Up dated thinking on Addiction

John, who was former Counselling Team Leader at The Diana Princess of Wales Treatment Centre in Norfolk and Director of Treatment at East Coast Recovery in Suffolk, will be coming to lead two days of seminars and workshops at The Wilbury Clinic. This first day is for professionals working in the field of addiction and for the second day is for people in recovery (please see our 'courses' event list). Those therapists who are themselves in recovery are welcome on both days.

Until the first half of the 20th Century addiction, in all of its forms, was widely considered to be a moral failing and was regarded by most of the medical profession as ‘untreatable’.

Addicts and alcoholics were overlooked by most practitioners and the inevitable prognosis for these conditions was generally accepted as being fatal. Death was usually attributed to the direct or indirect consequences of excessive ‘indulgence’.

With the publication in 1939 of the first edition of the book Alcoholics Anonymous all this began to change. Increasing numbers of alcoholics began to get well – and stay well – by means of a 12-Step Programme of recovery first enunciated by the anonymous authors of that book.

In 1949 a method of treatment, known as the Minnesota Method, based upon the 12-Step Programme, began to be elaborated by the Hazelden Foundation in Center City, Minnesota, USA. The results were promising and it was soon discovered that adaptations of this Programme were also helpful in the treatment of other addictions and compulsive behaviours, not specifically related to alcohol.

Gradually, the Minnesota Method came to be regarded as the ‘gold-standard’ of addiction treatment in the USA and was adopted in many other countries throughout the world.

It was not until 1959, however, that the World Health Organisation began to recognize addiction as a disease.

There are still many who dispute this classification - but continuing research increasingly confirms that there are genetic factors that contribute towards an individual’s susceptibility to addiction. Especially interesting in this connection are studies on identical twins with a familial history of addiction but who were separated at birth and raised in different environments. In all cases both twins came to exhibit addictive characteristics.

John was initially trained by Dr Robert Lefever, who was one of the pioneers of the treatment of addictive disease in the UK. He takes the view that addictive disease is primarily a genetically mediated mood-disorder that results from a malfunction in the production, metabolizing and re-uptake of neurotransmitters. It is this underlying disorder of mood that sufferers seek to ‘medicate’ with a wide variety of substances, liquids and behaviours. The onset of active addiction and the choice of ‘medication’ may also be influenced by environmental factors and by a great diversity of positive or negative life-experiences.

John takes the view that, in the light of more recent research in the field of addiction, the original 12-Step programme of recovery needs to be ‘repositioned’ to suit the needs and findings of the 21st Century. It follows from this that constant evolution of the Minnesota Method of treatment is also necessary.

One of the core assumptions of the original Minnesota Method of treatment, however, remains as valid today as it was in the early days of treatment. This is the principle that addicts and alcoholics can help each other. Because the attitudes and behaviours of those in active addiction are extremely similar, our fellow-addicts are often best-placed to recognize, to challenge and to confront them.

It is for this reason, amongst many others, that John is a strong advocate of the use of group-therapy in the treatment of addiction.To BOOK