Addiction is often perceived as a weakness, lack of will power, or a choice. It isn’t. Addiction is a brain disease. It is also a family disease that requires a holistic family approach to treat.

Join Yael for an important discussion with the authors of The Complete Family Guide To Addiction: Everything You Need To Know Now To Help Your Loved One And Yourself. This discussion explores the nature of addiction and evidence-based approaches to responding to a family member or friend in ways that heal the disease, yourself, and your relationship with your loved one.

Listen and Learn:

What addiction is and what addiction is not

Why addiction is a family disease

How our usual way of responding might reinforces our loved one’s addictive behavior

How Community Reinforcement and Family Training (CRAFT) and positive reinforcement facilitates healing

Practical tips to care for yourself while supporting your loved one during treatment.

About Thomas Harrison and Dr. Hillary Connery:

Thomas Harrison is an author who has spent many years as a legal editor and publisher translating highly complex and technical information into simple English. After a close friend developed a substance use disorder, he realized the need for someone to translate the complicated and technical knowledge of addiction research into practical language for family members and friends struggling to cope with the challenges of addiction. Thomas is also the author of The Family Addiction Guidebook.

Hillary Connery, MD, PhD is the Clinical Director of the Substance Use Disorders Division at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. She is also an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard University and the New England Director for the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry. Dr. Connery contributed to the American Psychiatric Association Practice Guidelines for the treatment of substance use disorders and specializes in treating opioid use disorders and co-occurring mental illness and substance use disorders.

Resources:

The Complete Family Guide to Addiction: Everything You Need to Know Now to Help Your Loved One and Yourself by Thomas Harrison and Hillary Connery, Ph.D., M.D.

The Family Addiction Guidebook by Thomas Harrison

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