TRAINING SUMMARY

AUTHOR:Sheila Grantham

TOPIC:Understanding Addiction: An Aboriginal Perspective, Rod Jeffries

DATES:May, 2006

  • Throughout many generations Aboriginal peoples have been faced with silence and shame.
  • To see the generations affected by alcoholism try creating a genogram and mark down all the people within your family dealing with alcoholism. Sometimes it will be noticed that grandparents were affected, then the parents are not, but their children may be.

Rod then asked everyone to name one strength they have in keeping the family together (mine was being a moderator and not taking sides)

  • Rod says that we always talk of weaknesses and we need to focus on our strengths and the 7 grandfather teachings
  • There is a current normalization of alcoholism (so much so that its not talked about enough)
  • If we are going to achieve self-government we need to be well and deal with past traumas first.
  • Its ok to share and that allows others to share with you. It is when our spirit connects with others when we can do a lot more work together. This is something service providers should keep in mind.
  • Connection is key (especially with ourselves).

Rod then went through the roles of the community through group participation. He discussed the child's role as highly respected and protected; the mothers role as caregiver of the children; the grandmothers and grandfathers role as keepers of wisdom and teachers of the children; the men's role as the warriors. The child was everyone's responsibility.

  • After 1492, many things happened including- disease, Christianity, the outlawing of customs and traditions (and as medicines and traditions left we were unable to heal ourselves), and the reserves (through lack of mobility and dependence on non-traditional foods men went through shame and depression, frustrations turning to alcoholism and violence- which became a means of coping). Due to all of these changes communities became chaotic but they still stayed together. Government then introduced residential schools to try to separate the children from their families. Once children were stolen women began to drink due to the pain felt and grandmothers felt hopeless.
  • A lot of cultural self-hate began due to residential schools.
  • Since the break-up of community our focus has been on money (especially the men). Alcohol has also been the focus, as well as technology, computers, cell phones.
  • The mothers generally have taken the role of front line workers, whereas grandmothers and grandfathers do not have meaningful roles anymore. Children are wondering around lost, plagued with suicide and gangs. Our young people are carrying around 500 years of oppression.
  • The AA model used to be used as a solution to Aboriginal addictions. Over the years people started examining trauma as a source of addictions.

Rod then started asking everyone what are different types of addictions and he pin-pointed a lot of the addictions he sees in communities- gambling, sex, smoking, food, alcohol, drugs, working, TV.

  • The largest percentage of reported AIDS cases derives from IDU's
  • Rather than dealing with issues we tend to hide behind culture claiming its traditional. We need to examine if it is traditional or does it have its roots in dysfunction/oppression.
  • What is under addictions that needs to be addressed?
  • Addictions are those activities that harm the self and others around you.
  • What happens when we get triggered? We turn to addictions

Afternoon Session

  • "Trauma is a process of depersonalization- stripping away personhood, individual humanity, especially strong when senseless or preventable". (Lanore Terr)
  • Trauma occurred because of huge loss of family and community.
  • Children always blame themselves because of trauma (residential schools).
  • "Trauma happens when emotions are stimulated and releases of emotions are blocked." (Jane-Middleton-Maz)
  • In residential schools children were punished for crying, therefore there was no emotional release.
  • Traumas and losses can be- sexual abuse, loss of identity, illness, dislocation from community/family, pride, spirituality, forced assimilation, death, misdiagnosis (TB inoculations), profiling and biases, loss of a way of life, forced relocations, sterilization, loss of respect for Aboriginal women
  • Jealously is comparing yourself to somebody else and losing
  • Have we talked about all these losses? What do our children know?
  • When a trauma has not been talked about or resolved the impact will carry on
  • Impact of sexual abuse- results in warped views of sex, have lots of sex/not a lot, may view sex as power.
  • What views will be past on about sex? Impacts get worse with each generation.
  • Secrets- it’s the conspiracy of silence that’s hurting us.
  • What do we do when something is not working for us? Because of our inability to express ourselves we go to addictions. We need to deal with pain and hurts through a lot of grieve work. We need to talk about our losses and experiences.
  • "The profile of mental disorders among Aboriginal people is primarily a by-product of colonial past with its layered assaults on Aboriginal cultures and personal identities." (RCAP
  • Impact of unresolved trauma on the community:

-Isolation: not connecting with others physically or emotionally

-Lateral violence (the oppressed now the oppressor): the act of violence on eachother through physical assaults, belittling, gossip, controlling. The oppressed commit later violence to feel power.

-Learned Helplessness: this happens when a person has felt reoccurring trauma (most likely as a child).

-Blame: blaming everyone for everything.

-Shame: is the feeling deep within our being that makes us want to hide. It is the feeling of being unworthy, unwanted and unlovable…shame is the feeling of constantly being judged internally and externally. We need to ask ourselves what do we need to do to become stronger, this is more productive then shaming.

  • Grief facilitator went to a highschool and asked the youth what they did to get over grief and the youth replied "get drunk".
  • We need to examine what are actions are teaching our children.
  • Grief is the response we have when we experience significant loss of someone or something special to us. It is a natural systems movement towards restoring wholeness.
  • Characteristics of delayed grief:

-a chronic feeling of numbness or detachment

-fixed rage

-addictions (clear sign of unresolved grief issues)

-learned helplessness

-vicarious grieving (using other peoples grief instead of your own)

-isolation

-periodic depression (unexpressed anger. Anger is a natural part of the grief cycle)

-avoidance of situations that may trigger loss

-compulsive behaviours (gambling, workaholism)

-repetitive patterns in relationships

-nightmares or difficulty sleeping

-chronic sabotage (sabotage yourself or never allowing yourself to be successful)

  • People may act out or grieve certain things (i.e. loss of language), but not know it
  • To break the cycle work on yourself, create strong foundation for your kids. Strong identity and family is important.
  • There is not such thing as being healed until you pass over.
  • Recovery comes into play when triggers come and you know what to do.
  • Deal with small things at the start, you gain strength, then deal with larger issues (sometimes things are too scary to deal with all at once)
  • Alkali Lake had a huge success rate with sobriety, but then they started going downhill again because trauma and grief was not examined.

We split up into groups and examined two ways to deal with grief and two ways to prevent grief. My group found two to be interconnected and some things we thought of was to find a place where you can vent (preferably outside), have someone you can talk to (possibly an elder), go to a sweat, attend a talking circle, be comfortable with yourself. In terms of prevention, the family is really important. Talking about past traumas and not passing issues onto your children.