It’s starts with a belief system.
Frederick, Md (KM). When it comes to drug and alcohol abuse, it’s the behavior of the addicts that causes them to use these substances, and not the substances themselves. That’s according to addictions counselor David Brooks, who was a guest recently on “Success Happens:” on WFMD.
He says individuals who become addicts had a certain belief system which led them to drugs and alcohol. “Sometime the belief system is ‘I should be perfect. That perfection is possible. That I should be powerful. I should control everything around me,'” he said. “There’s another faulty one: ‘I should get whatever I want when I want it.'”
That was corroborated by Korey Schorb, the Executive Director of The Ranch in Bukeyestown, the former Maryland Sheriff’s Youth Ranch. “Honestly, I never thought I’d say this but it’s the drugs and alcohol were the easiest thing for me to stop doing. It’s the behavior and the lifestyle. I go around and speak at a lot of places and I tell people ‘if the drugs and alcohol don’t get you, the lifestyle will'”: he says. Schorb is a former addict.
Calling into “Success Happens,” Schiorb also says he’s a believer in tough love, something his father practiced on him. “My father called the cops on me and had me locked up. And thank God he did that,” he said. “My father was big on ‘you made your bed and now you have to lay in it.’ There must be consequences.”. Schorb encourages anyone with an addiction problem to contact a support group for help. The ones that are well known are Al-Anon , Nar-A-Non and Alcoholics Anonymous.
Brooks, also a former addict, says he uses tough love, but you need to tell your patients that you care. “Some take ‘no’ and they just lose it,” he says. “If you’re going to use tough love, show them that you care.”
He also strongly encourages family members and friends to face up to the truth if someone they know and love has an addiction problem and needs help. “Definitely, don’t make a secret,” he says. “I think that’s the most difficulty part is just not making it a secret. Get some help. Get some other people involved in it. Because a lot of people, especially parents, are so shameful of it that they want to keep in house.”
By Kevin McManus