NCJ Number
144060
Date Published
1993
Length
181 pages
Annotation
Written for drug abuse and mental health professionals who work with clients with alcohol or other drug problems, this volume relates concepts from major theories of human development to the problem of addiction and discusses how a developmental perspective can contribute to the understanding and treatment of alcoholism and drug abuse.
Abstract
The text emphasizes that an individual's development can be affected by the use of alcohol or drugs or by parental drug abuse, that addictions have their own developmental course, and that recovery is also a developmental process that has identifiable stages. The author explains how to identify the stages of recovery and select appropriate interventions for every phase of treatment. Practical treatment strategies are presented to help clinicians recognize developmental deficits and developmental blocks in recovering clients, delayed reactions to child sexual abuse or other childhood trauma, the stages in individual and family recovery from alcoholism or drug dependence, the intergenerational transmission of addiction in multiproblem families, and developmental issues in the professional's own life. Index and chapter notes and reference lists