By Emily K. Alhadeff, Assistant Editor, JTNews
“I have given my background to just about every population except my own,” says Diane Burnett, the new director of the Alternatives to Addiction program at Jewish Family Service. “I had been told about the position here at JFS, and I wasn’t even looking. But something told me to investigate it further. It just grew to be an obvious match.”
Like several of our other Women to Watch, Burnett relays a sense of a guiding force that brought her to her current position.
“It just shows you, you don’t always know the best thing for yourself,” she says.
Burnett comes to JFS with a Master of Social Work from the University of Washington and a Chemical Dependency professional certificate, as well as experience working with Harborview and UW Medical Centers, the King County Jail and King County Drug Court. She has been a member of several chemical dependency clinical studies to define best practices. Burnett has served veterans, the elderly, people of color, women and teens, but never the Jewish community exclusively.
“Our program is designed to increase awareness of drug and alcohol abuse in the Jewish community,” she says. “There is a myth in the Jewish community that Jews don’t have a problem with addiction.”
Alternatives to Addiction seeks to remove the barriers between Jews struggling with addiction and the help they need and to connect them with the community at large. The program is three years old, and Burnett is the second director.
Among the addictions prevalent in the community, “I think that there’s a lot of alcoholism,” she says. “There’s a huge problem with prescription narcotics. A lot of people have chronic pain…We need to keep our kids safe from our medicine cabinets.” But addiction extends to other behaviors, too.
“Anything we do to try to change our reality can become addictive,” Burnett says. It’s “a symptom of dissatisfaction with the world.”
Burnett suggests that Jews feel like they’re letting down the whole community, while some may feel too high profile to get recovery.
“I think shame and guilt is a big barrier to Jews getting clean and sober,” she says.
Burnett also notes that Jews tend to shy away from 12-step programs, viewing them as Christian, a myth Burnett tries to dispel. While she promotes the 12-step recovery programs, she stresses creative problem solving.
Burnett speaks highly of the 12-step programs — that’s how she got clean 21 years ago.
“It never dawned on me that I have a problem,” says Burnett, who found herself reliant upon alcohol and narcotics in 1990. “I was completely alone in my misery.”
“I went to my first NA [Narcotics Anonymous] meeting and I recognized myself immediately,” she says. “First of all, they were laughing at their experiences. I found that to be extremely attractive.”
Support and humor gave Burnett the strength to change. “I was no longer alone,” she says. “That’s what I want for any Jews who are feeling isolated in their addiction.”
Burnett says she sees many crossovers between Jewish teachings and addiction recovery.
“The most obvious is teshuvah, repentence,” she says. When addicted, “we’re so full of our own ego,” but tikkun middot, repairing personal and spiritual qualities, is purifying. “The very thing that was your very source of shame becomes your source of dignity,” she says. “You can look at the world with much more appreciation.
“I can turn it over to God, to a higher power. I don’t have to know where my path is leading to walk it. It enables me to have my sense of humor, my sense of joy.”
To learn more about Jewish Family Service’s Alternatives to Addiction program, contact 206-861-8782 or ata@jfsseattle.org.