6 Emerging Adults 155
As with the income that is never fully recovered when starting from behind,
substance abusing emerging adults may be unable to fully commit to work,
productive identities, and intimate partnerships until they are late enough in
life that these are hard to form. As recovery itself takes significant time (some
argue that it is a project unto death), even individuals who stop using may
lose enough time that it is very difficult to reclaim the energy and flexibility of
emerging adulthood and they may become unable to gain a foothold in con-
ventional adult society.
In recovery, people with SUDS give up the substance use that helped
them handle stress and often organized their social world. Many recognize
the losses inherent in being an unreconstructed abuser, but moving into recov-
ery involves many losses, often disenfranchised. An African saying holds that
when someone is asked to give up something valuable, something of value
must be returned. This exchange is at the heart of recovery.
A focus of 12-Step recovery efforts is to change the “people, places, and
things” associated with use of substances. Mutual help organizations (MHO)
such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) grew
out of voluntary organizations that aimed to aid members’ strivings for sobri-
ety and offer the social capital of group membership to address companion-
ship, livelihood, and housing needs (Baumohl, 1986, 2013). Yet, only about
13% of AA members (AA, 2011) and 16% of NA members (NA, 2009) are under
age 30. A study of the impact of a treatment program designed to serve emerg-
ing adults, found that focusing on decreasing high-risk friendships (substance
using friends) and encouraging 12-Step program involvement helped emerg-
ing adults move into recovery (Kelly, Stout, Greene, & Slaymaker, 2014). Even
so, participation in 12-Step MHO’s seemed to support recovery through meet-
ing attendance, not by facilitating new social network affiliations (Kelly et al.,
2014), meaning that work to help emerging adults develop low-risk friend-
ships may need to rely on other means. As most friendships are embedded
in the routines of daily life, it would seem extremely important to promote
the affiliative and restraining properties of employment (Baumohl, Speiglman,
Swartz, & Stahl, 2003). This would have salutary influences well beyond
addressing SUDS, of course.
Interventions
As in all grief, to support emerging adult grievers requires the ability to
form a supportive, authentic helping relationship to provide psychosocial
education about grief and a venue where grievers may tell their stories.
Adults are more able to engage in typical talk therapy, but emerging adults
can still benefit from activities that assist them to articulate their grief. As
Creighton et al. (2013) indicated, using pictures, songs, and other mementoes
can allow grievers to speak in ways they might otherwise avoid. It is notable
that the ATTEND approach to mindful grieving (Cacciatore & Flint, 2012,
discussed in depth in Chapter 1) seems well suited to assist emerging adults
or those who are grieving an emerging adult (particularly after traumatic
death) as it enables the practitioner to be fully present and attuned to the
griever even in extremis. KORU mindfulness training may be particularly
