Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. Most approaches to addiction treatment tout a relationship with a higher power as essential to success. Peddling salvation and threatening damnation are age-old endeavors for humans, rehabs doing so may just be a modern incarnation of indulgences. But what if they’re right? What if a strong connection to a higher power is essential to recovery? This article explores the incorporeal topic of a higher power from the perspective of awe and wonder, and proposes that an attitude of awe is made up of many of the most vital aspects to sustaining success in recovery and to improving wellbeing in general. Awe: The Cornerstone of Religious Experience Awe has been at the heart of religious experience since the dawn of the co...

Drugs Are Medicine by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. One of the more hypocritical aspects of today’s culture is the distinction between medicine and drugs.  Two weeks ago we explored the power harnessed in a single word.  The stark contrast between the words ‘drugs’ and ‘medicine’ underscores the vastly different connotations that can be elicited by synonyms.  Challenging the social stigma associated with addiction is one of the most important aspects of healing addiction.  In the spirit of challenging the social stigma around addiction, this week’s article highlights the arbitrary distinction between the words ‘drugs’ and ‘medicine’ as a prime example of the double standard and inherent hypocrisy in our culture’s views on substance use. Rarely do two synonyms elicit such distinct emoti...

Self-Defeating Thoughts: The Weight of the Word by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. Humanity has a keen knack for degrading our most powerful creations.  Many creatures produce sounds, but in an inspired moment of momentous artistry humans harnessed the production of sound to form the word. From the word language was born. Language, in turn, gave voice to our fascinating, mysterious consciousness and made community possible. Cooperation in community allowed our species to successfully colonize nearly every corner of the planet, a truly magnificent accomplishment for a relatively small, slow, land-bound mammal. Sometimes, we honor the true power of language, as reflected in proverbs like, 'the pen is mightier than the sword.'  More often, however, humanity engages in our peculiar proclivit...

Why Do People Use Drugs? Emotions, pt. I:  Overview by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. Whether we want to admit it or not emotions run our lives.  Reason and rationality can help us put on the breaks and make alternative choices, but emotions are the primary motivation for all we think and do.  Emotions are the simple answer to the question, ‘why do people use drugs?’  Emotions are the simple answer to why anyone does anything.  Because emotions are the primary motivators in our lives, it is important to understand their function and improve our ability to manage them. Emotions made a strong comeback over the past 1/2-century.  Resurrected from the jaws of death in the Victorian era (when emotions were viewed as evolutionarily degenerate), the past five decades of scientific research hi...