Addiction, Treatment and Recovery

Choose your Attitude by Choosing Gratitude
August 6th, 2010 / BFC Insights / David Burgdorf
[caption id="attachment_313" align="alignright" width="134" caption="David Burgdorf"] [/caption]  The theme of gratitude is familiar to those of us in 12-Step recovery programs.  I imagine that all of us – at one time or another – have heard from a tough sponsor, “It’s time for you to write out a gratitude list.” The symptoms for which this is the treatment are: self-pity, whining, grousing, complaining, and general snarliness. The little action of writing the gratitude list, or what my grandmother called “counting your blessings,” has some psychological heft behind it....

Who’s There? Alcoholics Are Missing “Face Values”
June 18th, 2010 / BFC Insights / Betty Ford Center
Getting along with other people is a critical ingredient for a full and happy life. Yet building and maintaining healthy relationships requires the ability to correctly read and express emotional facial expressions (EFE), an ability that alcohol-dependent individuals tend to lack. It has been observed that alcoholic subjects overestimate the intensity of EFE, misinterpret EFE, and are unaware of this impairment. This study explored why people with alcohol dependence (AD) have deficits in emotional facial expression (EFE): Is it because of fundamental emotional problems, or because of a more...

Rundown Neighborhoods Contribute to Heavy Drinking
June 18th, 2010 / BFC Insights / Betty Ford Center
The past decade has produced research on relationships between neighborhood characteristics and health but few studies have specifically looked at how a neighborhood may play a role in shaping alcohol use and misuse. This study looked at the impact of the “urban built” environment – a reference to not only all the buildings of a neighborhood, but also the streets, parks, and public spaces within it – on recent alcohol use. Researchers recruited 1,355 respondents through a random digitdial survey of New York City (NYC) residents, using structured interviews to both assess their...

Betty Ford Institute Names CEO
June 18th, 2010 / BFC Insights / Betty Ford Center
Dr. Garrett O’Connor has been named the first Chief Executive Officer of the Betty Ford Institute. Dr. O’Connor served for several years as Chief Psychiatrist of the Betty Ford Center. He also founded and guided the Clinical Diagnostic Evaluation (CDE) Program at the Center. In announcing the establishment of the Betty Ford Institute, former First Lady Betty Ford stated, “Although we at the Center have long been involved as a leader in education and training in addictive disease and its treatment, as well as in public policy efforts, the establishment of our Institute will allow us...

Betty Ford Institute
June 18th, 2010 / BFC Insights / Betty Ford Center
“Recovery” means many things to many people. So  many things to so  many people, that the meaning of this word/concept/lifestyle has taken on a mysterious or even “fringe” quality that has prevented popular understanding and acceptance. The challenge of the inaugural Betty Ford Institute Consensus Conference was to try to develop a definition of “recovery” that would have utility for clinicians and researchers alike. In the Fall of 2006, a blue-ribbon panel of researchers, policy makers, clinicians and members of the recovering community, met in Rancho Mirage,...

We’ve Lost a Friend
June 18th, 2010 / BFC Insights / Betty Ford Center
Just hours after we learned that President Gerald Ford had died, patients and staff gathered in the Firestone Auditorium on the Betty Ford Center campus, and I had the honor to share some reflections on a person all of us both respected and loved. Gerald Ford was, of course, president during tumultuous times. The Vietnam War. Terrible inflation. The aftermath of Watergate. A country bitterly divided. One of his proudest moments occurred long after he left the White House. It was when Caroline Kennedy and Senator Ted Kennedy awarded him the Profile in Courage Award at the JFK...

“Poppycock!”
June 18th, 2010 / BFC Insights / Betty Ford Center
"Contrary to the orthodoxy, drug addiction is a matter of morals." That quote appeared on the op-ed page of the influential Wall Street Journal – not 50 years ago, not five years ago. It appeared May 25, 2006. Like a bad dream that you just can’t shake, this notion of alcohol/drug addiction as a character weakness – not a disease – just won’t go away. Ironically, in the “you-have-to-laugh-or-you’d-cry” department, the op-ed piece cited above had a one-word headline: “Poppycock.” Alcoholism and other drug addictions meet every disease criteria that exists....

Addiction Beyond Borders
June 18th, 2010 / BFC Insights / Betty Ford Center
Addiction to alcohol and other drugs is, of course, not limited to the United States, or to North America. It’s a disease that does not respect national boundaries. It’s everywhere. At the Betty Ford Center, we’ve served patients and their families from more than 50 countries world-wide since we opened our doors in 1982. The International Society of Addiction Medicine was actually born at the Betty Ford Center, in 1999, when a prestigious group of physicians specializing in addiction medicine from around the world were hosted by Mrs. Ford. The American Society of Addiction...

Awareness Hour Anniversary
June 18th, 2010 / BFC Insights / Betty Ford Center
Leftover coffee and donuts. That’s really what sparked the creation of a treasured institution that’s been alive and well in California’s Coachella Valley (home to the Betty Ford Center) for coming up on three decades. Dr. Joe Cruse, who at the time headed the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, noticed that every Saturday at the conclusion of general medical staff meetings, there was always extra coffee and donuts. It seemed a shame to just throw it all away, so Dr. Cruse suggested to his friends Maribel and Del Sharbut that the refreshments could perhaps be offered...

Obesity Outweighs Addiction Concern
June 18th, 2010 / BFC Insights / Betty Ford Center
Quick. What now is America’s #1 health priority, according to the polls? Cancer? Guess again. Heart disease? Guess again. Alcohol/drug addiction? Hah. Obesity is now America’s #1 health concern. Given that 31 percent of U.S. adults are obese (30 or more pounds over a healthy weight) – the numbers are up from 23 percent in the late 1980s and 15 percent in the late 1970s – and that considerable media attention has been directed at this phenomenon, it’s perhaps understandable that obesity claims the #1 health-concern spot. You also have to consider that the percentage of...

Treatment: Why Bother?
June 18th, 2010 / BFC Insights / Betty Ford Center
For those of us who work in the treatment field, the very question is offensive. For others, though, it’s a question they often struggle with. For example, we’ve long known that fewer than 30 percent of primary care physicians screen their patients for health problems related to their use of alcohol and/or other drugs. And this lack of widespread screening has meant that alcoholism (in particular) is treated more often as an acute illness than a chronic disease. Now the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University has released a study that answers a...

Underage Drinkers Hypocrisy
June 18th, 2010 / BFC Insights / Betty Ford Center
The facts are deadly. Underage drinkers, joined by adults who regularly drink excessive amounts of alcohol, account for half of all the alcohol consumed in this country. That devastating finding is supported by many research studies, including a recent one in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Another alarming statistic is that nearly 20 percent of all the beer, wine and hard liquor consumed in this country goes down the throats of children and teenagers. These facts have profound implications for parents and their children, for public policy, and for the alcohol...

Passing of the Torch
June 18th, 2010 / BFC Insights / Betty Ford Center
Last May, Betty Ford, co-founder and chairman of the Betty Ford Center, announced that she planned to “pass the chairmanship torch” to her daughter, Susan Ford Bales, in January, 2005. That historic moment occurred at a Betty Ford Center Board of Directors meeting on January 25, 2005. Does Mrs. Ford plan to fade quietly into the night? Absolutely not! She remains an active board member and, with her new title of Founding Chairman, she’ll continue to be an advocate for every alcoholic and addict in the world. She’ll also continue to be a frequent visitor to our Rancho Mirage,...

It’s All About Fairness
June 18th, 2010 / BFC Insights / Betty Ford Center
When it comes to health insurance, persons with the disease of addiction to alcohol and/or other drugs are often – make that usually – treated as second-class citizens in this country. Talk about a bad news/bad news scenario. Persons with the disease of addiction either discover that their health insurance policy simply doesn’t cover their primary disease at all – or is blatantly discriminatory vis-à-vis what it does cover. Some insurance companies and the policies they write talk a decent game. But they don’t deliver. When you read the fine print, lo and behold, you discover...

The Political Season is Upon Us
June 18th, 2010 / BFC Insights / Betty Ford Center
Almost every public opinion poll indicates that Americans believe alcohol and drug use and abuse are critical problems in their communities – especially when the use and abuse involves young people. Yet it will be surprising if either George W. Bush or John Kerry actively addresses the issue of addiction to alcohol and/or other drugs. The war on terror, the state of the economy, plus issues of trust and honesty are dominating the candidates’ comments and news media headlines. The fact is, of course, it’s not an exaggeration to say that drugs and alcohol are “terrorizing”...

One Step Forward, One Step Back
June 18th, 2010 / BFC Insights / Betty Ford Center
Good news … and other news … in the ongoing struggle to definitively define addiction to alcohol and/or other drugs as a disease, a disease that responds well to comprehensive professional treatment. In March, the Geneva-based World Health Organization issued an authoritative report – its first ever – citing an explosion of advances in neuroscience to conclude that substance abuse is as much a disorder of the brain as any other neurological or psychiatric disorder. Substance dependence, says the report, is caused by biological, genetic, cultural and environmental factors. The...

Larry and Betty: A Marvelous Media Marriage
June 18th, 2010 / BFC Insights / Betty Ford Center
On December 19, 2003, Betty Ford and I appeared on Larry King Live on CNN. (The show was repeated twice during the holidays.) This is the fourth time over the past six years that we have been guests. We agree to appear on Larry King Live because it is our hope that by doing so we can deliver a vital message to men and women and families whose lives are impacted by the devastating disease of alcoholism and/or addiction to other drugs. We hope that by discussing the disease in a public forum, we can provide the incentive for a family member or loved one – or even the alcoholic/addict...

New Betty Ford Center Book Salutes Women in Recovery
June 18th, 2010 / BFC Insights / Betty Ford Center
This November, a new book called Healing and Hope: Six Women from the Betty Ford Center Share Their Powerful Journeys of Addiction and Recovery will be published by Putnam’s and will be available everywhere in the U.S. and Canada. Healing and Hope puts a face – six faces, actually – on the disease of addiction. It provides a window into the world of addiction as seen through the eyes of six women who were courageous enough to face their personal demons, do battle – and win. Their stories are a poignant and profoundly moving testament to courage, compassion, and – above all...

Betty Ford Center Old-Fashioned? Yessir!
June 18th, 2010 / BFC Insights / Betty Ford Center
Last week, while on the road, a fellow professional in the addiction/treatment field approached me and said he had a question. “Is the Betty Ford Center old-fashioned?” he wondered. For a nanosecond, I was a little taken aback. But then the answer came quickly, “I certainly hope so!” If being “old-fashioned” means that the customer (ie, patient) comes first, then I’m mighty proud to say, we are indeed old-fashioned. If being “old-fashioned” means we’ve been steadfast in focusing exclusively on our 20-year-long quest to treat persons addicted to alcohol and/or...

Tag Your Own Damn Moose!
June 18th, 2010 / BFC Insights / Betty Ford Center
Michael S. Neatherton President, Betty Ford Recovery Hospital When I agreed to write this article, it seemed like a good idea…at the time. As the deadline grew closer and ‘NAATP Article’ kept surfacing on my task list, it no longer seemed like a good idea. Instead, I felt I was trudging along a road – but not one of happy destiny.  This task became an intrusion on an already busy schedule, and once again, I asked myself why I thought this was a good idea. Well, I do know why, but I’m not crawling into that quagmire in this article. When I asked what I should write...