“If the only tool you have is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail.”
That is the fundamental problem with treatment in the U.S. and Canada. If the only tool you have is AA and the 12 Steps then everyone has to be either a “powerless alcoholic” or “in denial.”
On the other hand, if you actually have all of the effective and available tools, then clients can be accurately assessed and treated.
What an idea!
But that’s where the “industry” bugaboos show up:
- treatment center owners don’t want to spend money on skilled staff;
- they don’t really want clients to succeed;
- they don’t really believe clients can succeed.
We, on the other hand, working with a small number of motivated clients, have every reason to help you succeed – we’re not, after all, in the revolving door, client recycling business. And we do have the full range of “tools” — CBT, Naltrexone, assertiveness training, diet and exercise recommendations, social and recreational suggestions, couples counseling, and a number of other ways to help you become an ex-drinker, NOT a “recovering alcoholic” who will be “relapsing” forever.
It’s still your choice of course — work with us and put the problems behind you, or pay “them” and acquire the excuses you can use to keep on drinking.
Either way, it really is your choice.
What’s your choice?
“The thoughts we choose to think are the tools we use to paint the canvas of our lives.” — Louise Hay
“A moment of choice is a moment of truth. It’s the testing point of our character and competence.” — Stephen Covey
Our lives, for the most part, are a matter of making choices and we do it thousands of times a day, mostly automatically. That’s fine, up to a point.
But then come those few critical choices we make that do matter. One of them is whether or not to pull the cork, order the drink, or pop the top on that can. Or whether to do something else instead.
The trouble is we can’t figure out what to do instead, or how to trade instantaneous relief for deferred compensation. That takes acquiring a bit of perspective.
Your life is the accumulated effects of the choices you have made. You can’t un-make the ones you’ve made, but you can make different ones at any time.
Different choices, different results.
That’s an easy idea to accept.
Trouble is, we know where the usual choices lead and we don’t know where different choices will end up. And most of us like predictability more than we like ambiguous possibility.
We stay stuck in “the security of familiar miseries.”
We remain in abusive relationships. Stay in dead-end jobs. Live in crumbling communities. Put up with nuts families nd friends.
And wonder why we drink too damn much.
Bored, lonely, anxious, depressed, and in pain, still we resist making the choice to change.
But really, now, exactly what is it that you value that you are apt to lose by changing?
We can help you sort out the answers and come up with better cost/benefit choices for your life, but you will have to choose to call.
Additional Information For You:
“How I Stopped Drowning In Drink” by Paul Carr as it recently appeared in the Wall Street Journal.
Alcohol Abuse, Alcoholism, and 12 Step Programs That Can’t Tell the Difference
“How Can You Possibly Cure My Years of Alcohol Abuse in Just 5 Days?”
Our Expanded Program Description
Ending Alcohol Abuse: What Works
The Bucket of Crabs, or Why AA and Alanon are Bad For Your Health,[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
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