Families

Too often our own hopes, dreams, and aspirations have been shunted aside.

There’s hope. Partly because the effects of repeated treatments tend to be cumulative — most patients are learning something important from each.

The addict may have tried to control drinking or drug use many times, and failed. This experience leads him to conclude that he can’t change.

Simple truth: Nobody can watch over another human being 100% of the time.

It’s an essential truth that people with alcoholism think about changing for a long, long time before they seriously attempt it. They’re ambivalent about change, and struggle to make up their minds.

There’s a third dimension to making the decision about which treatment will offer the best chance for recovery: Matching the characteristics of a program to an individual’s particular needs.

Many of us already have painkillers sitting on a shelf in the bathroom medicine cabinet, alongside the aspirin and the allergy meds. Sometimes they’re unused from prior medical or dental problems.

If we do nothing, the alcoholic person will probably wind up, at some point in the progression of addiction, in exactly the circumstances we fear.

Intervention can be quite dramatic (that’s why it makes for good TV), but it’s really the intelligent application of leverage that produces the desired result.