Shadow Mountain Recovery Is Offering Gender-Specific Substance Addiction Treatment

Shadow Mountain Recovery, a network of recovery centers, is offering gender-specific treatment at its facilities. It has locations in Albuquerque, Ripple Ranch, Taos, Santa Fe, and Rio Rancho with a head office located in San Antonio, Texas.

Addiction recovery is a difficult endeavor and requires a lot of commitment from the individual along with external assistance. This process is complicated due to gender issues as each has its own set of unique problems that contribute to the declining mental health that can prompt anyone to take up substances for coping. Though steps have been taken and great strides have been made towards gender equity, there still remains a distinct difference between the life experiences of a man and a woman. This is a byproduct of the social construct of gender and the expectations that come along with it.

Every person’s addiction is different. However, there are certain common threads that are shared based on a person’s gendered upbringing. It gives counselors and clinicians a way to reach out to individuals and communicate with them with a base understanding of the issues that they might be facing. Shadow Mountain Recovery says that it uses this knowledge as a way to individualize its patient’s treatment.

Men’s and women’s bodies are affected by substances in different ways. They usually start their addictive behaviors under different circumstances and for different reasons. They even respond to treatment differently. The struggles that they face might be of a similar medical nature but the root causes and triggers usually vary greatly based on their gender. This is the reason why the center believes in tailoring its treatments in such a way that it takes into consideration this fundamental difference. The faster the clinicians get to the root cause of the issue, the faster and more effectively they are able to apply treatments like cognitive behavioral therapy, and other holistic treatments to bring about a change in the individual.

Shadow Mountain recovery believes in creating a comfortable environment where members of each gender can be free of judgment. Gender issues might themselves be a cause for mental illnesses leading to addiction. There are also cases in which male and female patients might seek solace from addiction in the form of romantic relationships with each other. This is why the center segregates male and female patients to allow them the freedom to heal without being pressured and distracted. It makes sense to give men and women the space to discuss their relevant issues.

For the treatment of men, the goal is to create a comfortable environment where they are willing to speak openly about their issues in group discussions. The center’s experience has shown that men tend to speak more freely about their feelings, relationships with their spouse and other family members, sex, self-worth and self-esteem, desire for control, fear of being sober, and domestic violence or other physical abuse they have committed while under the influence of drugs or alcohol when they are in the company of other men. There is also the stigma that modern male stereotypes place on being open and honest about their feelings. Taking away the expectations that society places on men to be tough, helps keep feelings of insecurity and embarrassment at bay while they discuss their issues with other men or the center’s clinicians.

For the treatment of women, the same general sense of sisterhood and kinship is aimed for. When amongst a group of other women, they might be more open to talking about issues such as body image, experiences with sexual assault, experiences with domestic abuse or other forms of violence, traditional gender roles, their relationship with their family and children, self-worth, and self-esteem. Shadow Mountain Recovery aims to create an environment without a sense of judgment to ease women’s fears. The center says that it has observed that women feel pressured by society to care for their home and their children and feel guilty about taking the time off for healing themselves.