4 ms·
Speaking as someone with multiple addicts in his immediate family (some with 40+ year addiction histories), I promise you that treatment is rarely the "answer".
by chrissnell 9y ago
Speaking as someone with multiple addicts in his immediate family (some with 40+ year addiction histories), I promise you that treatment is rarely the "answer". Most addicts don't want to go to treatment. They want to maximize their draw from society and minimize their effort to get that draw so that they can continue to use drugs as much as possible.
- nitrogen 9y agoMaybe that's the best we can accomplish -- grant them some of what they want so they are otherwise prevented from harming society and the ripple effects of a black market supply chain are eliminated.
- tcj_phx 9y ago> I promise you that treatment is rarely the "answer". Most addicts don't want to go to treatment. Most addicts don't want to go to treatment because treatment doesn't work - mostly it gets people to focus on their failures and feel bad about themselves. Someone responded to my previous quip about AA's miserable success rate with... I'd say 12-step is closer to "takes credit for the ~10-15% of people who'd beat their addictions anyways". [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15024780 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15024780 (168 days ago - above quote is from the response to this comment) My girlfriend was doing fine with her addictions. The main factor was that I did not approve, and she liked me more than the drugs. She's spent the last two years getting 'treated' by the mental health professionals, who have reversed cause (self-medicating) and effect ('mental illness'). Some months ago her treatment provider did a genetic test, and decided she'd benefit from Vitamin B-9 - grains fortified with folic acid doesn't work for poor methylators. It's too bad the treatment providers don't start with healthy diets and supplements for all their patients.