Mediation for Substance Abuse?!

I recently had a woman reach out to me and ask if they could add my information to a list of resources at our local recovery center. I excitedly said, “yes!” and began to detail my experience working with people suffering from addiction.

The conversation progressed quickly for both of us about our experiences and the importance of the work. And then, we began talking about mediation for people engaged in recovery and their families. We wildly discussed how mediation could be used to rebuild and restructure their relationships.

My previous work was similar. I helped people in recovery put more pillars of support under them. As most people understand – addiction, a lot of the time, has or creates multiple problems. Other mental, physical, emotional, financial, economic, social, or other issues are simultaneously happening. Those listed other problems may have contributed to their use, but they also act as barriers to recovery. We can provide better wrap-around care and treatment services by connecting people in recovery with other supportive services. Putting other supports under someone makes a stronger foundation for recovery.

For example, if we were to get a patient that discussed hunger as a problem (inability to purchase food for their family or feed themselves), I would (with permission and consent from the patient) connect them with resources and people who could assist in getting solutions to the hunger problem—a pillar. A network of people and support to make sure that being hungry or feeding a family is not a concern while someone continues the recovery process.

So how would this work with families? Often, family relationships have been damaged or even destroyed through active addiction. Mediation could be an excellent place to set up terms for a new relationship moving forward with recovery.

Family members of an addict often tell them under what terms a relationship is done. “I’m done with you if you steal from me” or, in some cases, “I was done with you when you stole from me.” Similar words and terms were laid out for most patients I worked with. The terms under which a close relationship ended during active addiction were complex for patients to process during recovery. Patients I spoke with were never hesitant about accepting responsibility for their role in the demise, but they were too overcome with guilt and shame to attempt to make amends.

Mediation can be the place where new terms are set. Where families can come together and discuss what needs to happen for them to be a pillar again. It would be gratifying for people suffering from addiction and their families to come together because the best support pillars are those made of our family and friends.