People use and have always used drugs, whether or not other people think they should, say Patt Denning, Jeannie Little and Adina Glickman in “Over the Influence: The Harm Reduction Guide for Managing Drugs and Alcohol” (Guilford, $16.95). And some people develop life-shattering problems on account of that use.
Twelve-step programs help some but far from all of their participants, and as many as 80 percent of substance abusers never participate. Unwilling to write off the millions of people who haven’t succeeded with traditional programs, Denning, Little and Glickman advocate a “harm reduction” approach that does not view addiction as a disease. They see it, instead, as a situation that can be managed to a point where the addict does less harm to himself and others.
Rather than focus on total abstinence, the authors urge that more attention be paid to the reasons people use drugs and alcohol in the first place, and address the underlying mental-health needs. The authors are therapists with long experience in drug treatment programs in the San Francisco area.
On taking a step backward: “Relapsing doesn’t mean you didn’t work hard enough. It means the plan was flawed or not complete enough to take into account all possible pitfalls.”
