3 ms·
Not only is this not new, but this approach has already been incorporated into many of the more progressive (and, incidentally, more successful) drug treatment
by chimeracoder 13y ago
Not only is this not new, but this approach has already been incorporated into many of the more progressive (and, incidentally, more successful) drug treatment programs.
It turns out that, when you treat substance abuse as a symptom of an underlying problem and not a symptom of the substance itself (the same way we do for alcohol), you end up with a much more effective treatment strategy.
It's funny that it's taking us this long to come to that realization, when even the DSM IV outlines specific criteria for substance abuse and substance dependence, and most habitual users of drugs fit neither of these.
Funny anecdote: Szasz's "Rat Park" study originally appeared in a relatively unknown journal because it was rejected from all the mainstream ones for being "too much of a deviation" from the mainstream schools of thought.
- pasbesoin 13y agoIn a pithy sentence: People are self-medicating for a reason. I love how so many "well-meaning" people continue to often, apparently quite wilfully and in correspondence with their own perceived self-interest, turn a blind eye to those reasons.
- mjn 13y ago> Szasz's "Rat Park" study I don't believe the study has anything to do with Thomas Szasz, although he may have used it as a supporting example in some of his writings. The study was conducted by Bruce Alexander and his collaborators, at Simon Fraser University in Canada.
- OvidNaso 13y agoThis has actually been pretty standard thinking in addiction medicine for a long time. 12 step programs were developed by thinking as addiction as a 'spiritual' affection. Many AA'isms reflect this: "I don't have a alcohol problem. I have a spiritual problem and drugs and alcohol were the solution." etc.