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High-Functioning Alcoholics and Substance Users with Sarah Allen Benton

High-Functioning Alcoholics and Substance Users download

What does addiction look like? Someone unkempt, unclean, and down on their luck? Disheveled and unshaven; sitting on the sidewalk with a bottle in hand? Chances are you didn’t envision a sharply dressed lawyer in the courtroom.

The reality is that many people struggling with substance use don’t fit the stereotypes. They effectively maintain personal and professional lives. Teachers, lawyers, doctors. Hidden in plain sight, these “functional addicts” are reliable at work, respected by acquaintances, and often the very picture of success.

But addiction is never functional. In truth, people “functioning” with a substance use disorder have merely managed to avoid obvious tragedy. They’re still someone in active addiction – just one who’s waiting for the bottom to drop out.

They need treatment – but treating high-functioning clients isn’t easy. Intense denial creates a formidable barrier to treatment. Avoidance including shame keeps clients from facing their addiction and fuels their defensiveness. Anxiety, depression, and trauma often co-exist as volatile partners to addiction that left untreated will likely lead to relapse. Accounting for all of these intersecting factors makes treatment planning challenging and complex.

Buy today and learn how to help these “hidden in plain sight” clients face their addiction, break through their denial, and end their silent suffering!

Key Benefits of Watching This Recording:

• Learn how to break through the denial of high-functioning substance users
• Dual Diagnosis assessment strategies that keep you from missing key co-occurring disorders
• Integrated treatment/behavioral plans for addiction and related mental health issues like anxiety, depression and trauma
• CBT-based interventions to modify cognitive distortions and challenge irrational beliefs in one-on-one therapy
• Shame resiliency techniques that stop shame from derailing addiction treatment
• Motivational and stage of change tailored strategies – help clients to commit to their recovery
• How to integrate 12-step and clinical models for dual diagnosis clients

Read more: The Power of Mindfulness as Practice