Our Mission Statement: “To reveal the enormous potential in every human being and help them tap into their own resourcefulness.”
We often fail to reach our potential because of the way we process negative life experiences. We suffer an emotional injury and cling to whatever brings relief. Our chosen strategy often reduces our quality of life by preventing us from living in accordance with our values. The importance of being true to ourselves is hard to accept if we deny its existence or minimize its value, and attachment to our habitual behaviours usually drives our willful blindness. At work, these behaviours might involve withdrawal, presenteeism, absenteeism, tardiness, uncommunicativeness, workaholism, perfectionism, conflict avoidance, cynicism or defensiveness. In the home, they might manifest in excessive screen time, zoning out, avoiding emotionally loaded topics, reduced affection, over-committing to outside obligations, emotional unavailability, procrastination, excessive gaming and emotional outbursts.
If these behaviours become entrenched, we often lack the tools required to see through the veil they draw over our eyes to what lies beyond. In this case, the companionship of another is useful in moving us from our current location to one that feels simple, sustainable and right for us. Whether this journey passes through physical or mental space, a coach helps us get from one point to another, be it a stagecoach, motorcoach or a supportive peer coach.
The advantage of the peer coach (our specialty) is in the status equality of the relationship. Instead of telling the client what to do, as a counsellor or psychologist might, the coach creates flashes of clarity by drawing on the coachee’s own experience and insights, using these to create a personal transformation plan. This approach gives the coachee autonomy over their future direction and avoids the resistance that so often manifests in hierarchical relationships. It also helps coachees navigate home and workplace challenges, identify the deficits that underly them and establish healthier coping strategies.
Some of the behaviours mentioned above are described colloquially as addictions (including excessive gaming and screen time) but a more formal definition of addiction can be found in the American Psychological Associations Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), as we reveal in the following section. While our work helps resolve most behavioural challenges it is in the field of substance abuse that it excels.
Addiction
Our contemporary media landscape presents the subject of addiction using some pretty stark imagery. Homeless people living in tents, groups huddled in doorways smoking (something), the inhabitants of jail cells or even inscriptions on gravestones. These are the stereotypical image associations that often arouse judgment and condemnation. But addiction finds much broader expression in the general population.
Clinical diagnoses
The American Psychological Association (APA) is responsible for establishing criteria for the clinical diagnosis of addictions. Their approach is a conservative one, in order to avoid pathologizing normal human behaviours. In that regard, 2013’s DSM-5 includes only one behavioural addiction—gambling. It also identifies the following substance addictions:
- Alcohol
- Caffeine (withdrawal only; no full use disorder diagnosis)
- Cannabis
- Hallucinogens (e.g., LSD, psilocybin)
- Inhalants
- Opioids
- Sedatives, hypnotics, anxiolytics
- Stimulants (e.g., cocaine, amphetamines)
- Tobacco
- Other / unknown substances
The behaviours it refrains from classifying as addictions include:
- Internet addiction
- Social media addiction
- Pornography / sex addiction
- Shopping / buying addiction
- Food addiction
- Exercise addiction
- Work addiction
These are often discussed as addictions by society in general, but are avoided by the APA due to the lack of clarity in diagnostic boundaries and concern about moral or cultural bias. We can, however, still discuss these behaviours under the umbrella term addiction, while giving the individuals themselves (and those who care about them) freedom to make the evaluation. This becomes especially relevant if we consider addictions as any habitual behaviour that:
- Brings harm to the individual or others
- Persists, despite attempted abstinence
A Broader Perspective
We can revisit our stereotypical assumptions about those with substance use disorders by considering other populations, like the invisible addict. This could be the successful professional who is able (for a while) to indulge their habit surreptitiously and cloak their damage-control activities in a veil of lies. This was the experience of Gordon Lownds, CEO of Sleep Country, Canada’s largest bed and mattress store. For a period in the 1990’s, Lownds successfully juggled his corporate responsibilities with his addiction to crack cocaine.
Gordon Lownds
He always got the job done, and his habit would have gone undiscovered were it not for the increasing exhaustion he experienced during each of his attempts at reform. He only escaped this vicious cycle with the help of a 12-Step program and the support of medical professionals who helped him overcome his underlying issues. He certainly did not fit the usual profile of a crack user. He could have benefited from the help of a recovery coach, had that designation existed at the time.
Another stereotype we should examine is that of the recovering user. In his autobiography, Glenn Hughes (bass player and vocalist with Deep Purple) discusses his history of relapse in the period following the completion of his 12-Step program. Before this turning point, he framed the magnitude of his drug habit with the phrase “using to oblivion”, making his infrequent use during recovery (in his eyes) a forgivable sin.
Glenn Hughes
The impact of his behaviour on relationships during this period was minimized by hiding it from family, friends, fellow recoverees and sponsors. He only used once every few weeks, but saw this as a continuing manifestation of his old habit. Although we think of addicts as those with constant insurmountable cravings, the infrequent user can be equally ensnared. This includes the binge user who might indulge weekly, monthly or even every few months. All these can be classified as grey-area users who can benefit from exploring, with a recovery coach, the why behind their use. This almost always leads to fuller self-understanding, self-acceptance and a sense of peace.
Rock-Bottom as a Starting Point for Recovery
Lownds and Hughes represent those who eventually hit rock bottom, the point at which the costs imposed on them by their habit exceeded the benefits it provided. Without input from those who care, this is the default turning point, but there is a cultural shift underway in this regard.
Accepting rock bottom as the starting point of the recovery journey disempowers both the addict and those in their social orbit. This is perplexing for those who understand that early interventions avoid long-lasting, destructive outcomes. The challenge here is that only the addict can decide when to let go, and nobody can make this decision for them. The evidence shows that non-consensual or forced treatments are ineffective. This is where motivational interviewing comes to the fore. In treating each individual as autonomous and resourceful, the MI practitioner helps the client discover their own solutions.
A Cost Benefit Analysis
An accurate cost-benefit analysis cannot be undertaken without understanding the impact of both cost and benefit. This lack of understanding impedes the grey-area (functional) user's recovery journey. Being ignorant of the joy of a life free from their fuel of choice, they have little reason to curtail their consumption. It is also easy to see abstinence or reduced consumption as all give and no gain. At the same time, without understanding the costs of using they are unable to weigh these against the benefits.
Canada’s Low Risk Alcohol Drinking Guidelines
Some costs can be assessed in terms of risk. In 2023, the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction released a new risk management framework. Since 2011 the Canadian Government had provided separate safe alcohol consumption guidelines for men and women. These were based on a weekly maximum number of drinks for each gender based on standardised volumes of Beer, Wine and Spirits. The new guidelines abandoned the idea that any level of alcohol intake is safe and presented a continuum of risk from 0 drinks per week to 7+. Consuming 3 or more drinks per week increases the risk of developing several types of cancer, while 7 or more drinks per week also raises the risk of heart disease and stroke.
This perspective increases the resolution of the data available for conducting a cost-benefit analysis. It also corrects the erroneous late 20th-Century finding that moderate alcohol consumption is good for you. This approach is not a call to abstinence, but it does give those who partake a means of managing consumption based on risk. Everyone is free to take that risk, but others may enjoy the opportunity to reassess their drinking habits while they have difficulty in reducing their intake. This is where we can help.
The benefits of reduced quantity and frequency include better sleep, improved performance in the absence of daytime drinking, less afternoon drowsiness from lunchtime consumption, peace of mind on the health front, a reduction in gastro-intestinal reactivity for some (especially GERD), improved physical fitness and a reduction in frequency/severity of hangover symptoms. Other substances have their own cost/benefit profiles that become apparent to the user should they consider their own experience in detail.
In Conclusion
For the majority, substance use is a normal part of the culture at large. There is no harm in the occasional drink. Others exist in a grey-area, where they remain functional but less productive and less relationally real. People in this zone, and those with full-blown dependency, may have a desire to escape but lack the motivation and support to do so. They may also see the involvement of family and outside parties as impinging on their autonomy. Recovery coaching was designed to give such individuals a non-threatening place to explore the creation of their best life on their own terms.
0 Comments