How to Talk so Someone With Addiction Will Listen (clinicians)

It’s sometimes said that the justified ones are by far the most dangerous. They’re the most difficult to let go of, and the most likely to develop into an obsession.

In the absence of complaints, the prescriber can be tempted to assume things are going well, when in fact they aren’t.

A reasonably good rule of thumb for differentiating results of substance addiction from other illnesses: When the substance use stops for an extended period, the symptoms improve dramatically or go away entirely.

Patients with severe substance disorders may experience depression as a result of the cumulative effects of their substance use.

Try thinking of the interaction between drug seeker and practitioner as type of negotiation where the  two parties have very different goals.

There are just too many different forms of manipulation for any of us to be uniformly good at identifying them on the fly.

One sign of vulnerability: the place tended to be too busy or too slow.

Our goal is to reframe the discussion in a way that supports rather than undermines change.

If you’re not careful, the whole thing turns into an endless game of cat-and-mouse, that leads nowhere.

“I probably would have taken them anyway. I was really hoping for a chemical fix.”