Recovering substance abuse therapists had a higher sense of personal accomplishment than nonrecovering therapists. Therapists who had more social support had a greater sense of personal accomplishment. Length of service was related to greater depersonalization and greater personal accomplishment. Burnout was strongly associated with occupational stress. Personal stress was associated with depersonalization.
ver since Jellinek's The Disease Concept of Alcoholism (1 960) gave credence to the Alcoholics Anonymous position on alcoholism treatment, there E has been a steady increase in alcoholism treatment programs throughout the United States. In recent years, with the increased use of drugs like marijuana, LSD, and cocaine by middle and upper classes of American society, the "pure" alcoholic, or monosubstance user, has become obsolete, particularly among youn&r substance abusers. Treatment programs are seeing greater and greater numbers of polysubstance abusers who may have one or two substances of preference, but who rarely hesitate to use anything that is readily available to achieve the desired mood state . Thus, alcoholism therapists are being called on to treat individuals who have multiple substance dependencies. This situation, coupled with the demands and frustrations associated with working in the human services, may lead to increased occupational stress and consequent therapist burnout.
Maslach and Jackson (1 98 1) conceptualized burnout as a syndrome of emotional exhaustion and cynicism. They subdivided this into three components:
- Increased feelings of emotional exhaustion. 2. Development of negative cynical attitudes and feelings about one's clients. 3. Decreased sense of personal accomplishment on the job. ~ ~~ Barnett D. Nman is in priuate practice in a clinic in Cleueland, Ohio. Edmund Thomas Dowd is a professor in the Department of Psychology at Kent State Uniuersity, Kent, Ohio. This study was based on a dissertation conducted by Elman under the direction of Dowd. Correspondence regardingthisarticleshould besent toEdmund ThomasDowd, 118KentHall, Kent StateUniuersity, Kent, OH 44242.