Should a Drug Counselor Also Be a Recovering Addict?

Posted by Tony Bylsma on May 19, 2010 under How to Help a Drug Addict | 5 Comments to Read

The problems of overcoming addiction are something only one who has overcome them can completely understand. Others can study addiction, work with addicts and even live with addicts and begin to see what the effects of addiction to drugs or alcohol are. But there is a vast difference between truly and fully knowing something and merely knowing about something. The addiction scholars can study for years and never completely understand the life of the addict .

The drug addicted person has experiences that others can only study. The overwhelming urges and cravings that the addicted person feels are something that he cannot fully explain to anyone who has not felt them personally. But just being addicted does not make him or her an expert on addiction! In fact, many drug dependent individuals are completely in the dark about what is happening to them and why they continue to use drugs or drink themselves into oblivion every chance they get.

In order to be a drug counselor, you don’t have to become addicted. Drug addiction is not a required course or training step in becoming an expert in the field. Talented and well trained counselors help people escape drug and alcohol abuse and compulsions everyday. They save more lives and improve the lot of more families than workers in nearly any other field.

But, in my experience, the counselors who are well trained and dedicated AND have overcome addiction themselves have an extra something, and added dimension that can help them to get inside the mind and life of their cases and often this can make the difference between success and failure for the addict.

So, while it is not necessary for a counselor to be a recovered addict, and someone who has recovered isn’t automatically an expert, the combination of the two can sometimes make a real powerhouse of a guide. One who can lead drug addicts and alcoholics through the dark times and into the light of drug-free living.

Tony Bylsma CCDC                                                                Detox Rehab

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