Recovery Nation

I am taking a class on learning and related mild disabilities, and in reading my textbook I am struck by how learning processes parallel the healing and recovery processes, which are, essentially, a form of learning centered around specific content.

All of what I share won’t be directly from this class, but a cumulation of my overall understanding and impressions from various classes and literature, combined with my own thoughts. I won’t directly cite or credit sources (this isn’t a research paper, after all) but if anyone is particularly interested, just ask and I will provide the sources.

Anyhow, from early childhood our learning generally involves taking in information from the environment and assimilating it with previously stored information. As babies and young children, our previous knowledge base is quite limited, and relatively easy to shape.

Learning theories inform that in order to learn we often must rehearse new information. (Rehearsal is linked to memory, and memory and learning are highly interrelated). Rehearsal can be intentional (as in reading or writing notes, repeating something to be remembered etc.) but it can also be unintentional such that it occurs beyond our awareness. That is, the more times we are exposed to something, the more we “learn” it, even if we are not actively processing it. A magnificent machine our brain is!

The older we get, the more experiences we have had, the more knowledge we have accumulated. Similar experiences get assimilated and stored together in a concept or “schema” comprised. The older we get, the more ingrained this knowledge becomes, due to “rehearsal” and repeated exposure. Again, this goes for things both intentionally and unintentionally learned. It stands to reason, then, that it will take more effort to assimilate and integrate new information, especially when it is info of which we have no (or little) previous experience or knowledge.

Another facet of learning is that we learn things better when we have previous experience with it (it is familiar) or, more importantly for the conversation of healing and recovery, if it is something that is personally meaningful or relevant. This, I think, is the key to differentiating the successful recoverers and healers from the unsuccessful ones. It has been my experience that those who connect to the process in some meaningful way are the ones who succeed in making the transition from recovery of disorientation to health. It is because we are intrinsically motivated due to the connection to the personal relevance. When you hear coaches reiterating that “you must connect to recovery for its own sake”... this is essentially what we are talking about.

How do we get there? How do we connect to recovery for it’s own sake? How do we make it personally meaningful? Wait for it..... Through your vision and values! (of course). I am evermore convinced (if it is even possible for me to become even more convinced ) that the route to achieving health in either the process of healing or recovery is via creating, and connecting, to the vision for your life; that is, the vision by your design! Your vision. Your life. Your key to learning (aka healing and recovery). Now, this is the simplified version. Teaching an old dog new tricks is possible... it just takes work. Because of the accumulated years of previous knowledge, not all of which is conducive to this new learning, there is work to do to clean out the information that no longer works, and replacing it with the new information. It takes intentionality, motivation, choice (those factors that facilitate the connection) and rehearsal (aka practice--lots of practice!).

To complicate things a bit, we must also acknowledge that “old habits die hard”. That is not an excuse, and it’s not to say that it is impossible to alter our automatic reactions (it is actually completely possible, I believe) but in terms of behaviour extinction, studies have shown (in animals) that once something has been learned, and then extinguished, if the stimuli is reintroduced, automatic processes of previously learned and ingrained behaviour are quick to return, that is, the previously learned connections are much faster to reconnect.

This doesn’t mean that our new learning is for naught, it just means that we must appropriately reinforce those new connections, and continue to do so until the old connections are completely extinct. This speaks to reactivity of partners, as well as to relapse in recovery. If a person in recovery repeatedly caves into their urges, they are reinforcing their addiction. If the healing partner continually succumbs to their emotional reactivity, they are reinforcing their traumatic response. The only way to overcome these behaviours is through practice. This should be encouraging, because it means that just because you make a mistake (i.e. slip or relapse) it does not have to mean that recovery or healing is not possible, or that you have lost all of the gains you have made. What there is to do is put the behaviour into perspective, and check what you are committed to, where your focus is. If it isn't on your vision and values, you need to refocus.

This, of course, is a simplified version. Human beings are so much more complex and our outcomes depend on many converging factors, including our skills sets, the information we have previously stored, the experiences we have had, as well as our fundamental physiological differences that also impact the ways we learn. But, I also do not think this is uni-directional. It’s multidirectional/interactional. I believe that we can also impact our physiology through how we act and behave and the environments and information that we expose ourselves to.

I am impassioned by the capacity of human beings. We are remarkable beings and I it is exciting to see what we can accomplish. I would love to hear your thoughts.

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First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do. (Epictetus)

Great post coach mel! Thank you!

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"The past has no power to stop you from being present now. Only your grievance about the past can do that. And what is a grievance? The baggage of old thought and emotion." - Eckhart Tolle A New Earth

Great food for thought, Coach Mel !
It reminds me of something I heard on Grey's Anatomy (fine reference ).
(While practising for brain surgery) Dr Shepherd said to Dr Grey : "we mustn't practice until we do it right, we must practice until we can't do it wrong."
That's the perspective I want to be able to maintain throughout my healing.

Nice post. I have been reading bits and pieces in "Women Who Run with the Wolves" and a section I read last night in the book talked about how western culture has amputated itself from our ancestors, often not even knowing the family names beyond our grandparents. We have cut ourselves off from our ancestral values and traditions so we feel hunger and sorrow. So many try to recreate something important for "soul sake." We seek to fill that lost connection. It was interesting to read that chapter then read your post on practicing and learning.

In my work, there is something we call over learning. When someone presents with an ingrained or maladaptive patterns of behavior, to overcome it, they must over-learn the new behavior by mass and repeated practice several times a week. This creates a new pathway in the brain that will eventually become the new automatic skill. So "practice makes perfect" really is true. It's creating new pathways.

What field are you studying in Coach Mel?

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"What day is it,?" asked Pooh.
"It's today," squeaked Piglet.
"My favorite day," said Pooh.

Hi Coach Mel,
You have been telling us to practice, practice, practice for a long time now. It is about developing new circuits to circumvent the whole neural pathways, for both the person in healing and the person in recovery. For us partners, getting unstuck from the emotional trauma is about hard work and personal awareness. I love this:
We have to let go of what doesn't work. Sounds simple, but it isn't. That takes a new perspective and honesty about our own obstacles.
YES! This is the key to whether we heal or don't Awareness followed by positive action based on our vision/values.

Thanks for this thread. We all need to be reminded of how this process works.

Nellie James