There is a ton of information on drug and alcohol addiction, process addictions (sex,gambling, shopping, cosmetic
surgery, internet) as well as eating disorders available today.
I will try to explain this in the simplest possible terms. Being addicted to anything is like being sucked
under the water. It's being possesed by a force that's much greater than you. Anyone and anything that gets in
the way of an addicts ability to buy or use their substance of choice (s) or exist in their obssesive/compulsive loop
becomes the object of their rage and distain. Addicts eventually become so isolated and withdrawn that they live their
lives in the vacuum of their addictive disease. They run though good will and money like there is no tomorrow. They
literally wear their family,friends and employers out. What is hard for family members to understand is that if they
were well people they would never choose to behave this way. Addiction is not about will power and rational choices...it's
about being consumed by a disease that overtakes every aspect of your life and erodes the relationships and ones ability
to thrive in life. It disables people from their ethics, their morality, their spirituality, their health and their sense
of being a part of the greater good in the world.
Addicts look at their substance use as a solution and necessary relief from the pain they feel from the part of themselves
that have been broken, damaged, neglected, abused and misunderstood. Those of us that love the addict see their substance
use as a problem. Two opposing points of view..a deadlock if you will.
I like to use this analogy. If you follow the money trail in crime novels you'll always
find the culprit. If you follow the trail of grief and loss in an addicts life you will find the feeders of the disease.
Denial, deflection, manifulation, lies, deciept, theft, rage, emotional blackmail and threats are the tools that
addicts use to insure that they keep people at bay and remain in their disease. This is the job of addiction..to stay
alive within the person. No matter the consequences or cost. It's a progressive illnes that never gets better.
It is treatable but not cuable.
It is the job of the family, through the power of love and repsect, to rescue this person from themselves and get
them the treatment that they need. Whether they want it or not, whether, they're ready or not (in some cases) and certainly
before they've hit "rock bottom".
Intervention is a stratagy that saves addicts and their families from terrible outcomes and consequences.
Call me. I'll do my very best to help you. 216-407-1350
