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Families Navigating Addiction & Recovery


May 1, 2019

“Recovery is a practice of love.” -Dr. Michael McGee

 

Indeed! The one thing that love can change is everything. That is true as well in recovery.  Without it, the only change that can happen is from bad to worse. In your journey, have you ever felt that things aren’t working out? Maybe our guest, Dr. Michael McGee can help. Growing up in a wounded family with an alcoholic father, an addicted brother and an abusive mother, Dr. Michael McGee felt broken and unloved. To get the love he earnestly desired, he became addicted to achievements, only to find that renouncing his ability to love under this pretence is a dark bottomless pit. His road to recovery brought him to where he is now- the Chief Medical Officer of The Haven, an addictions treatment facility based in California. With over 30 years of serving in the addiction field, he has already done researches that can help in spirituality and recovery. He is also an author and a geriatric, medical and general adult psychiatrist. And today, he’s going expand the definition of addiction and recovery in terms of integrating spirituality into modern medical treatment.

 

Addiction is a disease of habit, gratification and relief- the opposite of love. So in order to maintain our capacity to love and show unconditional kindness we must understand that being behind the eight ball doesn’t give us a pass to treat recovery as a hopeless endeavour. This is why, Dr McGee’s core principles for family members with a loved one at any stage of addiction or recovery can be a turnaround. Learn more about his six core principles to help get your loved ones sober. As he spills the beans of recovery, do not be surprised by how simple things like keeping yourself safe and maintaining vitality can affect your loved ones. On top of that, know how to properly reinforce a desired behaviour by knowing when to give rewards and when to take them away. Surely, you don’t want to shield your loved one from the consequences of their actions as that can thwart any progress you have made. So remember that whatever you do, a combination of hope and a therapeutic dose of pain is a transformative force for healing. Discover why holding them accountable can help them to behave at a level of functioning which they are capable. But of course, when our loved one does not respond favourably to our efforts, it can be a total bummer. Dr. McGee can give us advice in that area too. Also included in our table today: how healers can heal themselves. Don’t miss these and other valuable gems inside today’s episode.

 

Get the show notes, transcription and resources mentioned at http://thefamilyrecoverysolution.com/

 

Highlights:

04:12 50 Cents

09:50 Addiction and How It Consumes the Capacity to Love

19:40 An Advice for Healers

20:59 Six Core Principles to Help Loved Ones Get Sober

31:00 Destigmatizing the Neutral Language of Codependency