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Days of Harmony is also an extremely valuable opportunity for people currently in treatment at Harmony. “The current clients get to ask the visiting alumni questions. We found this to be super beneficial for both the alumni and the clients,” says Miller. “The clients in early recovery get an idea where they may be headed. They get insights into what might be in store for them. In the early days of treatment, many of them are not even sure recovery is possible, so it’s an important glimpse of hope for them. They meet with people who went through treatment and managed to stay sober—that gives them the belief that they can do it as well.”

Typical questions asked by clients are: “Have you been able to repair relationships? How did you disclose to your employer that you were in treatment? How did you explain that you’re in recovery and need Fridays off to go to a meeting? What do you do for fun?”

“They get first-hand knowledge of what life in recovery can look like outside of treatment,” explains Miller. “The fantastic thing is that both current clients and alumni benefit from Days of Harmony. I’ve heard amazing things from alumni, they say that the encounters really reinvigorate their own recovery journey. By coming back to Harmony, they get to see how much they have grown. They meet people still in treatment and realize how much they have improved themselves.”

“Everybody benefits, clients, alumni, and even our staff—they get to see what their hard work achieved, they get to see people they have helped doing well.”

If you or a loved one are struggling with alcohol or drug addiction, or you have questions about our programs, call us today at (970) 432-8075 to get the help needed as soon as possible. Our experienced staff is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

• Braving the Wilderness by Brené Brown
• The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer 
• The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin 

“The goal is to expose our alumni to multiple pathways of finding inspiration,” says Miller. “In early recovery, some people may think they can only do Recovery Dharma, they can only do 12-Step meetings, or they can only do SMART Recovery when it comes to support groups. What I really love about the book club is that it shows people that inspiration and ideas can come from anywhere and they can incorporate those ideas into their recovery journey.”

It’s also an opportunity for participants to spark different kinds of conversations. “We talk about everything from the food we eat to emotions we experience, or new hobbies.”

The latest book the club is looking at is Jay Shetty’s Think Like a Monk. “This book was recommended by one of our alumni who has been attending the group consistently. He actually re-engaged with alumni programming through our book club. He was sober for about a year after treatment and then relapsed. He wanted to relaunch his recovery and wanted to re-engage with Harmony and he found the book club to do just that!”

He also reconnected with the Harmony Hub and rejoined Harmony’s alumni meetings but it was the book club that really got him back on track. “Shetty has a podcast called ‘On Purpose’ where he talks about all kinds of health, wellness, and spiritual matters. The cool thing is, that everything Shetty talks about in the book is parallel to what we experience in sobriety and recovery,” explains Miller. “He provides easy-to-do steps and he asks great questions. Every chapter we read, there is some nugget – all the books we’ve read so far can be read and re-read. Take it back down from the bookshelf and something new can be learned.”

Books can be great sources of inspiration and information when read on your own. But the experience is enhanced when you discuss the book with like-minded readers. “There is something that solidifies the information coming from a book when you talk about it and get another person’s take. That way, it tends to stick with you a little bit longer,” says Miller.

If you or a loved one are struggling with alcohol or drug addiction, or you have questions about our programs, call us today at (970) 432-8075 to get the help needed as soon as possible. Our experienced staff is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

In a recent webinar for Harmony Foundation, behavioral healthcare specialist Zina Rodriguez talked about providing culturally responsive treatment to the BIPOC community. The acronym BIPOC stands for black, indigenous, and people of color. Rodriguez is CEO and co-founder of Z&D Consulting whose mission is to create inviting and inclusive healing spaces for individuals to achieve mental wellness while creating pathways for success for people from underrepresented communities.

“Why the title ‘Can you see us?’” Rodriquez asked at the beginning of her presentation. Members of the BIPOC community and their culture are often invisible and overlooked in research, she explained.

Culture may be defined as the behaviors, values, and beliefs shared by a group of people such as an ethnic, racial, geographical, religious, gender, class, or age group. Everyone belongs to multiple cultural groups so each individual is a blend of many influences.

Many white people have tried to counter discrimination of other cultures and racism with expressions such as “I don’t see color,” erroneously assuming that would be a helpful approach. But what really happens when you tell someone you don’t see color? “It can feel like ‘I’m choosing to ignore this part of you because that makes me more comfortable,’ it can feel like a casual dismissal,” said Rodriguez. “It’s not only okay to see color, but it’s necessary. And it’s necessary to see it through an anti-racist lens.”

In order to be able to provide culturally responsive treatment to the BIPOC community, therapists need cultural humility—being prepared to learn and not assume to know other cultures. We live in a multicultural society with an increasing demand for care. That means, there is a need for safe spaces and cultural responsiveness in workplaces and clinical environments.

By 2044, more than half of all Americans are projected to belong to a “minority” group. Gen Z (people born after 1996) is on track to become the most diverse generation in US history.

The Impact of Culture on Substance Misuse and Mental Health

Unfortunately, there is a conservative backlash underway that is impeding the efforts to mitigate racism and discrimination. The nonprofit education news organization Chalkbeat tracked efforts in 36 states to restrict education on racism, bias, the contributions of specific racial or ethnic groups to US history, or related topics. Ten states have signed anti-LGBTQ+ bills into law.

“Culture affects every aspect of an individual’s life, including how they experience, understand, express, and address emotional and mental distress,” Rodriquez told the webinar participants. Due to discrimination, mental health and substance misuse issues have had a disproportionate impact on BIPOC communities. Members of these communities experience stressors such as racism, discrimination, poverty, and violence, “all of which take a toll on mental health,” according to the US Surgeon General.

“Blacks and Latinos have only limited access to prevention, treatment, and recovery services for substance use disorders,” Rodriguez said. “While they have similar rates opioid misuse as the general population, in recent years, blacks have experienced the greatest increase in rate for overdose deaths from non-methadone synthetic opioids” such as fentanyl.

Although the Native American population of the United States remains relatively small compared to other ethnic groups, indigenous people also struggle disproportionately with a vast range of health and social issues—including substance misuse. Native Americans are far more likely to die of alcohol-related causes than any other ethnic group.

In addition to the aforementioned stressors, there exists also a certain lack of cultural competence—effective and appropriate communication with people of other cultures—by treatment providers. As Rodriquez explained, “fifty percent of racially and ethnically diverse clients end treatment after just one visit.” The therapeutic alliance—the therapist’s and client’s mutual engagement in the work of therapy—is critical for successful outcomes in treatment but BIPOC therapists are seriously underrepresented in the field. The demographics are very lopsided here: 76 percent of therapists are white, about 11 percent Asian, and only 4 percent African American.

Rodriguez offered the formula “cultural humility plus cultural competence equals cultural responsiveness” in therapy. It’s not an easy endeavor as the parameters change frequently. “Cultural competence is not static,” said Rodriguez. “Our level of cultural competence changes in response to new situations, experiences, and relationships.”

And those relationships require work from everybody. “Relationship building is fundamental to cultural responsiveness,” explained Rodriguez. “It is based on the foundations of understanding each other’s expectations and attitudes, and subsequently building on the strength of each other’s knowledge.”

Best to avoid generalizations: each person has a unique history that warrants an understanding of how culture is practiced and has evolved for that individual and their family.

Everyone harbors implicit biases and should work on recognizing what they are. People unaware of their biases may engage in micro-aggressions and inadvertent insults. A 2007 study examined the experiences of 40 African Americans in counseling with white therapists. The black clients in this study identified “color-blind” statements as the most common type of micro-aggression used by their white therapists.

This situation has to be countered with “courageous conversations” and being prepared to be uncomfortable. Courageous conversations engage through personal racial experiences, beliefs, and perspectives while demonstrating understanding. White therapists should deepen their understanding of whiteness and interrogate their beliefs about their own relationship to racial privilege and power.

In response to the growing diversity of the United States population and concerns with health disparities, formal training in cross-cultural care has been mandatory for a while for all medical specialties. Clearly, there is still room for improvement when it comes to implementation.

Danielle C. started her recovery journey at Harmony Foundation more than nine years ago. She had struggled with severe drug and alcohol addiction for more than eight years and had been to several other treatment centers before.

“Workaholism is a soul-destroying addiction that changes people’s personalities and the values they live by,” wrote Barbara Killinger Ph.D. on Psychology Today in 2011. “It distorts the reality of each family member, threatens family security, and often leads to family break-up. Tragically, workaholics eventually suffer the loss of personal and professional integrity.”

In a recent webinar for Harmony Foundation, Khara Croswaite Brindle—a licensed professional counselor and the owner of Croswaite Counseling—looked at the pitfalls of perfectionism and workaholism. As a self-identified “perfectioneur” (perfectionist entrepreneur), she once was running herself into the ground for success. As a therapist, she taught people about self-care and balance on a daily basis yet was unable to do it for herself. She now helps clients to get from workaholic to well-balanced.

First off, Khara invited her webinar audience to describe a perfectionist. Self-critical, lost in detail, and afraid of making mistakes were some of the answers. Perfectionists “want to be known for the quality of their work,” explained Khara—an immediate link to workaholism.

Perfectionism is linked to high expectations of oneself and has really taken off as a phenomenon since the 1980s—the age of “Reaganomics.” Khara uses the Enneagram personality test to discover how her clients relate to other people. The Enneagram is a typology system that describes human personality as nine interconnected personality types.

Researchers have noted that members of the “millennial and Gen Z generations show higher rates of perfectionism,” Khara said, an indication that the problematic personality trait is becoming ever more widespread. There is a lot of pressure on those generations to do their best, to get into a top college, to have a successful career.

This brings us to workaholism, a kind of hustle mentality that glorifies overwork. Dr. Killinger defined workaholics as work-obsessed individuals who gradually become “emotionally crippled and addicted to power and control in a compulsive drive to gain approval and public recognition of success.”

Smartphones have now taken workaholism to a whole new level. People can be tethered to their workplace 24/7, reading work emails on vacation, during weekends, and in the middle of the night. Khara presented a book by award-winning journalist Celeste Headlee called Do Nothing: Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing and Underliving, in which the author recommends investing in “quality idle time” and spending face-to-face time with friends and family as a counter to workaholism.

Another title on Khara booklist is Chained to the Desk in which psychotherapist Bryan E. Robinson categorized workaholics into four types which Khara likes to call churners, dreamers, sprinters, and plodders.

Out of the four, the churners are the classic, most recognizable workaholics. They work and work, they get stuff done and reap a lot of praise for it. The second category is comprised of the “attention-deficit workaholics” or dreamers. “They are the innovators with big ideas,” Khara said. Often others have to implement their ideas. The third type is the “bulimic” workaholic. Khara likes to call them sprinters. They typically exhibit a “start-stop” pattern at the workplace. Last, but not least, the plodders take their time, they don’t rush anything. “Their perfectionism shows up in nitpicking. If it’s not perfect, they’re not done,” explained Khara.

The Mental Health Impact

The mindsets described above frequently induce cognitive distortions familiar to practitioners of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). There tends to be a relentlessly negative inner critic and a lot of black-and-white thinking. For some this may even lead to suicidal ideation: if I cannot have it, I might as well give up living.

Pressure and stress may lead to attempts at self-medicating with drugs and alcohol. Since this behavior is a major driver of addiction it often creates more anguish and pain down the road, as “it addresses the symptoms but not the problem.” Workaholics and perfectionists “struggle with self-care,” Khara told the webinar participants because they don’t think they can invest enough time in such activities.

This in turn frequently leads to burnout, a state of physical or emotional exhaustion. A 2020 FlexJobs/Mental Health America survey suggested that “75 percent of people [in the US] have experienced burnout at work, with 40 percent saying they’ve experienced burnout specifically during the pandemic.”

Symptoms of burnout include irritability, sleep disruption, weight gain or loss, stomach problems, and even cracked teeth—thought to be the result of stress caused by the pandemic and work-related stress. “2020 saw more cracked teeth than the six years prior,” said Khara.

And finally, the combination of perfectionism, workaholism, and the pandemic has led to a significant increase in anxiety disorders.

Treatment Strategies

The cognitive distortions of perfectionism and workaholism can be addressed with reframing or restructuring. Instead of succumbing to negative thinking patterns, people can simply ask themselves, “Is there another way to look at this situation?” or, “What are some other possible reasons this could have happened?” Pointing out alternatives can help people see things from a more positive point of view.

Khara recommends using client-appropriate language. Workaholics typically have a hard time engaging with “hearts-and-flowers” language. “They don’t want to go from ‘I am a piece of crap and need to be more productive’ to ‘I’m a wonderful person.’ That’s too much of a stretch for them. When reframing, try to be as realistic as possible.”

The same applies to self-care. “If we ask them to take a seven-day vacation, they will say no. That’s not a financial strain, it’s the productivity strain,” Khara said. “It’s the 500 emails they will have when they get back. It’s ‘I’m in the middle of a project.’ Instead, I want them to embrace 5–10 minutes of something.”

Five to ten minutes of walking. 5–10 minutes of music. “We notice there is a lot less resistance to this strategy that way—putting a smaller timeframe on it.” This is more manageable, especially in this culture of being busy.

What would a meditation look like or a few minutes of mindfulness? Perfectionists and workaholics need to be more aware of their damaging behaviors. Daily identification of behaviors and activities that are expending valuable energy and those that create value, growth, and opportunity is key to a healthy work-life balance.

Part of that is the ability to say “no.” No to more work on your plate. No to too many long hours in the office. Take a break from your inbox. Engage in self-care.

“No is a complete sentence,” Khara said. Sadly, for many of us, it is hard to say.

Harmony Foundation is one of the longest-running and most successful addiction treatment programs in the world. If you or a loved one are struggling with alcohol or drug addiction, or you have questions about our programs, call us today at (970) 432-8075 to get the help needed as soon as possible. Our experienced staff is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.