Mar 3, 2022
This week, FASAM Certified Emergency Physician and Medical Director at Oakvine Recovery Center, Dr. Joseph M. Martin, joins Jason and Alex. Dr. Martin got into addiction treatment because he very quickly felt the power and satisfaction that comes with rehabilitating an individual to be reunited with their family. From the beginning, however, he found that "addiction" was not treated the same way across in the board. He explains that, even today, not everyone in the medical community views addiction as a disease and talks about some of the hurdles he has seen because of this. Dr. Martin uses the phrase “dogma dies hard in medicine” and hopes this type of thinking regarding addiction will continue to evolve over the years. One way Dr. Martin has seen these thought processes evolve among those in and out of the medical field, is when an individual has had a first-hand account with the illness, whether directly or indirectly. He explains, without this first-hand struggle with the disease, it can be very difficult to truly understand what a person afflicted with it is going through. Alex and Dr. Martin also discuss how cultural differences can create a problem for addiction treatment as many cultures do not even recognize addiction as a serious ailment. Finally, the group discusses addiction as a whole and how functioning alcoholics may have a difficult time realizing they have a problem. Dr. Martin explains that when the cravings and “thirst” for the substance begin taking precedent over everything important in life (family, faith, health, etc.), that’s when the disease can snowball. Jason gives his own account of this happening to him amid his addiction and, even though in his mind he wanted to stop, he simply didn’t have the ability.
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