5. It’s not addiction, he/she drinks/drugs because … LOVE OF A GOOD TIME ECCENTRIC / CREATIVE LOW SELF-ESTEEM BAD PARENTING LACK OF CONTROL / WEAK WILL SELFISHNESS BAD LUCK STUPIDITY HATEFULNESS POVERTY NOT ENOUGH LOVE SUBCULTURE - SEX - ROCK & ROLL - COLLEGE - BUSINESS LACK OF MORALS SELF-DESTRUCTIVENESS MADNESS IRRESPONSIBILITY / IMMATURITY NOT TRYING HARD ENOUGH NOT HAVING FOUND: THE RIGHT THING TO SAY or THE RIGHT WAY TO SAY IT NOT BEING A GOOD ENOUGH PARENT OR FRIEND
LOUOur goal for you:[CLICK]A clearer understanding of the patient you are talking to, when your patient is not the addict,but a member of a pre-existing system, a family with an active addictive process occurring within it.[CLICK]the forces that patient is dealing with, [CLICK]the role your patient plays within the family, andwhat helps your patient and the family system.[CLICK]
LOUWhen an addictive process enters a family system, it acts like a virus, unrecognized by the system, gradually growing and spreading its effects within and throughout the system.The system becomes more and more compromised as a whole. A whole system can become an addict and have a collective addiction (cults, financial institutions, rock and then roll bands).Or a member of a system can become an addict and impact the whole system (families, teams).We will be focusing on the impact of a family member becoming addicted on the family system as a whole.
LOUOne of the unique things about this mental and emotional virus is that, as it is busy invading the system, it is simultaneously busy ‘fooling’ the family’s systemic immune system into thinking that the invasion is not addiction but something else.There are any number of ‘disguises’ it uses to operate undercover.
LOU[CLICK] OnceALL Reasons build and populate slide.after: the right way to say it:[CLICK] to forward to next slide.
LOU… the list goes on.
LOUAs long as everyone in system is fooled (i.e., blames the bad things happening to them on something else), the impact of the virus keeps mounting. One of the consequences of this ‘fooling’ is that the family member who shows up in your office asking for help does not identify the virus, addiction, as the problem. Even though by the time they show up in your office, the virus has deeply affected the system. So you could be fooled too … we all can. [PLAY VIDEO]
LAURALaura’s presentation on the family system; shortened version, with emphasis on family roles.
LAURA[CLICK] to build each bullet.
LAURA
LOU / LAURAFamily systems who have very little or no ability to do the above have compromised systemic immune systems.Hand out Questionnaire
LOU / LAURAWe are handing out a list of questions designed to give you an assessment of the status of the family’s immune system.These questions will surface how the family communicates as well as healthy and unhealthy systemic operating principles or rules.They will also surface to what degree the system is capable of fooling itself about the presence of an addiction.