Welcome back, and thank you for your comments on my first installment in this series of posts about harm reduction! This week, we'll take a look at the larger historical context of our belief systems concerning psychoactive substances and their misuse.
The United States, in particular, has always struggled with a highly conflicted set of attitudes regarding drinking. The Puritanical roots of the colonial people, and later temperance organizations, had a hand in shaping the MORAL MODEL, seen in the 19th and early 20th centuries. This model can be characterized by these beliefs:
This was gradually (and perhaps only partially) replaced by the DISEASE MODEL, which has been viewed as our standard approach since the inception of Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935. The precepts of this model are:
In contrast, the HARM REDUCTION MODEL of substance misuse holds that:
* For example, Miller & Hester’s review of the literature on outcome studies regarding the efficacy of methods for treating alcoholism (from 1980 through 2002) concluded that, in the year following a treatment episode: - 1 in 4 remained continuously abstinent - 1 in 10 drank moderately and without problems - Mortality during this period averaged less than 2% - Even clients who DID drink in the year following treatment showed substantial improvement, abstaining on three out of four days, and reducing their overall alcohol consumption by 87% on average, with a 60% reduction in alcohol-related problems.
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Jessica Katzman, Psy.D.I'm a psychologist with a private practice in San Francisco's Castro District. I'm interested in harm reduction, LGBTQQIAAP issues, psychedelic integration, social justice conversations, size acceptance, and any intersections of the above. I welcome your comments! Categories
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