Friday, July 7, 2017

Community and addiction

In a post on trauma and addiction, Stanton Peele includes a couple of interesting (IMO) points. First Peele notes:
Community is the fundamental factor in human survival and satisfaction. In fact, [Sebastian] Junger finds, it is the community to which people return that determines PTSD outcomes, and not the events that trigger it.
And he quotes anthropologist Gary Barker on a similar point:
Our whole approach to mental health has been hijacked by pharmaceutical logic. PTSD is a crisis of connection and disruption, not an illness that you carry within you.
The leader at last night's CR meeting made a similar point on the importance of community in CR. I think that's one of the things that is great about their format. Everyone starts together, and you're in a room with folks with all sorts of different "hurts, habits, and hangups."

And depending on the meeting, you may hear people refer to the group as a "forever family." Kinda nice!

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