Metahabilitation: Transforming Life Crises: A Story of Enhanced Recovery Involving Addiction and Dependency

Abstract

Individuals experience crisis when their estimation of resources needed to successfully manage traumatic situations such as addiction and dependency is greater than their perception of resources available. Some recovery models are limited in their perspective on enhanced outcomes, failing to put the individual in a position of strength and on the path to a positive, more meaningful future. Rehabilitation can be too general, failing to incorporate personal experiences of trauma into the therapeutic plan. Recovery models must address these insufficiencies and promote an individual's biological, psychological, and spiritual abilities to transform and experience higher levels of functioning - actually brought about by traumas and personal life crises such as addictions and dependencies. These conditions become vehicles, providing opportunities to creatively restructure the self and find significant existential meaning. A heuristic study revealed insights into advanced recovery. The results identified limitations of current rehabilitative models and informed the development of the unique recovery concept and process: metahabilitation. A case study provides an overview and shows the model as it applies to addiction and dependency.