Addiction

The way the “interven-ee” feels about the intervention changes a lot, from the beginning of the intervention, by the end of the intervention, during treatment and after, and years into recovery.

As a judge once put it: it was clear to him that psychiatrists got together and defined various disorders, and a few years afterwards, they got together and redefined them.

We’re brought up to view a pattern of problems with alcohol or drugs as the result of a variety of other factors— psychological issues, or lack of willpower, or moral weakness, or some terrible past experience. That makes it difficult for most of us to switch over to the view of addiction as a chronic illness.

Repeated problems related to drinking or drug use force even the person in denial to acknowledge something is wrong–eventually.

It took a while to develop effective guidelines for use of psychiatric meds with a population that was already addicted.

The key to treatment success is an integrated approach: One treatment team treats both illnesses using an integrated treatment plan.

If we could reach them now, the process might well be interrupted. Preventing a host of more serious problems — some of them fatal to other people, or the user himself.

One large survey of alcoholics found that some 14% had actually become dependent within a year of the first drink. The percentage almost doubled when the time period was extended to two years.

Suffering victim and destructive asshole, all wound up in the same person. That’s the “alcoholic/addictive” personality. But who is the “real person” underneath the disease?

Much of the anxiety the addicted person feels is anticipatory, based not on actual withdrawal symptoms but on the fear of not being able to find an adequate supply of the drug when they arrive.