Dr. Kevin McCauley is a non-practicing physician who has worked in the field of addiction treatment for nearly two decades. Kevin first became interested in the treatment of substance use disorders while serving as a Naval Flight Surgeon for Marine Corps heavy-lift helicopter and fighter/attack squadrons.
Due to the Navy’s policy toward treating such disorders as a safety (rather than moral) issue, he witnessed pilots self-report their addiction since they knew they would be treated medically and, once safe to do so, returned to flying status under careful monitoring. “These were charismatic and otherwise highly-capable, self-disciplined pilots who did come forward and ask for help – and they all got better and went back to flying! That just destroyed the prejudice I had picked up in medical school that addicts never ask for help and once an addict, always an addict.”
Unfortunately, the Navy did not have a similar policy for other kinds of addiction, and when he found himself addicted to opioid pain medications following a surgical procedure he was imprisoned by the Marine Corps in solitary confinement, court-martialed, and transferred to the U.S Army’s maximum-security prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Once released, the Navy paid for Kevin’s treatment, for which he will always be grateful. Read more…
Pleasure Unwoven – Award winning DVD
The most important question about addiction is: “Is it really a “disease?”
In this video essay,Dr. Kevin McCauley explores the arguments for and against this vital debate, reviewing the latest neuroscientific research about addiction along the way. Using the spectacular landscape of Utah’s State and National Parks to describe the brain areas involved in addiction, Kevin McCauley turns complex neuroscientific concepts into easy-to-understand visual images that will help people in recovery feel better understood, and their families and friends feel hope that recovery is possible. Learn more…
Memo to Self: Protecting Sobriety with the Science of Safety
Addiction is a potentially fatal illness – but it is also eminently recoverable. Certain professionals struggling with substance use disorders enjoy phenomenal success rates getting through early sobriety and into long-term remission of their addiction problems. What do they do? And what can we learn from them?
In this film, Dr. Kevin McCauley re-lives his own precarious early sobriety – negotiating hazards such as hostile prosecutors, treatment programs with divided loyalties, and his own craving brain. Following the advice of the Addiction Medicine experts who helped him, he replicates the sobriety habits and success of recovering pilots and health care professionals. Order now…
Dr. Kevin McCauley 