READ THESE PERSONAL TESTIMONIES FROM DR. BUTKINS' CLIENTS
"Dr. Butkins played an integral part in my recovery from alcoholism and drug addiction. He provided me with knowledge about the disease of addiction and taught me how to overcome the triggers that would lead me to go out and use or drink. Dr. Butkins is a very knowledgeable, respectable, and professional counselor. He truly cares for his clients and you can tell from the minute you first meet him that he is a man who has genuine concern for the addict and is willing to do what it takes to help you. I am forever grateful to Dr. Butkins for teaching and giving me the tools necessary to maintain my recovery from alcohol and substance abuse." John - Orlando, FL January 2009
“I met Dr. Butkins when I went to a counseling session with my alcoholic husband about 2.5 years ago. He is a highly skilled professional and is very knowledgeable on the disease of alcoholism and its affect upon the families of alcoholics. When we met, I was sick with worry and fear, angry, and unhappy. Living each day in fear of what awful thing would happen next, both my mental and physical health were beginning to suffer. When my husband went off to a rehabilitation center, I continued to see Dr. Butkins. As he challenged my thinking and attitudes and encouraged me to recognize and deal with my feelings, my mind began to open and allow me to look at life situations and the disease of alcoholism in ways that would never have occurred to me on my own. He sent me to Al-Anon where I found other people affected by a loved one’s alcoholism that were working the 12 Steps and willing to help me in my recovery. Today, there is less worry and fear in my life and more serenity. I know that Dr. Butkins’ skill, wisdom, and compassion guided me to this better way of living. I will be forever grateful.”Karen, Lake Mary, Florida
"Dr. Pete probably saved my life 7 months ago when I came to him in October, 2005. He has a great talent in evaluating problems and making you aware of them. He has helped me turn my life around and helped me see things about myself that I have been able to work on; he also helped me help others. It is the best money I have spent in many years. Thank you for being there for me." Richard A. March, 2006 "Dr. Butkins has been treating me since I was in middle school; later on at 19, (he helped me again) I had to see someone I felt comfortable with. He talks to me like a friend, not a doctor. I choose him over any other (counselor) because I look forward to seeing him; he’s just like one of my own friends. He’s very real, but not in your face;he doesn’t sugarcoat, but he’s very understanding and kind. He will help you make progress through anything and leave you feeling better than when you came in." Jerry K. April 2006 "Dr. Butkins is the best thing that ever happened to me. I would have been dead a long time ago if it were not for him. I drank way too much and wanted to die. He has brought me through a lot; because of him I can handle anything and I love myself today." Janie D. April, 2006
"Dr. Peter Butkins has provided much needed support and direction during emotional turmoil in my life." Ken H. - Longwood, FL April, 2006
"Dr. Butkins is an amazing guy. He has helped me so very much. When I first came to him I was ready to give up on life. With his help and guidance I pulled myself up. I’m now accepting a full paid scholarship to Stetson. Dr. Butkins saved my life. Thanks for everything." Ann A. - Orlando, FL April, 2006
Decolonization is the process through which formerly colonized peoples seek political, economic and cultural emancipation. Decolonization can spur recovery movements via cultural revitalization movements that castigate alcohol and other drugs as tools of political and
psychological colonization. In the framework of these movements, abstinence from alcohol and other drugs is an act of personal resistance and an act of cultural survival. Decolonization calls for protest and community building as an alternative to selfanesthesia and self-destruction (see Freedom, Genocide, Liberation).
Denial is a defense mechanism in which confrontation with a personal problem or with reality is avoided by denying the existence of the problem or reality. Denial seems to have a 'life of its own', telling one that dependency upon druga and/or alcohol is reasonable and even at times advisable.
Dependency Transfer is the substitution of a positive addiction for a negative addiction. In Alcoholics Victorious, for example, recovery is viewed as a process of transferring dependence upon alcohol and other drugs to a dependence upon Christ. In the Oxford Houses, the environment is designed to facilitate members shift from a toxic dependency upon
alcohol and other drugs to a ealth “prodependency” on peers (Nealon-Woods, et al.,1995).
Desist in the Islamic tradition, is the rejection of Al-Khamr (all things intoxicating). When the Prophet Mohammed attacked strong drink and drunkenness as an “infamy of Satan’s handiwork” and asked a crowd, “Will you then desist?” they responded, “We have desisted O Allah” (Badri, 1976, p. 3-5).
Desistance in the Islamic tradition, is the rejection of Al-Khamr (all things intoxicating). When the Prophet Mohammed attacked strong drink and drunkenness as an “infamy of Satan’s handiwork” and asked a crowd, “Will you then desist?” they responded, “We have desisted O Allah” (Badri, 1976, p. 3-5).
Developmental Models of Recovery are conceptualizations of the stages and processes involved in long-term recovery from addiction. Such models assume that there are discrete stages of recovery, that certain tasks and milestones within one stage must be completed before one can progress to the next stage, and that the types of treatment and support services differ considerably across
these developmental stages. Those who have developed such models of recovery
include: Wallace (1974); Brown (1985); Biernacki (1986); and Prochaska, DiClimente, and Norcross (1992). What these models imply is that treatment interventions and recovery support activities that are effective at one stage of recovery may be ineffective
or even harmful at another stage of recovery. Such models have gone by many names including the “cycle of sobriety” (Christopher, 1989, 1992) (see Stage One Recovery, Stage Two Recovery, Complete Recovery, Disengaged Recovery, Recovery Career).
Disease (Concept)is a term used to depict the nature of addiction. The “disease concept,” the source of which is often misattributed to A.A. (Kurtz, in press), is an esteem-salvaging, guiltassuaging
metaphor for many people in recovery from severe alcohol- and other drugrelated
problems. The concept identifies those in recovery as sick people in the process
of getting well as opposed to bad people trying to be good. A.A. co-founder Bill Wilson suggested that Silkworth’s conceptualization of alcoholism as an allergy “explains many things for which we cannot otherwise account” (Alcoholics Anonymous, 1955,1976). Much the same could be said for “disease,” although early A.A. leaders avoided using such a designation (Kurtz, in press).
Disease Management (Distinguished from Recovery Management) is the management of severe behavioral health disorders in ways that enhance clinical outcomes and reduce social costs. Its focus is on developing technologies of symptom
suppression and reducing the number, intensity and duration of needed service
interventions. Recovery management, while potentially achieving these same goals,
focuses not on the disease and its costs but primarily upon the person and their needs and potentials. Recovery management emphasizes a person-focused rather than disease/costfocused service orientation.
Disengaged (style of) Recovery is the initiation of recovery through professionally-directed treatment, mutual aid participation or both, followed by the subsequent maintenance of that recovery without significant participation in addiction recovery mutual aid groups. Such individuals might
be referred to as a recovery graduates in the sense that alcohol and drug problems and their resolution constituted a chapter in their lives which is now closed, leaving them free to move forward and write new chapters of their lives. Tessina (1991) has referred to this stage of moving beyond addiction recovery as the “real thirteenth step.”
Drift is a sociological term that depicts how some addicted people simply “go with the flow,” only to find that events and circumstances lead to a drift away from drugs and the culture in which their use was nested (Waldorf, 1983; Biernacki, 1986; 1990; Granfield and Cloud, 1999). This style of problem resolution is not planned or even conscious, and such resolution may occur without the individual embracing either an addiction or recovery identity. The fact that this has been noted in studies of natural recovery from opiate addiction but not in comparable studies for alcoholism or nicotine addiction suggests that drift may be less possible when one’s drug of choice is physically and culturally ever-present.
Drug Substitution has two meanings in the context of recovery. First, there is the long recognition of the
vulnerability for drug substitution in the recovery process. The addictions literature is
replete with the tales of people who shed one drug only to develop an equally destructive
or more destructive relationship with one or more other drugs. The observation of this
risk drawn from treatment and mutual aid populations who present with high severity and
chronicity is tempered by a growing number of research studies documenting how many
individuals with alcohol or other drug problems in the general population use substitute
drugs to manage craving and to phase themselves out of the addictive lifestyle. While
noting the potential risk of secondary drug dependence, most of these studies report that
secondary drug dissipates in most individuals after 12-18 months (Biernacki, 1986;
Christo, 1998; McIntosh and McKeganey, 2002).
Drunkalogue is an oft-repeated presentation of one’s drinking career. Such presentations are known
for their rote delivery and for the grandiosity they often contain. While drunkalogues
seem to serve a recovery maintenance function for some individuals, the negative aspects
of the drunkalogue (wallowing in the “what we were like” phase of one’s story) have led
groups (e.g., LifeRing Secular Recovery) to promote “soberlogues” as an alternative: a
presentation that focuses on one’s current life in sobriety rather than in the past
(Handbook of Secular Recovery, 1999, p. 31). It is important, however, not to
underestimate the therapeutic functions (problem acceptance, identity affirmation,
recommitment) that such periodic recounting serves for some individuals in recovery.
Dry Drunk refers to a period of self-imposed abstinence that, minus a broader recovery process,
magnifies all of the alcoholic’s character defects, e.g., intolerance, resentment,
grandiosity, jealousy, etc. (see Emotional Sobriety, Wellbriety).
Dual Recovery (see Serial Recovery)