I’m Tired of Addiction Today…

staff interventions

Yesterday, I successfully completed a 21-hour family intervention in Florida. When people ask me why I would do that, my mind always goes to the thousands of families who need an intervention to handle their addicted loved one. At one point my own family was that family and we didn’t have someone like me who believed full recovery was possible, that any addict could change and addiction could be handled for good. If I can help one family avoid having to bury their loved one and live in that loss for the rest of their life, I have made sense of life again. I have done what I love to do most, restore hope!

I wanted to thank all of you who keep making a difference in your addict’s life. Do not give up! Sometimes it takes a 21-hour conversation to hit that single thread of hope still woven into the dirty, heavy cloak an addict wears. Sometimes it’s impossible to penetrate it, other times, if you just carry on and keep going, you will find the tiny little thread. If you pull on it, you can start to unravel the tapestry of lies, deceit, self-doubt, loss of dignity and pity that make up the addict's life and get to the real person; the kid you adored, the spouse you fell in love with. That’s who I am always working for. Having done this for 19 years now, I know they are always in there, no matter how rotten and miserable they have become.

The truth is every addict at some level still wants help. Even when they’ve gone to the extent of fixing up that last, toxic shot that was supposed to release them from their hell, they still want to get clean.

Do not stop talking, do not stop loving that person, who is bundled so tightly in that heavy cloak they think of as life. They will rage, they will lie and they will say they don’t need or want help. But under all of that, you will find the truth. The truth is every addict at some level still wants help. Even when they’ve gone to the extent of fixing up that last, toxic shot that was supposed to release them from their hell, they still want to get clean. Trying to kill themselves is just the only escape they believe in. They have simply lost hope of ever recovering.

Our job as family members is to keep reminding them a clean life is still possible and death is not a solution for anything. Ensure them they are part of a family and can get cleaned up and rejoin it as a whole and trustworthy person.

Additionally, it is vital each of us keep sharing our stories with others. Families are truly dying because they don’t know there are others struggling, or others who have made it out. Share what you have learned, what has worked, what hasn’t. One addict I was battling to save had told his parents to just leave him alone, that the other families facing addiction and going to meetings had stopped trying to intervene, had stopped harping on their kids and had stopped “enabling their lost causes” and turned away and saved themselves. That family took his advice until he OD’d for the 3rd time and they reached out to me. It was a matter of days before we found him and took him to lunch and on a long walk around downtown Richmond during which he agreed to try rehab one last time. That was 8 years ago. For the last 3 years, he has sent me a birthday card on his birthday to remind and thank me of that long walk that was the beginning of his walk out of the depths of addiction.

Families are truly dying because they don’t know there are others struggling, or others who have made it out. Share what you have learned, what has worked, what hasn’t.

I see this hope in my co-workers when we get another person safely into treatment and set firmly in the possibility they can regain their life. We all have our personal reasons for doing this work. Mine is family. I know how much family matters in times of crisis and how addiction and death are the biggest crises a family has to weather. What I found is by handling addiction, the family won’t need to handle the other. It matters so much to support others and help get them into treatment! We have all lived a long, long life with our addicts and our story can help someone else regain hope and try again.

Yvonne Rodgers—Narconon Suncoast Staff Member

AUTHOR

Jason Good

Jason has been working in the field of addiction and recovery for over 11 years. Having been an addict himself he brings real-word experience to the table when helping addicts and their families, while also offering a first-person perspective to the current drug crisis. Jason is passionate about educating the public about what’s currently going on in our society, and thankfully, offers practical solutions. Jason is also the co-host of The Addiction Podcast—Point of No Return. You can follow Jason on Google+, Twitter, or connect with him on LinkedIn.

NARCONON SUNCOAST

DRUG EDUCATION AND REHABILITATION