Monday 28 October 2013

How Not to Get People Motivated for Recovery from Addictions




Here is a somewhat incomplete list of what to do if you do not want someone to stop some sort of addictive behavior and get healthy.  Or if you want them to flee from your version of recovery back into the streets and possibly to die.

If you don't want them to get into recovery or remain in recovery, then you will:

 1.  Dictate who they can talk to on the telephone or write letters to or hang out with.

 2.  Tell them exactly what they "need to" do in order to get as "healthy" as you are.

 3.  Pull rank.  Remind them that they are problem people and that you have the answers.

 4.  Quote from recovery literature extensively, force them to read it, and teach them how to talk in clichés and platitudes.

 5.  Insist that you know what they need better than they do and insist that you know them better than they do.

 6.  Force them to find a male god similar to or the same as your god whether they are non-theists, polytheists, or other.

 7.  Demand that they "forgive" everyone who abused them in any way and demand that they talk about "their part" in the abuse.

 8.  Show them what "Tough Love" is-- even though you yourself know nothing about the history of the "Tough Love" movement or what an abomination it is-- and show them how to apply "Tough Love" to everyone else around them.

 9.  Take away their privacy.  Living in a fishbowl is oh so healthy.

10.  Give them a damning psychiatric diagnosis that will follow them for the rest of their lives, preferably one that ends with the phrase "personality disorder."


sapphoq itching for a coffee   











 

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