Breaking the glass ceiling of addiction

Each March, through Women’s History Month we learn more about the historic icons and well-known celebrities who served as trailblazers for women.

These stories deserve to be celebrated. But from my experience as a woman in recovery who went on to make my life’s work helping other women facing similar challenges, I know there are more stories worth telling.

The stories of women who courageously fight for sobriety quietly unfold in the shadows, but they can be every bit as meaningful as those that make headlines.

These stories never fail to inspire me because I know how challenging it can be for many women to readily get the help they need.

Women face additional hurdles than their male counterparts on the path to recovery in the form of systemic and cultural factors that can hinder their ability to address substance misuse problems and access to the support they need. Those challenges can be particularly acute for mothers of young children who are often the glue holding the family together.

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), of the more than 17 million women in the United States that had a substance abuse disorder in 2020, only a mere 7% of women received treatment.

The National Institute of Health succinctly sums up what we encounter at Liberation Programs every day: The combined burdens of work, home care, child care, and other family responsibilities, plus attending treatment frequently, can be overwhelming for many women.

Indeed, when faced with overwhelming choices, many women ignore or delay taking action to address substance misuse, which only further compounds the problems of this disease.

Because of these genderspecific challenges, Liberation Programs more than 30 years ago created a holistic approach through our inpatient Families in Recovery Program (FIRP) that exclusively serves pregnant and parenting women with children.

FIRP is the only inpatient program in Connecticut where mothers can bring two children up to age 10 into the program with them. This option is incredibly beneficial for mothers in the role of parenting and caring for their children while in treatment.

We are immensely proud that we have this unique long-standing program available to mothers with young children. Yet it is also disheartening that three decades after FIRP was launched, there remains a great need for more programs of this nature.

I’ve witnessed firsthand mothers who were finally able to make the decision to get into recovery because they knew they could remain with and care for their children throughout the process.

These moms were able to move past the misplaced stigmatization of guilt and shame they may have been feeling to realize that by caring for themselves, they were also caring for their children and families. Once in treatment, they begin identifying and dealing with the underlying root causes of addiction.

For women, what almost universally gets uncovered during treatment are past traumas that have not been addressed, and, in some instances, have been buried deeply in the subconscious.

This represents another area where, while there has been some progress, more can be done to develop and refine treatment curricula designed specifically for women. Many of the most common treatment modalities were developed by men to treat men with addiction. While some aspects of these treatments prove effective, many fail to address some of the commonalities we see among the women we serve.

A commitment to greater investment in research and programming for women could open the door for many getting treatment sooner, vastly improving their health outcomes and creating a positive ripple effect on families, communities, and our society.

Here in Connecticut, there have been some notable efforts that demonstrate change is possible. The Parents Recovering from Opioid Use Disorders (PROUD) program provides holistic, trauma-informed and gender sensitive services to pregnant and parenting women. PROUD teams conduct family needs assessment with eligible women and their household members to create a plan to address individual and family needs around: substance use and mental health treatment, connections to medical providers (including prenatal care), employment, housing, and recovery support.

Meanwhile, the Women’s Recovery, Engagement, Access, Coaching & Healing (REACH) program provides statewide integration of 15 recovery navigators — women who are in a position to use their own personal recovery journey to help others with proven coaching techniques and case management services.

These programs, to name a few, help address the glaring gap in services for women, but much more needs to be done to truly achieve gender equity when it comes to recovery research, treatments, services and supporting families with young children.

Such an investment would pay enormous dividends. So many of the women we work with walk into our facility harboring deep pain, guilt and regret. Yet as they get healthier, they begin to display incredible strength, courage and vast untapped potential.

Women who work every day to remain in recovery are heroic. And when they are healthy and at peace with themselves, they possess the power to do great things. Even make history.