Addictions Therapist

I run a group for drug dependant adults that also have a diagnosis of mental illness. I need some fun activities and ideas for group therapy. I would like them to have fun instead of it being like a class room. I’d like them to open up to each other and staff. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all!

OK – I know i’ve asked questions similar to what I am asking, but I have been researching codependent behavior/tendencies & I feel like this might have played a HUGE part in my boyfriend committing suicide or why I was even dating someone who was battling & also engaging in full-blown opiate addiciton. I became an enabable & codependent to this person. He was going through recovery & said he felt like he was becoming addicted to me instead. I tried & believed I could show him a “normal” life without drugs. He was always open to doing whatever I suggested – minus certain music & movies. Anyway, that made me feel good, like I was finally being loved (yes, I must have issues?) He got back into drugs & blamed us fighting for his relapse. I worried about him constantly & became very distrustful & most likely bitchy. I felt like I always had to be responsible & act like the caretaker & this in return, made me resentful & bitter towards him. BTW – he had been struggling w/depression & drug addiction for about 10 years. We were together for 2 1/2, but long-distance, so I only saw him once every month. He also had a lot of anger towards his parents. It was recently stated that maybe he was with me because I reminded him of mother. From what I’ve read, the combo of addiction & codependency never ends well. I am struggling with tons of guilt & feeling like I was with him because maybe I loved the “idea” of this person, but not the person. It makes me sick that I could be like that. We never were together enough to talk about our problems, or actually, they just all seemed to be overlooked somehow & many times he said he never wanted a girlfriend, but that I just wouldn’t leave him alone. I never knew what state of mind he was in, so I would almost beg him to not break up, it was cyclical. Why didn’t I just listen to him & leave it alone. Neither of us were happy. He commited suicide in Feb. He had relapsed in Dec. again into IV drug use – heroin & meth.

The stages of change model includes precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, and relapse. I need an article that is online.

If you given a chance to fight drug addiction what would be your initial step?

I used to live next to a rehab center, people in there for rehab would come out on the sidewalk for a break and almost all of them would light up. Now, considering that an addict is usually supposed to decline potentially addicting substances, why are they still allowed to use a substance that is supposedly harder to kick than heroin? I just don’t get it. It doesn’t make sense. BTW, I wasn’t sure which category to put this in, but since addiction involves compulsion (and often obsession as well), I put it here.
Okay, to the person who mentioned coffee, I don’t think coffee can be equated to alcohol, heroin, coke or the rest of the seriously addicting substances. I never knew anyone who needed to go into rehab to give up coffee. It’s more of a habituation than a substance addiction.

And to the person who mentioned that tobacco is legal, that may be so, but it would also be legal to make giving up every addictive substance part of the program. Not only that, on the surface it would appear to be constructive.

It’s true that addicts often transfer their addiction to something else (attending church, sex, some hobby…anything they can obsess about). At least many of those potential obsessions don’t involve supporting a system of gangsterism and don’t result in overdoses. Giving up tobacco helps extend the person’s life, improves their health, and reduces a huge burden on society and the insurance system.
More comments on the answers.

To the person who said smokers just get cranky and gain weight, is THAT why it’s harder to give up cigarettes than to give up heroin?

To the person who says rehab isn’t punishment, that’s true, but for those sent there by the legal system, it’s INSTEAD of punishment.

To the person who implied I’m being judgmental, what am I supposed to think of people who get hooked on drugs when there is plenty of evidence of the bad effects of addiction? If someone jumps off a roof and gets hurt, yeah, I feel his pain, but wow, how stupid can you get? They say movies and TV glamourize drug use, but they must be watching different shows than I am: I’m seeing people hitting the bottom on almost all of these shows. Where is the supposed glamour?

So, what I’m hearing seems to be that we need to give up on addicts. They’ll always be addicts, and if it’s just tobacco, at least they’re not robbing liquor stores and dying of overdose.

I am a first generation immigrant and have no experience or any idea of how to get help for my 21 year old son’s drug and alcohol addiction. 3 months ago he came to me confessing everything: he had been abusing drugs for the past 3 and 1/2 years and that this past school year was the worst. Since then he’s given up everything and been sober. He had been using marijuana, cocaine, mdma, painkillers, alcohol, and cigarettes. Now he is very afraid of them and will never use them again. As much as I’m very glad he’s been sober and is willing to recover and go back to school, he has told me that he’s very scared that it might be too late. He’s been dealing with depression, insomnia, loss of concentration, memory problems (can’t read a book or watch a movie and remember the story days later), inability to communicate clearly what he wants to say in his mind, among other things. I have scheduled a meeting with a psychiatrist for him this week. He insists on getting a pet scan, but feels too anxious and guilty to get one from a neurologist at a regular hospital for he fears they will be judgmental. Is there anywhere to bring him to get a pet scan from a neurologist that understands what recovering “addicts” are going through and is able to tell us how much damage has been done and if there’s anything we can do to recover lost brain activity? Or do most neurologists that give pet scans for cancer treatments and other natural illnesses also deal with drug abusers? Or should we go to a drug addiction specialist and he refers us to a proper neurologist? I will ask the psychiatrist this as well, but just wanted to shoot my question on here for any additional advice. Thank you so much for answering and I very much appreciate it.

I’m reading the book “A Million Little Pieces”. I know most of it is false, but if you haven’t read it, there’s a part where he has to get two root canals, but since he is a recovering hardcore drug addict the dentist does not give him any type of anesthesia. Is this possible? If it was laughing gas or some type that was like an opiate I could understand, but couldn’t you give an addict Novocaine?

Is a drug addiction a sickness or stupidity? If you were very close to someone that wanted so bad to get off drugs but couldn’t, Will you be wrong and stupid for being there for them regardless?

He took vicodin and ambien…. drinking way too MUCH.

and he got many many mistresses and maybe male mistress.

So companies are still allowing him to be their sponsor?
yeah and his mother in law in hospital.

smh

Which of the following drugs has the worst addiction potential in terms of severity of cravings, pain & suffering of withdrawl, and lowest “complete” recovery rates?

- Alcohol
- Heroin
- Cocaine
- Methamphetamine
- Crack Cocaine

I’ve heard from a fifteen year old heroin addict that heroin is a drug that if you’ve done it once, you’ve done it more than once.

My brother is a drug addict his drug of choice: World of Warcraft he plays 12-16 hours a day barley eats is pale and weak, abondond all his freinds and has not laughed or smiled since god know when…. I threw the computer down the stares and he screamed and cryed like a crazy drug addicted freak i dont know what to do? HELP

I was just wondering how long it would take for a person to recover from substance addiction. I have a neighbor who has just gotten into an inpatient drug rehab program and I want to know when he’s likely to be back here again.

Product Description
This digital document is a journal article from Addictive Behaviors, published by Elsevier in 2006. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
This paper reports on the implementation and preliminary evaluation of Social Behaviour and Network Therapy (SBNT) within drug treatment services. SBNT was initially developed and evaluated as part of a trial for alcohol treatment in the UK (UKATT). For the study reported in this paper SBNT was adapted for application with drug users. Therapists (N=20) from community drug services in Birmingham, UK, were trained to deliver the intervention. Training methods were supported by a treatment manual and included a two-day workshop followed by video supervision and monitoring. Following training therapists were asked to implement the treatment within the services in which… More >>

Implementing and evaluating Social Behaviour and Network Therapy in drug treatment practice in the UK: A feasibility study

What can you do when you love a drug addict but you know they won’t stop?

Any stories? I’m interested in hearing.