Answering the question WHY CRAFT WORKS:
CRAFT works first, because it understands substance abuse holistically in the context of family, community, and work. People do not use substances in a vacuum. Their relationships impact their substance abuse, and their substance abuse impacts their relationships.
This is also an important statement to understanding CRAFT in my opinion.. Commonly family and friends are told there is no connection between their relationships and their partners substance abuse.. this concept supports the idea family cant help, because family has no impact… again, supports the fact there is nothing family can do but detach and wait for the person to hit their rock bottom..
However I think many people understand instinctively relationships do have power, what’s lost is how to harness that power and have a positive impact on our loved one.
CRAFT recognizes most family and friends, for their part, have good intentions, good instincts, and a healthy desire to help. CRAFT treats the problems families face as a deficit in skills rather than the disease of codependency. These skills can be learned
** I like this point too Blue. I never felt comfortable with the label of codependency, it just never fit me, or my situation **
The other concept that makes CRAFT work I think is the idea of CHANGE. Realizing “just stopping” substance abuse isn’t really a sustainable goal.. the question then turns to “what promotes staying stopped”.
As family and friends… we are asked to look at WHY our loved ones use.. our loved one specifically.. because all people are different … drug use affects the reward centers of the brain and fills a need. So what is the reward they give themselves by using? And how can we use the knowledge we have of our loved ones to help promote other alternatives that fill that same need.
Through CRAFT:
1. We learn the WHY is key to change
2. We learn positive communication, reinforcement strategies, and problem solving skills to transform the relationship with our loved ones, and our own life.
3. We will learn about the treatment systems, medications available to help our loved ones
4. We will learn how to take better care of ourselves
5. We will learn to make peace with what we cannot change