Great topic Debbie I find that I can "detach my mind "by reciting thr Serenity prayer or a slogan over and over until the "detaching" happens> It works.

Thanks for the topic string, it's one I really need to hear. I work in a drug and alcohol treatment program and decision-makers have put someone in charge who is a tender-hearted, kind, mature person with expertise in another area of mental health and absolutely no training in addictions treatment. Decisions are being made that lead to chaos. I have training in the field but am on the sideline without direct program responsibility. My problem is sharing my expertise without getting angry when people don't understand the rule-bending mentality of addicted people, and seething as the inevitable consequences unfold (we've been having rampant problems with timely drug testing, recently someone got by with avoiding testing up to 48 hours by being too "ill" to get out of bed to provide a urine sample, when someone finally insisted on a urine drug screen it turns out he'd been using morphine to get high for days and didn't admit it until he realized he was going to get caught; another person with methamphetamine induced paranoid delusions was allowed to stay in treatment while refusing antipsychotic medication and ended up escalating and threatening staff to the degree that police had to be called; two residents have been hooking up romantically but denying it to staff, while other patients are getting more vocal in their objections to the behavior, but when one person spoke up a social worker told her she was at risk of being "terminated" in treatment; these are only a few recent problems). As I read what I'm writing I'm horrified, but it's the truth, these things really are going on. We have a program that helps a lot of people but we're starting to lose people because of the inconsistent enforcement of rules and rule-bending. I tried for days to get the opioid addict held at the nurses station until he provided a specimen or get discharged. I started raising alarm when the couple first started spending all of their time together (she's also married) and was accused of interfering because it wasn't our business. I've spoken to the supervisor's supervisor and he defered decisions back to the Unit director, the very nice, very uninformed leader with no training. I need to take effective action and to not degenerate into a screaming maniac myself, so I'm on the AlAnon web site looking for ideas. Help!