AHS Views

Wow, something really hit me in the news this week. Here at Addiction Help Services, we help people find the right addiction help for their situation. And we know that a really good drug rehab program actually stops addiction – i.e., the graduate is no longer an addict. The news item that hit me this week was about drugs and alcohol in baseball – it is pushing the idea that once an addict, always an addict, it never really ends.

Here’s an excerpt:

“Ultimately, no person can help another person get sober, and remain sober, unless the person with the issue recognizes their problem and is willing to address it. The reason Josh Hamilton is sober and playing at the highest level of the big leagues now is because of the support he had around him, and still has around him. He recognized he had an addiction, got the proper treatment to turn his life around, and even today, needs to surround himself with the right people looking out for his best interests. Addiction does not disappear once rehab is over, nor does it ever go away, so it is imperative that the MLB develops a policy and opportunity to help players recovering from addiction, from when the problem becomes known, until the player retires and beyond.”

Well, first of all, re “even today, needs to surround himself with the right people looking out for his best interests’ – is that because he used to be an addict? No, that’s how life should be! Our lives should always be full of people looking out for our best interests. True, surrounding yourself with individuals who are out to get you does lead to drug addiction and alcohol abuse – but not only if you’re a former alcoholic or addict. Being in an environment like that gets to everyone.

They also say addiction never goes away – so baseball players have to be taken care of throughout their careers and, basically, until they die. I can see that if a person suffers a debilitating injury on a job due to the employers neglect of safety regulations or some such thing, then that employer has to take responsibility for the damage done. But a baseball player didn’t become an addict or alcoholic simply by virtue of becoming a baseball player or through some neglect of MLB.

But, that’s another story. The point is – addiction isn’t a disease the person is born with that doesn’t manifest until they take their first drink or get high for the first time and, then, never goes away. There is a reason, or reasons, for the addiction, and once those reasons have been dealt with in a good drug rehab program, the addiction is gone.

If it is not, then the reasons for the addiction have not been dealt with. That’s it in a nutshell.

I hate to think of people living with the idea that they can’t change, that they can never really get better.

Don’t buy it.

If drug rehab doesn’t work on someone, they didn’t do the right program.