Comments for Drug Intervention Services - Treatment Placement - South Florida Intervention INK http://interventionink.com Interventions Fri, 04 Feb 2011 20:00:35 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 Comment on Parent of a Drug Addict by DrugRehabPros.com http://interventionink.com/archives/423#comment-38 DrugRehabPros.com Fri, 04 Feb 2011 20:00:35 +0000 http://interventionink.com/new/?p=423#comment-38 This reminds me of an analogy that I use quite often with my clients. When talking with the parents of addicts, I often ask them to view their child’s addiction as a house fire. I then ask them to tell me how large that fire is. I ask them if they would compare it to a toaster in the kitchen that has a flame coming out? Or are flames shooting out of every window and the roof is collapsing? This gives them perspective. About 90% of the time, they say that the flames are shooting out of every window. I then ask them, if this were happening to your house, wouldn’t you put down the garden hose and call 911? The addict can’t see the fire. Or has convinced themselves that the fire is no harm to them. Many families find themselves standing on the front lawn screaming at the top of their lungs for their loved one to come outside. Meanwhile the addict is lying on the couch saying, “what is the big deal? I don’t see a fire”. At some point, the family has to take action. Many family members don’t want to hurt the addict’s feelings or muddy up the family waters. This is very common. Kicking the door in and pulling your loved one out of a collapsing inferno by their hair may very well cause a bit of conflict at first. Generally it won’t be for a couple of weeks, after the addict is sober for a while, that they will see that fire for what it was. It is then that they will thank you with all that they have for stepping up and possibly saving their life. This reminds me of an analogy that I use quite often with my clients. When talking with the parents of addicts, I often ask them to view their child’s addiction as a house fire. I then ask them to tell me how large that fire is. I ask them if they would compare it to a toaster in the kitchen that has a flame coming out? Or are flames shooting out of every window and the roof is collapsing?

This gives them perspective. About 90% of the time, they say that the flames are shooting out of every window. I then ask them, if this were happening to your house, wouldn’t you put down the garden hose and call 911?

The addict can’t see the fire. Or has convinced themselves that the fire is no harm to them. Many families find themselves standing on the front lawn screaming at the top of their lungs for their loved one to come outside. Meanwhile the addict is lying on the couch saying, “what is the big deal? I don’t see a fire”.

At some point, the family has to take action. Many family members don’t want to hurt the addict’s feelings or muddy up the family waters. This is very common. Kicking the door in and pulling your loved one out of a collapsing inferno by their hair may very well cause a bit of conflict at first. Generally it won’t be for a couple of weeks, after the addict is sober for a while, that they will see that fire for what it was. It is then that they will thank you with all that they have for stepping up and possibly saving their life.

]]>