Your son or daughter… your brother or friend… has been struggling for years with alcohol, drugs, or food. They just can’t seem to break it. In fact, sometimes it seems like the only thing that is breaking… is you. The ripple effect that addiction has on families and friends is inescapable.
As for the individual, some have spoken with their doctor; some are in denial. Many have been through fourteen and twenty-eight day rehabs. Others have tried medications, counselors, and every standard and accepted course of medical treatment.
Just one problem… here we are again.
All too frequently, the “standard treatment” doesn’t work. It doesn’t work because, with few exceptions, they are treating a symptom… and not the cause. Often, the medical diagnosis never even considered addiction.
Please understand, I’m not saying that the doctors don’t care… I’m saying that many of them simply don’t know. They don’t know that addiction can be successfully treated, and that those who are affected can go on to live extraordinary and meaningful lives.
Unfortunately, there is a pervasive belief that as physicians, counselors, nurses, and therapy professionals, we don’t need to learn much about addiction. Addiction cases are viewed as an occasional evil, but certainly not one that’s prevalent in our city… or in our practice.
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Addiction can be difficult to diagnose, with the cause and effect often separated by great distances. So we treat (medicate) for high blood pressure (the symptom), when the cause is three decades of addictive behavior with food or alcohol. Similarly, we treat (medicate) for anxiety (the symptom), when the cause is an addiction associated with “social” cocaine use.
The true problem isn’t even what you drink, how often you drink, or with whom you drink… it’s not the drugs or the food or the gambling. No, the real issue is that when behavioral changes occur in association with these things, it indicates an addictive trait that is almost always destructive to the life, health, and relationships of the individual.
Aunt Millie quit smoking… that’s good! But now she fights with Uncle Bob, and then eats uncontrollably at midnight… that is not good. And the “solution” is not a stomach staple.
Aunt Millie needs help; the question is where can she go to get it?
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Several years ago, I attended a conference in which the Director of a prestigious medical school spoke of treating only three addicts in thirty years of practice. Three… in thirty years! “Of those,” he said, “two were treated successfully… and one wasn’t.” You win some, and lose some.
I’m sorry; that’s not acceptable.
From my experience, it is likely that there were no addicts successfully treated in that practice. By every description, in the two “successful” cases, each had recently experienced high-stress events, to which they responded by drinking more. While this increased use wasn’t the proper response, they were by no means addicts… and the doctor’s admonition to cut back was sufficient.
The third individual, the true addict, was not helped. A physician’s recommendation to an addict to cut back is no more useful than telling you or me to cut back on oxygen. They need the drink… the drug… the food… the gambling… like we need to breath.
Worse, it is possible that hundreds of people have been through that medical practice over the years, and never was addiction even considered in an analysis seeking the root cause of their physical and emotional challenges.
Hundreds of people who could have been helped… who can be helped.
So, for all the answers you didn’t receive… for the countless nights you’ve haven’t slept… for the considerable dollars you’ve spent… and the relief you haven’t seen… on behalf of those who didn’t know better… I apologize.
That said, I also encourage you to pursue the solutions that have worked for thousands of others just like you. I look forward to speaking with you.
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