Topic: enabling and provoking

You may have unintentionally established a pattern of saying things you didn’t really mean, or making promises you didn’t keep, or threatening consequences that never came to pass.

As we explored their dilemma, the father suddenly had an insight: the money he gave his son, regardless of reason, just wound up in some in some drug dealer’s pocket.

There are folks who make the rounds, getting the same advice over and over, and never putting it into action.

Of course, left to its own devices, addiction often worsens.

…provoking is behavior that encourages a return to use.

Nurses and doctors experience the same feelings about homeless alcoholics they see in the ER every Saturday night.

Our healthcare system supports more and in some cases better treatment based on the ability to pay for it.

A key trait of the addict is a weird ability to function despite the presence of high concentrations of a drug.

As if he were proud of it — as if his list of treatment ‘failures’ represented a weird sort of achievement.

Their targets often know or strongly suspect they’re being manipulated, but give in anyway because they can’t figure out how to avoid it.