Treatment Does Not Matter
By Ned Wicker Kyle has been in and out of treatment for the better part of 20 years, and the script always reads the same. He goes in for a few days, never completes any program, walks out of the treatment center and goes right back to drinking. You can set your watch to it. Why he goes into treatment is anybody’s guess, because he has no interest in it, because he has no problem. His wife has been on his case for so many years, so I suppose he goes in to keep her happy. The alcoholism is masked by his professional success. He’s the perfect white collar guy, who has done very well for himself and his family since getting out of college. Working in the financial industry, he has carved out a large chunk of business for himself and his track record is impeccable. He’s a professional and if you’d ask a client if he was an alcoholic, they’d say you’re nuts. But his life has been an endless succession of failed attempts at treatment, if you could call it that. Most recently, he agreed to go to a posh California treatment center for what was expected to be a long-term stay. Sometimes treatment does not have to be voluntary, as many people go into treatment at the end of someone else’s foot, but Kyle agreed to go. A limo picked him up at the airport, the center was beautiful and he reported that the food was wonderful. He was even paying the bill, which was nearly $40,000. But he was only there for a few days and declared himself healthy. He returned home, found his bottle and went right back to his life, just as he had so many times before. The homecoming was not exactly as planned, however, because his wife wasn’t there to greet him. When she got the phone call from the center, informing her that hubby had checked out, she decided to check out too. After all, she had been doing this dance with him for over 20 years. The straw that broke her camel’s back was the explanation that the center gave to her over the phone. In short, Kyle felt there was nothing they were going to do that he couldn’t do on his own, so why pay them? This was always the excuse. He was always convinced that any program, be it 12-Step or behavioral therapy, was of not value because it didn’t work. He also didn’t like being around other alcoholics, because they were beneath him. His wife knew the script. Her bags were packed when he left for California. She knew the phone call was coming. Kyle was angry about her leaving and had pretty much convinced himself that she was the problem. She knew the anger was coming, she knew the excuses were coming and she knew that short of lashing him to a chair and taping his mouth shut, she wasn’t going to be a help. It’s not like she had a lack of feeling. She knew his disease. Ever since he was nine years-old he was drinking. She also knew that 20 years had taken a toll on her well being. She left a note, explaining that she loved him, but she could no longer live in the same house with him and the alcohol. There are so many different treatment centers. In-patient, out-patient programs are all over the country, in nearly every community. Every need is different, but what is common is the fact that if treatment is refused, short of a court-ordered treatment program, with consequences, there is little that can be done. Even then, there are cases of people preferring jail over treatment. Kyle walked out of so many treatment centers. Quitting is easy and gets easier every time he does it, and I am certain he will tell you that it doesn’t work. After all, everyone else is wrong. For more on When Treatment Does Not Matter click for Intervention HOW TO USE THIS SITE:This site contains five MAIN pages that EVERYONE should read: RECOVERY… Yourself... Your Family... Your Friends... Your Community... The rest of the pages are there for your reference to explain important topics in more detail.
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