At Angel Intervention Services we strive to help addicted individuals express their viewpoint about addiction. Shockingly enough, addicted individuals, do have a viewpoint about their addiction issues. It’s so difficult for parents and family members to understand that viewpoint, addicts stop communicating. I hear so many people with addiction problems plainly say, “they just don’t understand”, “I can’t talk to them”, “I’m always in trouble with my family”, “everything I do is wrong”, “they don’t understand why I can’t just quit” and these comments are endless. As a former addict, I understand. I have empathy for what those comments really mean. As substance abuse counselors our focus is on allowing the addicted individuals the space, time, attention and understanding to express how they feel about the simple fact that they “are” addicted. We allow them to share their viewpoints in an honest, sometimes brutally so manner, but that allows us to help the family “understand” a viewpoint that is not their own. It’s no easy task.
Family members look at their addicted loved ones with shock and fear. Many mothers have said “what happened to my child and who left this stranger in my house?!?”. It’s true, we feel like strangers, addicted strangers, to people we have known our entire lives. We don’t know how to fix it. We don’t know what to say. We stop knowing how to act and all we can do at that point is fight. Our addiction fights to stay alive, it controls us and sometimes, it kills us. As addicts, we can’t understand why YOU don’t understand, just like parents and family members can’t understand why WE don’t understand their fear. Addiction is stronger than that. If you wonder why addicts form such strong bonds with other users, it’s because THEY understand each other. At Angel Intervention Services, we understand the addicted individuals’ viewpoint, we help the families understand, as much as is possible, what that viewpoint is and what it means because it may be one of the most important things a family can learn that might start the process toward sobriety for a lifetime.
