FOR SOCIAL WORKERS, TEACHERS, EMPLOYERS AND MEMBERS OF THE HELPING PROFESSIONS: HELPING THE DRUG-USING ADDICT OR THE DRINKING ALCOHOLIC-TREATING UNDERLYING PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS

The other great waste of time and energy is to treat addicts and alcoholics for their underlying psychological problems while they are still using drugs or drinking. It is like trying to play chess with somebody when they are under an anaesthetic.

True, addicts and alcoholics display quite remarkable emotional and behavioural disorders, but many of these are the result of, not the cause of, their drug-using or drinking. If drugs or drink are stopped, many of these problems fall away.

‘I went to see lots of psychiatrists while I was using heroin,’ remembers Carol, a

twenty-nine-year-old addict who is three years into recovery. ‘It didn’t work. They would usually tell me to stop taking heroin and put me on tranquillisers. I was also put in a lot of nursing homes, but there was no follow-up treatment afterwards. I just went out and started using again. I didn’t know what else to do.

‘Once I was put in a behaviour-modification centre. It was all done on rewards and punishments. I had to learn how to behave and be good. I left that place and after two months I went back on heroin.’

Addicts and alcoholics sometimes do need therapy for their emotional disorders, but they need it after they have stopped using drugs and drink. That is the time that some of them need professional help, in order to learn how to live a new and happy life.

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