GenA was born at the intersection of a personal and professional crisis. Personally, I am an addicted woman who years ago completed her recovery process in an androcentric model, which was designed by and for men. This made me suffer. Professionally, she was working in a center with the same outlook. Realizing this led me to a turning point in my professional career in which I learned about the gender perspective, trained in it, and saw what was missing from a good recovery process. I decided to quit my job, train and start Gen-A. That was about five years ago.
Gen-A has a humanist, feminist and clinical perspective, something that many other centers in the private sphere do not have. That vision, which is contemplated in the National Drug Plan, is not represented in private practice and we are pioneers in this. GenA was born by and for the application of the gender perspective in drug addiction.
Socially, people think that an addiction is a disease that affects men and women equally, but this is not the case. Because we suffer from addictions and are women, we suffer a double social penalty, which leads to the invisibilization of female addictions. Therefore, treating addictions from a gender perspective means understanding that the social construction of both genders is very different and their treatment must also be different.
Men have a certain social permission, both for consumption and disruptive behaviors. Although it is not socially acceptable for them to become ill with addiction, “they can do it.” None of this happens if the person who becomes ill with addiction is a woman. An example that is easy to visualize would be that of a mother who has alcoholism problems and you will see that it is not the same as the one you have about a father.
Nor does the family system move in the same way, because the women who form it will care for and welcome the man who falls ill, but those same figures will point out and penalize the woman who falls ill with alcoholism, gambling addiction or another addiction. If we understand that, it is logical that the gender perspective operates in good treatment. To maintain equality and opportunities, these differences must be addressed through good practice.
Firstly, through high training of all team members so that they understand that perspective and perceive addiction not only as a disruptive behavior in itself, but also as an emotional illness. From there, looking at gender implies designing very individualized processes for each of the people who come to GenA. This results in a great improvement in the treatment of men in our center, while eliminating the barriers to access and permanence that prevent women and the LGTBIQ community from both reaching treatment and completing it successfully.
