Basic HTML Version
MIND THE PREJUDICE
After reading the latest challenges and
condemnations of the 12-step philosophy
via Stanton Peele (
DDN
, April, page 8, and
subsequent letters pages), I felt compelled
to contribute as someone who has
experienced a very positive influence from
a 12-step programme.
I have many friends who are atheist and
agnostic who attend meetings. Speaking
with my counselling hat on, the 12 steps are
a CBT programme of behaviour modification
before CBT was invented. It’s interesting that
some professionals have such bitter
reactions to it and my experience is that
most professionals in the field have never
attended an open meeting to gain their own
perspective of the 12 steps. My experience
in training professionals is that their biased
judgements are either created from
impressions and feedback from previous
clients who have had a negative experience
with a group or individual, or a prejudice they
have that 12 steps is a religious cult or
order.
Dispelling the myths of 12 steps is
important for the sector. How can any
professional give objective, non-biased
opinions concerning 12-step groups if they
have contempt for this approach? Let’s not
forget what a resource it is, with more than
200 meetings a week of NA in London from
7am to 11pm daily, 95 meetings a week of
CA, almost 400 meetings a week of AA –
not to mention all the others such as
Marijuana Anonymous and Crystal Meth
Anonymous. The fact is, meetings are free
– no one pays, there’s no commissioning
involved, no staff needed and opening
times are not restricted to nine to five.
Is the fact that 12-step fellowships are
free one reason that they provoke such
contempt in our field? Are they seen as a
threat to professionals and services?
Mark Dempster, director, Mark Dempster
Counselling
STRENGTH INSIDE
I am a first-time prisoner and, despite
appealing my case, I have decided to use
the time in prison as my rehabilitation. This
is due to the fact that after many years in
denial, I eventually admitted to myself that I
am an alcoholic and had planned to go into
a rehabilitation centre specialising in drying
people out.
As that did not happen, my intention was
to take full advantage of the help that the
prison service would provide for alcoholics.
Unfortunately, the prison system ‘talks the
talk’ but does not ‘walk the walk’.
When I had my induction in prison, I was
delighted to hear all the in-prison support
from RAPt (the Rehabilitation for Addicted
Prisoners trust). This appeared to be a lot
of empty promises, as all of the
programmes that I wanted to do (ADTP, 12-
steps, and Stepping Stones) have been
cancelled due to budget cuts.
It has been difficult to receive books and
literature associated with alcohol addiction,
and when AA have sent me books, the
prison will not let me have them as the
justice secretary Chris Grayling does not
allow books to be sent to prisoners.
There is no support from AA coming into
prison due to the security issues, so despite
occasional one-to-ones with a RAPt mentor,
my rehabilitation has to be self-rehabilitation.
Through self determination, I am winning
my battle and am today 200 days dry, but
without my own will to win, I would think
‘why bother? Nobody cares’. I am going to
do this to prove myself, and be the man my
fiancée Karen wants, but with little help
from the prison system.
I hope other prison inmates reading this
can keep the faith and beat the drink, do it
on their own and stick two fingers up to a
prison system that does not care.
Peter Mace, HMP Bure
TELL US HOW IT IS (WAS)!
DDN
will be a whole decade old on 1
November and we want to hear from
you, our faithful readers! Did you read
our early issues? How has your job
changed over the decade? What are
your most significant working moments
and how do you see the future for the
drug and alcohol field? What do you
want to see us covering in the future?
We’ll be including contributions –
memories, forecasts, whatever you
want to share with us – in a special
issue in November, so please get in
touch with us by writing, emailing,
Facebooking or Tweeting. We’re waiting
to hear from you!
Editor, claire@cjwellings.com,
@ddnmagazine
We welcome your letters...
Please email them to the editor, claire@cjwellings.com or post them
to the address on page 3. Letters may be edited for space or clarity –
please limit submissions to 350 words.
Letters |
Media savvy
September 2014 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| 11
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
LETTERS
MEDIASAVVY
WHO’S BEEN SAYING WHAT..?
We do not want drug legalisation by the back door. But at the very
least let’s have the debate. Two years ago the PM rejected calls for
a Royal Commission on drugs policy. It’s high time for a rethink.
Sun
editorial, 8 August
The
Sun
newspaper, which has in the past been a keen
cheerleader and bootlicker for the Blair creature, the Iraq and
Afghan Wars and for David Cameron, now wants a ‘rethink’ on
drug laws. Well, you can’t rethink till you’ve thought in the first
place. Its pretext for this irresponsible tripe is an interview with
Nick Clegg, in which he claims we’re too tough on drug
possession… The idea that this regime is too tough, and needs to
be softened, could only find a home in the head of someone as
dim as Nick Clegg.
Peter Hitchens,
Mail on Sunday
, 10 August
For many, an arrest for possession at a young age can start a
chain reaction that leads first to drastically reduced
employability and then to a higher likelihood of becoming
engaged in the underground economy of drug distribution, often
the only job available. Once this happens, it becomes almost a
fait accompli that that person will spend a serious portion of his
life rotating in and out of the system.
Eugene Jarecki,
Observer
, 3 August
Only poor people are weighed and measured by how much they
cost the country. In fact, all of us, one way or another, represent a
cost: whether by living too long or studying too much or
mismanaging complex financial products. Each of us could have
a price tag stuck on our heads that the rest of society could then
resent us for. But for some reason this is not thought at all
relevant unless you have cost the wrong kind of money.
Zoe Williams,
Guardian
, 18 August
The chief executive of the Scottish Prison Service says people who
end up in jails like Barlinnie shouldn’t be called ‘convicts’,
‘criminals’ or ‘offenders’ because it might stigmatise them and
hamper their rehabilitation… Where do they find these people?
I’m all for rehabilitation in jail. There’s not enough of it. Most
prisons are grim warehouses. But resorting to euphemism to
describe prisoners is absurd. Before people can be rehabilitated
they must face up to their crimes.
Richard Littlejohn,
Mail
, 26 August
Is it really such a good idea to ban the e-cigarette if it helps
people to give up? You can’t help but suspect that what is really
going on here is that some people are so fanatical about not
smoking that they refuse to tolerate something that looks like
the real thing even though it isn’t. I’m no friend of smoking these
days but this just looks petty and vindictive.
Virginia Blackburn,
Express
, 28 August
An imposed period of sobriety may help people gain some insight
into how much their alcohol use is damaging other aspects of
their lives. Making such a discovery voluntarily is hard, because
the pressure to drink in our culture is so vastly underestimated.
Deborah Orr,
Guardian
, 1 August