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Recently, when I was working on a research project as part of a university course looking at how doctors recover from dependent drug use, my fellow students were incredulous. “Addicted doctors? You’re having us on”.
I had to tell them that having a medical degree does not protect you from alcoholism and other drug addiction. Believe me on that one. I had no problem finding volunteers to take part in the research. Sometime I’ll blog on its findings.
This week, the Practitioner Health Programme reported on its first year of operation. A pilot project to address unmet health needs of doctors and dentists living within the M25 area, it has just reported on its first year of operation.
One hundred and eighty four people sought help in that time. Thirty six percent were addicted to alcohol or drugs. They got fast access to high quality treatment. The recovery rate for the period? Eighty percent became and remained abstinent. I know some of these doctors and the turn around in individual lives is breathtaking and moving.
Studies around the world show that doctors get addicted to substances at pretty much the same rates of the general population. What is astonishingly different is that doctors recovery rates are very much higher than the general population. I am always asking myself why that it, and I’m not satisfied with the easy answers. I want to know what we can learn from this success.
No doubt, part of the high success rates is down to high “recovery capital”, or the internal and external resources that doctors can draw on to aid recovery. Not everyone is starting out from the same place.
I’ve already mentioned the quality of treatment the doctors in PHP got, but there’s more. For these addicted doctors there was hope and aspiration from the outset that they would recover. Not in a year or two or a few years, but starting now, with a clear and early goal of abstinence.
For the opiate addicts in the programme, the port of first call was not automatically maintenance methadone as most of their patients would get, but something quite different. The crucial value of mutual aid through Alcoholics Anonymous, Cocaine Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and the support organisation, the British Doctors and Dentists Group is understood by PHP and active referral made.
Having worked with substance dependent people for some time now, I’ve seen the impossible happen and “hopeless” cases recover. In truth, nobody is hopeless.
What would it be like If we offered all addicts access to high quality and intensity treatment focussed on abstinence? If the treatment environment was underpinned by hope and aspiration? What if that treatment were of sufficient duration and had aftercare and “recovery checkups” built in? What if the service actively linked people into recovery communities as a routine measure, not with a leaflet, but by taking or getting someone else to take the person to a meeting?
If we offered all that to those seeking help, would we see higher recovery rates for alcoholics and addicts generally?
Now this is really interesting. I think you have just solved for me a bit of a dilemma as I have been feeling a tad confused lately about where and what I am in the recovery spectrum.
And I now know. I am an out and proud, unashamed ‘recovery capitalist’.
Increase the capital of the addict, sort out a meaningful treatment and aftercare regime, add the support of recovering communities and you are well on the way.
Works for me! I feel a blog coming on.
Brutal truth is accessability to quality care, no waiting lists, no need to jump through the hoops to access recovery or treatment, no stigma, total acceptance and support for your doctors situation, instant availability of help and to top it off your average doctor is intelligent and rational, they accept they need the help readily available to them, finally i doubt any doctor has had to stoop to the level of most addicts to facilitate their desires, sure they don’t struggle to get medication, maybe these are the doctors who’d be willing to give that first line of intervention in my blog “an idea”
Thanks for the comments Tony.
I agree that doctors can often get access to quality care and may not have the same waits that their patients do for treatment, though this is not always the case.
I’ve known many doctors in active addiction and I’d like to make it clear that in my opinion intelligence has little to do with addiction or recovery.
The doctors I’ve come across were no more rational in addiction than anyone else and in fact their denial can be so entrenched (sometimes because of their belief in their intelligence and knowledge of addiction and certainly because we see ourselves as different from our patients) that it makes treatment challenging.
What’s more, I’m afraid they do not generally readily accept the help available to them. They tend to present in crisis at a late stage in adiction. In my study of addicted doctors the reason they came for help in the main was getting caught and being “forced” into treatment by the law or the regulatory body.
And, finally doctors do end up stooping low in addiction too, violating their own value systems and not infrequently getting into trouble with the law or the General Medical Council. Shattered relationships, loss of access to kids, unemployment, debt, divorce, depression are all very common.
I think you are right though. Doctors in recovery have much to offer patients who need to find recovery.
Pucker and mulling blog David, I look back at the start of my journey with recovery and totally honest to all, I had paramedics and doctors and nurses say to me “You can do it, I am a Alcoholic”
It made me really help towards my own recovery, having nearly died – been in hospiyal over 20 times and have respitory arrest once.
David Mccartney pucker comment and I look forward to Michaeals forth coming blog on this subject.
I think this is conclusive proof of the theory of recovery capital. I am fortunate enough to know a handful of people that have experienced “natural recovery”. The common factor that links them all is that they all found decent jobs and stayed in stable relationships.
A successful career, or the chance of a successful career, is surely the biggest motivating factor for maintaining recovery. Sure, the support of employers, colleagues, friends and family all help. But I think a huge part of your identity is the job that you do
This is a fascinating blog. I’m hardly surprised tho as Professionals are people just like the rest of us. I expect they also have easier access to prescription drugs like methadone, opioid painkillers, benzos, etc, than most of us, which if tempted, could be easily exploited.
The fact that their recovery rate is far higher than the general population is interesting… You can’t escape the addict mentality whether you sweep the floors or carry out brain transplants daily. here tho i tend to agree with Tony A (once again, never met you Tony but i agree with you again)…. Doctors (for example) are a cut above the rest of us…. not just in terms of intelligence and rationale but also dog eared determination and will power. You don’t get a doctorate without serious intellect combined with willpower and determination….. all of which bode well for recovery.
Good blog Dave!
Thanks for your reply and i stand corrected, it’s great to read a professional perspective and be able to understand what their saying, i would of liked a doctor like you when i needed help, going to keep an eye on your blogs as i like what you say and how you say it, from a won over cynic.
Am new to site, peapod are you a doctor as well? wonderful if so. Just read Tony A,s comment.
sorry ignore that comment, read your comment peapod properly.
Really interesting.
