Salem, Oregon seeks Interventionist insight.0

Once an addict or alcoholic always and addict or alcoholic?

This morning I woke up to an email that was sent from my website during the middle of the night. It was a woman in Salem, Oregon who wanted to know if her husband was always going to be an alcoholic. For the confidentiality purposes of this post we will call her RH.

RH has been married for 10 years now to a practicing alcoholic who has recently gone to treatment. RH is concerned that when her husband returns from rehabilitation she will not be able to go drinking with him ever again.  RH wants to know if her husband will always drink alcoholically.

That’s a very good question and I will do my best to help you understand what your husband is up against. I have seen, heard, and read some very convincing arguments on both sides of this issue. Some say that addiction is a learned behavior and it can be unlearned. Others say its genetic and you can work it out with therapy and others say its a physiological disorder and it cant be undone . I was taught in college that chemical dependency is a bio-social-psycho disease that needs to be treated with a multi-disciplinary treatment approach (I always liked the way that perception sat with me). I have rarely seen a man (or woman) who has hit some type of social or emotional bottom as a result of substance abuse that has just been able to pick up and control it (I have actually never seen that happen). I just use the word rarely because I am sure someone will be able to serve up an exception to this rule.  The problem with going to treatment and then coming home and trying it again is that in order to find out if you  really have a problem or not you will have to unleash the beast again and who know how and when that might end.

RH, I am sorry if this is not the insight you might have been looking for. I hope that you can find the courage to see your husbands step to get help as a gift.

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Preview the new substance abuse intervention DVD.0

This is a sample edit from our first Intervention DVD shoot. After reviewing the footage from that shoot I decided that I wanted to take the project in another direction. I have recently finished the new script and it is in the editing process. We are scheduled to resume shooting June 08’ and anticipate release sometime early Fall 08’.

I hope that you find some of the video content helpful.

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San Diego calls for the Interventionist blog.0

I Have to be honest with you and say that this whole blog thing is pretty new to me so please forgive me while I learn the ropes. The reason that I recently decided to start this blog was because of something that happened a few months back. I was standing in a my Hotel room in El Paso Texas when I received a phone call from a young woman in San Diego. She proceeded to tell me that she was frightened about what she was seeing her chemically dependent family member go thru and needed some advice. For the record I don’t give advice just insights and suggestions. It was at this point that I realized that 75% of the people that call me have no idea what to do or how I can even help them. Because of that is I decided I would:

1. begin developing an instructional DVD that will help families and employers intervene on chemically dependant loved-ones and employees.

2. I would set up a blog and teach myself how to do this so that people who have taken on the difficult task of developing an intervention might be able to find a community of support.

I hope that the information you find here proves to be useful. Please feel free to post your questions or comments and I will do my best to help you find the support you might be looking for.

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