Coming Clean : Overcoming Addiction Without Treatment

by Granfield, Robert

• ISBN13: 9780814715819
• ISBN10: 0814715818
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-11-01
• Publisher: New York University Press

Summary

Despite the widely accepted view that formal treatment and twelve-step groups are essential for overcoming dependencies on alcohol and drugs, each year large numbers of former addicts quietly recover on their own, without any formal treatment or participation in self-help groups at all.Coming Cleanexplores the untold stories of untreated addicts who have recovered from a lifestyle of excessive and compulsive substance use without professional assistance. Based on 46 in-depth interviews with formerly addicted individuals, this controversial volume examines their reasons for avoiding treatment, the strategies they employed to break away from their dependencies, the circumstances that facilitated untreated recovery, and the implications of recovery without treatment for treatment professionals as well as for prevention and drug policy.Because of the pervasive belief that addiction is a disease requiring formal intervention, few training programs for physicians, social workers, psychologists, and other health professionals explore the phenomenon of natural recovery from addiction.Coming Cleanoffers insights for treatment professionals of how recovery without treatment can work and how candidates for this approach can be identified. A detailed appendix outlines specific strategies which will be of interest to addicted individuals themselves who wish to attempt the process of recovery without treatment.

Author Biography

Robert Granfield is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Denver William Cloud is Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Denver

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
Stanton Peele
Preface	xiii
Acknowledgments	xix
Recovery without Treatment: An Introduction	1	(32)
PART ONE: Perspectives on Natural Recovery
Slippin' into Darkness: Narratives of Use and Addiction	33	(28)
The Process of Recovery without Treatment	61	(38)
Circumventing Treatment and Salvaging the Self: Natural Recovery as Cultural Resistance	99	(31)
The Social Context of Recovery without Treatment	130	(29)
PART TWO: Implications of Natural Recovery
Lessons for Practitioners from Self-Remitters	159	(32)
Conclusion: Addiction, society, and Social Policy	191	(32)
Appendix Implementing Natural Recovery: Suggestions for Personal Change	223	(28)
Notes	251	(38)
Index	289	(6)
About the Authors	295