Resources

Resources for Information on Mediation

Mediation is a relatively new profession and the regulation of its practitioners and practices is not yet well established. The governing organization in Canada is the Alternative Dispute Resolution Institute of Canada, and of Ontario,  Both these sites have explanations of how to choose a mediator, and what to expect.

Resources for Information on Addiction Therapy

Addiction is a sickness of both the mind and the body, and it is not fully understood. No one kind of support or treatment works for everyone. That’s why there are so many different views on what it is and so very many methods and styles of treatment.

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health is the most important provider of therapy in the Toronto region. CAMH also educates, and is at the forefront of progress towards understanding addictions, and removing the stigma attached to all forms of mental illness.

A source of information and a listing of the treatment resources in the Toronto area is the Drug and Alcohol Resource Line, available 24/7 at 800-565-8603 or www.dart.on.ca.

Alcoholics Anonymous and Cocaine Anonymous are part of the vast network of 12-Step programs, offering immediate contact and support for addicts and their families (there is even specific 12-step program for the adult children of alcoholics, http://www.adultchildren.org/)

For an overview of the 12-step method, links to it’s proponents and detractors, and information about forty-seven different kinds of 12-step "anonymous" groups, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12-step_program.

Addicts suffer from alienation and therefore benefit from the sharing of knowledge. A bibliography of books and articles would be a major project, but here are a few books and articles that you might find interesting:

Intoxication: Universal Drive for Mind Altering Substances, by Robert Siegel, is a serious study of addiction in the animal and insect world. From ants to elephants, there are addicts and damaged societies.

Eric J. Nestler and Robert C. Malenka, “The Addicted Brain,” Scientific American, March 2004, pp. 78-85. This article is good reading for anybody who thinks that “it’s all in your head” means that it isn’t real.

The Tao of Sobriety, by David Gragson and Jay S. Efran, is one in a thousand self-help books, and there are dozens of good ones like this; written in plain language with useful examples.

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