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Some Definitions of Terms Which Will Be Used:
- ADDICTION
- Refers both to the physical craving for a chemical and to
the psychological learned behavior in which the person develops
a primary relationship (i.e. it comes before everything else)
with a chemical.
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- AFTERCARE
- Continuation of the recover process begun in treatment for
the chemically dependent and his/her family. Family members may
be involved in a variety of aftercare programs such as A.A.,
Al-Anon, alateen, growth groups, family groups, peer groups.
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- ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS (AA), AL-ANON, ALATEEN
- Anonymous fellowship which provides gathering places for
chemically dependent persons (AA), their spouses and other adult
relatives (Al-Anon), and their children (Alateen) who recognize
their need for support in maintaining individual recovery programs.
Narcotics Anonymous provides a similar structure for recovering
addicts.
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- CHEMICAL DEPENDENCY
- Illness which is characterized by addiction to a mood-altering
chemical and is primary, progressive, chronic, and fatal unless
arrested. It is a "feeling disease" which affects the
entire family (See FAMILY DISEASE)
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- CO-DEPENDENT
- Family members and other concerned persons affected by chemical
dependency.
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- CONFRONTING
- Telling another person how we see them behaving.
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- CONGRUENT
- Allowing outside expressions and behavior to match inside
feelings.
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- CONTROLLING
- Being responsible for others (instead of to them). Needing
to control others' behavior in order to feel better about one's
reactions to that person; needing others to act and feel in certain
ways to avoid facing reality and feeling pain about it.
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- DEFENSES
- Specific behaviors used to protect, to keep others away,
to keep from having to feel, or from letting others know what
we feel. Broad categories: blaming, placating, intellectualizing,
avoiding, silence.
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- DELUSION
- Defense system of denial, rationalization, projection which
keeps one from seeing reality. It is experienced by the chemically
dependent person as well as those around him/her; outside help
is necessary to break through the defense system before delusion
is recognized and recovery can begin.
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- DRY DRUNK
- Behavior exhibited by a chemically dependent person who is
not using chemicals, but is experiencing difficulty coping with
life with out them. Characterized often by grandiose, judgmental,
impatient, and intolerant attitude, defensive lifestyle, tunnel
vision.
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- DYSFUNCTIONAL SYSTEM
- Family or group which communicates defensively within itself-reaction
to one another unpredictable ways, each member locked into a
survival role which perpetuates the system. One or more members
must risk breaking out of his/her role and/or breaking the rules
of the system for change to take place.
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- ENABLING
- Allowing irresponsible and destructive behavior patterns
to continue by taking responsibility for others, not allowing
them to face the consequences of their own actions. (Helping,
fixing, placating, ignoring - fall into this category).
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- FAMILY DISEASE
Chemical dependency is a family disease because the family is
unable to get "separateness" from the chemical problem.
In its communication within itself as well as in its responses
to the outside world, the entire family revolves around the chemically
dependent person, whose life, in turn, revolves around a chemical;
thus family members become Co-Dependents.
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- HALFWAY HOUSE
- Residence for those who need daily support and confrontation
as they restructure their lives as chemically free members of
society.
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- HARMFUL DEPENDENCY
- Continuing to use a chemical despite evidence that it is
causing continued disruption in an individual's personal, social,
spiritual, or economic life.
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- INTERVENTION
- Carefully planned meeting in which those closest to a chemically
dependent person, having recognized signs of the disease, present
data about about the dependent's behavior to him/her, state their
concern for his/her welfare, and encourage the person to seek
help. The process is rehearsed and presented to the person in
a gentle but firm manner.
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- LETTING GO
- Realizing that another person's behavior is out of our control.
Giving up the fight to gain control.
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- LEVELING
- Telling another person how we feel, using techniques designed
to promote communication and reduce feelings of friction.
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- LOCKED IN
- Being unable to stop reaction to others; using defenses compulsively,
and manipulating compulsively.
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- NURTURING SYSTEM
Family or group whose members have high self-worth, communicate
openly and honestly share excitement in spontaneous interaction
with one another and the outside world.
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- RECOVERY PROGRAM
- Change in attitude and behavior which becomes a new lifestyle;
live one day at a time.
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- SURVIVAL ROLES
- Behavior adopted by family members in an attempt to maintain
equilibrium in a dysfunctional system. (See DEFENSES)
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- TREATMENT
- Program in which the chemically dependent person and his/her
family begin the process of recovery from the disease. Each member
receives information about the disease, recognizes his/her participation
in the disease by examining past and present behavior in group
or individual therapy. The family then works together to develop
a nurturing system.
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