Compassion With Addiction

Carrie Wilkens, PhD, is cofounder and clinical director of the Center for Motivation and Change (CMC). She is coauthor of The Parent’s 20 Minute Guide to Change: A Guide for Parents About How to Help their Children Change their Substance Use, The Partner’s 20 Minute Guide: A Guide for Partners About How to Help their Loved One Change their Substance Use, Beyond Addiction: How Science and Kindness Help People Change, and The Beyond Addiction Workbook for Family and Friends: Evidence-Based Skills to Help a Loved One Make Positive Change. The CMC: Foundation for Change website is cmcffc.org.

Carrie shares that loved ones can support people struggling with substance use with compassion and positive strategies that can help motivate them to change, without enabling or codependency. She describes when substance use may be a problem and that there are a million ways to heal.

00:00 Introduction
01:38 Myth of hitting rock bottom
04:18 Motivation for Change
06:10 Prescription medication and medical marijuana
06:40 Alcohol and nicotine – the most loss of life
07:26 Cannabis availability challenging parents
07:59 Invitation to Change
13:46 Compassion for person with the problem and caregiver
17:41 Mental health – shame and trauma
22:35 Sobriety is a learned behavior
26:12 Recreational use vs. addiction
29:05 Gateway drugs
33:30 Medical marijuana, CBD, and whole plant medicine
37:52 How a loved one can help
42:23 Overdose story
44:57 Positive communication strategies
47:43 Psychic and empathic abilities
52:58 Community building
56:39 Psychedelics and mind expansion
59:40 Conclusion