Addiction Treatment Based on Emotional Maturity

​Addiction Treatment based on emotional maturity
 
As readers of this blog know, I work for/with a variety of people who are living with a variety of illnesses or conditions.  This includes the disease of addiction. The opioid epidemic alone is claiming the lives of many thousands.  It is imperative that we continue to explore treatment programs to fit the needs of individual clients.  When seeing someone for individual therapy that can be relatively easy.  If seeing someone in residential or other group settings addicts are often divided into several groups including:
 

• Those who are non-professional and have limited insurance or Medicaid benefits.
• Those who have access to money and/or very good insurance. This may include high level management individuals, doctors, lawyers and certain other professionals.
• Those specially designed for doctors, physicians, high level executives, or clergy.
• Those who are incarcerated in a prison which offers substance abuse/addiction treatment.
• Those divided by gender.

 
12 step recovery groups are open to all people who have a desire to stop their addictive behavior. In some geographical areas, there are meetings based on gender or sexual orientation.
 
I question whether the treatment community needs to explore treatment based, in part, on emotional age.   Emotional age of the addict may have little to do with chronological age, education, or professional status.   Consider the following emotional backgrounds:
 

• Addicts who started using at a very early age.  These may have exhibited self-centered, addictive behavior long before they started using. This group frequently enters treatment at the emotional age during which they started using or even younger.
• Addicts who started using at an early age but who had a lot of adult responsibilities and relatively healthy thinking prior to becoming addicted.
• Addicts who had a healthy and well-developed emotional life and became addicted as a young or older adult following an accident or another traumatic event.
• Addicts who functioned well academically and who remained emotionally dependent/immature in their adult lives. We all know adults who may have “successful” careers but who are taken care of or protected emotionally by spouses, secretaries, personal assistants, nurses and others.

 
There are many characteristics of those who become addicted. In my opinion, those who have a history of a healthy emotional and spiritual life prior to their active addiction have different treatment needs than those who did not have such a history.
 
Anyone who has worked extensively with veterans returning from combat duty know that all return scarred.  Yet, some will not experience debilitating mental health or acute post-traumatic stress syndrome symptoms when they return. These are generally the individuals who had healthy ways of coping with life on life terms prior to their combat experiences. These same individuals, during combat duty, and when safe to do so, were able to take a moment to enjoy a sunset, a moment with a friend, a special meal or other positive events.   They may or may not have used recreational drugs while serving in a combat area. but they will not continue to abuse recreational or prescribed drugs when they return. 
 
I appreciate the fact that in the 12 step program individuals have an opportunity to spend time with people from all backgrounds and levels of emotional maturity.  In treatment programs, we may have to more effectively teach individuals how to identify and select friends/a “we” who have a history of emotional maturity. We may want to also design residential treatment programs with more than one track based on emotional maturity, but which allow those with little or no emotional maturity to learn from those with emotional maturity.
 
Again, I welcome thoughts from readers on this topic.
 
 
Written October 26, 2017