If you’re concerned about the dangerous drinking and drugging lifestyle of a friend and you’d like to support him or her in getting drug abuse treatment, there are some helpful steps you can take.
It’s hard, for example, if you’ve been to the hospital three or four times because your friend is in there for alcohol poisoning. You probably know that if your friend is going to live, the drinking and drug use has got to stop.
And you might know that he or she needs substance abuse treatment, but your friend might not be willing to accept it quite yet.
However, because you’re watching your friend destroy his or her life, you might want to get the message of substance abuse treatment across – soon! If you’re in these shoes, you might want to talk to your friend in a way that respects his or her inner authority.
For instance, Dr. Michael Pantalon, author of Instant Influence: How to Get Anyone To Do Anything – Fast, provides the following suggestions. These pointers are based on a therapeutic method called Motivational Interviewing.
This is a form of therapy that drug counselors use with recovering addicts. It seeks to evoke an individual’s intrinsic desire to change. It does this by exploring his or her ambivalence to changing behavior, given the pros and cons of using drugs or drinking. Exploring and resolving this ambivalence is the goal of this type of drug addiction treatment.
