Addiction, Imbalance, and the Family

One of the benefits of living and writing during the digital age is the easy access that exists to information from various and sundry media outlets. This tends to make education--not to mention psycho-education used in clinical treatment--more engaging.  Such is the case regarding the short video, “Balance.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wJj58aLvdQ). 

I use this video to facilitate discussions related to addiction in the family, homeostasis, etc. Notice how

as the film begins, the “family” works together to maintain balance whenever one its member “moves.” In class, we discuss this in the context of altruism being the primary motivating factor among the various members as regards their motivation for acting. As the video progresses, however—and the film is only 7-minutes long, so the progression is rather obvious—altruism gives way to self-interest, egoism, and ultimately, selfishness.The discussion really becomes interesting when considering the “trunk” as addiction with its “contents” being the curious, alluring “something” that becomes so beguiling. I find the video an interesting “visual metaphor” in its usefulness as an icebreaker.

At the end of the class in which I use this videos—entitled, Addiction and the Family: The Anatomy of an Imbalance and Chaotic System—I show the 2-part video (about 17-min total), Man on the Back (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0m9iu6O3dg). I process the first video before showing the second part (about 7-min) and then we process the entire video in the context of the lecture following its conclusion - you may access the second part of the video by clicking its link to the right on the screen of Part I. This is always a crowd pleaser and generates no end of comments…even though the entire video is in Icelandic with English subtitles! All sorts of interesting discussion results from this screening...enabling, “co-dependence,” addiction, etc. NOTE: Both videos linked here can produce equally spirited discussion regarding other disorders and stressors besides SUDs; it is all in the “lead in comments" the facilitator makes and the discussion that follows. 

A third “series” of videos (10, 10-min videos) that is useful in “understanding addiction,” especially alcohol dependence, is entitled, “Rain in my heart” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP0InrPZpjg)  This is a BBC documentary that is quite graphic and extremely realistic in its depiction of the impact of alcohol dependence, on both the drinker and the drinker’s significant others. This video is not a “metaphor” for anything and certainly is not “entertaining” as the previously cited videos may be viewed by some. This is a frank, “hard-hitting” look at the impact of chronic alcoholism, and a “must-see” for professional counselors and those going into the medical professions.

Should you "screen" one or more of these videos, please feel free to leave your comments on them and their use.

Dr. Robert