By Peter Provet, Ph.D.,
President and CEO of Odyssey House
For individuals with substance abuse disorders, the Holiday Season brings ambivalent feelings, at best. Memories of past disappointment, pain, and emptiness – and the self-destructive attempts at self-medicating them – are close at hand. Anger towards others and guilt for one’s own failures drive the addict to try to forget through momentary intoxication.
Just as the Holidays are a time of increased relapse, they can also be a time of resolution and resolve. Individual addicts can commit or recommit to a sober life and families can participate in that commitment. It is through seeing oneself deeply – one’s attitudes, personality style, motives, social skills, work ethic, family responsibilities – that renewed memories can be evolved, a new sense of self forged, and hope for the future restored.
Just as every addict has gone through a long course of struggle and compromise, so has the family. The family has experienced great hardship and tried so many approaches to help their addicted loved one. Love, support, encouragement, anger, limit-setting and separation are just some of the common familial reactions to the addict.
Families need to go through their own healing process and should, whenever feasible, be involved in their loved one’s treatment. Analogous to the addict’s process, the family must also seek resolution and closure.
Throughout the Holiday Season it is important to be mindful of these complex individual and family issues, all the while staying diligently hopeful. Celebrating the redemptive nature of the human spirit is as important in the world of recovery as it is anywhere.
Dr. Provet is President of Odyssey House, a nonprofit, substance abuse treatment and mental health services organization based in New York City. Over the Holidays, Odyssey House will treat 1000 men, women, and children in residential and outpatient counseling programs that include educational, vocational, medical, dental, and housing support services. www.odysseyhouseinc.org