What do you see when you imagine a truly empowered community? Do you see connections and compassionate interactions? Do people in our imagined futures have safety and stability? Are families intact? Are friendships formed? Are collaborations sought out and cooperation practiced? What are our values as a community? Love? Compassion? Justice? Equality? Equity? Honesty? Kindness?

Working as a mental health practitioner, I’ve noticed that people have different starting points when it comes to addiction and recovery. A mother who has stable housing and a job will require vastly different interventions compared to a mother who is experiencing homelessness and is unemployed.

Venturing upstream means you are making a concerted effort to fully examine and understand the ways trauma continually impacts the body and mind of individuals with addiction. Addiction is not the problem! Unresolved pain and inadequate support are the problems. A traumatic event is like a stone thrown into a pond. Addiction is all of the ways we try to jump into the water to stop the ripples.

We last discussed the importance of noticing context and critically evaluating interventions. We hope you’ll join us in extending compassion to parents struggling with addiction while also critically evaluating how interventions can either promote healthy healing or hinder it.

For several years, I served as a therapist for a residential treatment center helping patients battle substance abuse. Every morning I led a therapy group of 16 men and women who I worked with for about 30 days at a time. By the end of the month their faces were like family to me and their stories were seared into my experience.

When I first met her she was scared and shaking. I could see the chill bumps covering her arms beneath an oversized t-shirt. Her eyes were fierce and filled with tears. She sat down and curled her knees to her chest, flinching in pain while making contact with the chair.