New medication, drug, and alcohol use guideline- please read
Hello Addiction Community!
We have recently updated our Community Guidelines to clarify what is allowed to be disclosed regarding medication, drugs and alcohol use. Our goal is to make it easier for members to seek support and share their stories without stigma or shame.
These updated guidelines have been implemented site-wide, but we wanted to highlight them particularly for the Addiction Community as we believe these changes will be especially helpful for members seeking help for addiction or substance abuse.
The new guidelines state:
*Giving medical advice is not permitted. Medication and drug names may be shared, but precise dosages or suggestions to take specific medications may not.
*Discussion of alcohol and sobriety is allowed in the context of sharing their story and seeking support, however listeners must be sober while using a listener account.
In the group support rooms, we used to have a red flag warning for anyone that enters the room not sober. With these updated guidelines, members are allowed to participate while they are not sober as long as they are not disrupting any discussions or mentioning specific details about substance use such as graphic details about how drugs are administered, specific dosages or amounts theyve taken, risky practices such as combining multiple drugs, glorifying addictions, etc. Please note that Listeners must still be sober at all times and this rule only applies to Members.
A good rule of thumb is to approach addictions from a neutral perspective, neither condoning nor condemning them, but rather meeting the group where they are at, focusing on how they are feeling in regards to their addictions, pointing out their strengths and things they've done well, along with encouraging them to identify resources they have in their lives and to seek support at their own pace. Focusing exclusively on the negatives and lecturing a person with an addiction on what they should and shouldnt be doing can actually backfire and cause them to feel less capable and motivated. Its important to highlight strengths and praise group members for their efforts instead of dwelling on whats gone wrong or debating with them about why their addiction is wrong.
Please let us know if you have any questions about these updated guidelines or how they apply to the Addiction Support Community!
@Kate @Laura @Power @Heather225
@Jill7cups Yay, outstanding update! Thanks so much for the clarification. :)
@lovelyWhisper66 thanks to @kate for leading this change in the guidelines!
@Jill7Cups Thank you for posting! It would make sense to change it in the Addiction Subcommunity guidelines too, right?
@MelAllyouneedislove yes!
@Jill7cups as someone who struggles with addiction this change is welcome.
@Jill7cups These are spectacular. Thank you so much for the update and for the hard work you do here!!
@ChassyMom this was very much a team effort based on community feedback!
I'm so happy to see this change made; especially since trying to talk about certain addictions, without being to talk about them by names, ended up being very confusing and unhelpful when trying to give or receive support.
Pllus, since these were some of the changes that I went out of my way to write up and leave to them as suggests around 6 months ago. I'm really happy to see that it appears they are still listening to what the concerns are on the ground. Although this change took longer than I'd have liked, that was to be expected from a large organization, who tend to always do things slowly. Overall I'm very happy about this change, and I am hoping it makes the addiction sub-forum clearer, more easily understandable; and further that we won't have to deal as often with passages from posts needing to be stricken out.
