The Addict’s Most Valuable Possession

Posted by Tony Bylsma on January 25, 2011 under How to Help a Drug Addict | Be the First to Comment

My pleasure to post an article from the blog, Sobering Thoughts,        By Sigal Adini

At some point along his life the drug addict lost his most valuable possession, that one thing he or she cannot live without: his self-respect.

His self-respect, his ability to love and trust himself has diminished to such a degree that he is now doing things he swore to himself he would NEVER do: shooting up with needles, stealing from family and friends, selling drugs, selling sex, and so on.

In order to fully rehabilitate a drug user, you must also rehabilitate his self-respect. To Rehabilitate means bringing back to a former condition or make something new again. The drug addict did not always fear himself; at one time he trusted himself to be a good person and to do the right thing for himself, his family, his friends and for mankind in general. He had goals: be a veterinarian and save the lives of animals; or be a fireman and bring people to safety; be an artist and make beautiful things for people to admire; and so on.

So what happened to that clean bright individual? Where did he go wrong? And how can he find his way back?

Somewhere along the line between the time he had self-respect and before he started taking drugs, the addict did something he was not proud of; he did something he thought was wrong. Likely it wouldn’t have seemed so wrong to you or me, but to him it was wrong. And it did not have to be something really horrible, but in his mind it was bad enough and a bit of his self-respect was gone. After that, doing things that were against his own moral code and against the moral code of his family or group, got easier and easier. One transgression led to the next and here you are with a son or daughter that can no longer do the right thing no matter how much you tell them to or how much they try.

The road out of addiction must include the restoration of the person’s ability to respect and love themselves. It is their certainty in their ability to do the right thing and their knowledge that they can be trusted by their family and friends, that will keep them sober.