A Strange Phone Call. I recently received one of those strange phone calls that appear every couple of weeks. The opening lines are similar and go something like this: “What is the address of your Atlanta (substitute Boston, Toronto, Manhattan, Seattle, Minneapolis, etc.) office?” or “Who can you refer me to who does exactly what you do, but is here in….?” Or, most astonishing, “I really like your program! Who does the same thing but cheaper?”
Low Frustration Tolerance - This is a very common type of thinking error that lies at the root of many so-called “addictive” disorders. Low Frustration Tolerance arises from the belief that everything in life must be easy, fair, pleasurable, interesting and/or hassle-free. So when we encounter a situation that is not easy, fair, pleasurable, etc., we get frustrated and look for a quick fix to medicate and escape from these unbearable circumstances.
Success? In watching the new documentary, The Business of Rehab, and in reading the many reviews, we weren’t surprised that nothing much has changed since a couple of men in Minnesota struck gold with the idea that they could sell AA as treatment, do nothing more than host AA meetings, and fleece desperate individuals [...]
Thoughts on an Airplane Flight - A week ago I was flying back from a week’s vacation in Minnesota. As usual on long flights, I browsed through the inflight magazines and was surprised by the number of ads for “executive dating services.”
Better Bad Choices Some years back we traded suggestions with a diet doctor in Texas. One of the perspectives we gained from the exchange was his concept of "Better Bad Choices". In his work this amounts to gradually changing your diet over the course of a year or so in what we would probably label [...]
A Tale of Two Clients - Several years ago a woman came to us to change her drinking. She was bored with her life. She didn’t like her job, her home, the city she lived in, her marriage was stale, pretty much everything was boring. Is it any wonder she would stop at a bar on her way home every day and drink and then continue drinking after she got home?
Relapse? Or Success? A recent client emailed to make an appointment with me to discuss an “event.” The day before she wrote she had, consciously, purchased a bottle of wine which she knew she was going to drink as she relaxed and watched the sunset on the patio of her newly reclaimed home.
Abstinence, Moderation, Harm Reduction – Like Alcohol Abuse, It’s Your Choice! Responsible treatment means offering you a variety of options and allowing you to choose what outcome best suits you. That’s exactly what physicians are supposed to do. But any doctor who insisted that a “cure” created in 1935, with a success rate of under 10%, and not up-dated since, was the only option you should be offered would be sued into oblivion for willful malpractice.
Deprogramming? For those of you who are married or involved, we do like to have your partners/spouses included in your work with us, at least for part of the time. Why? It’s simple, really. They, like you, need to be deprogrammed from all of the 12 Step mythology that pervades our culture like kudzu. This includes long debunked ideas such as:
What’s Your Normal? On the first morning that you work with us, we note that we “do not spend a lot of time mucking around in the past,” but spend our time together exploring where you are now, where you want to be, and how are we going to get you there? Considering that, there is one aspect of your history that does need to be taken into account.