Mertzie

I just ordered the HBO Addiction DVD, but in the meantime, I've been watching the podcasts from the website. If you haven't seen it, you might want to check it out. The downloads are free. I know the show has been discussed here before, and there's a lot of very interesting information presented in the series, but was hoping to get your thoughts on a few specific points.

The statements below were transcribed from the Supplementary Series,
"Interview with Nora Volkow, MD - Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse":


What is addiction?

Addiction is a disease of the brain that translates into abnormal behavior.
Their brains have been modified by the drug, in such a way, that the drug makes a signal to their brain that is equivalent to the signal of when you are starving - the signal of 'seek the food and eat it'.
That's what the (parent/spouse) has to understand.. that there has been a change, an adaptation, from the use of the drug that led to the situation, almost as if the individual was in a state of deprivation, where taking the drug is indispensable for survival.
Very clearly, particularly in young people, the brain has a tremendous capacity to recover, much more than what we thought in the past, even though the repeated use of drugs leads to damage to certain areas of the brain.
The longer you have been addicted to a drug, the harder it is for you to respond to treatment and that's where the importance of doing an early intervention is so key.


Does an addict have to be willing to enter treatment for it to work?

I was always under the notion that to be able to treat the drug addicted person, they have to be willing, to want to stop taking the drugs. One of the things that I rapidly learned was that I was wrong... that that was a prejudice of mine and many of my colleagues. Mandated treatment is affective. The data is there to prove it. When you go look at the numbers, and you see them replicated under very different conditions with different types of drug addicts.. and it works.. you start to come to recognize that the notion of voluntary treatment is not indispensable for success. Mandatory treatment works.


What can family and friends do to help?

Family and friends can play a very important role in helping someone to go to treatment and to encourage them and motivate them to stay in treatment. So they play a role at both those stages. Number one, making the person recognize that they do have a problem with addiction.. that they do need help, which is not something that occurs automatically.
Once they go into treatment, the family can play an extremely important role to maintain the motivation to stay in the treatment. The family, many times, needs to be treated, because there is so much disruption, that there are very abnormal patterns in the communication of the family members that develop as a result of the addiction. If not dealt with, those abnormal patterns may contribute to relapse.


This leaves me with lots of questions.. Is SR affiliated with a specific program that disagrees with NIDA? Or, are these just new findings, and NIDA had partnered with HBO to spread the word? And the biggest question for me, should I be doing something? So, what do you think of these statements?



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p.s. This is from NIDA's FAQ:

When is the best time to get someone into treatment? [↑Top]

It is a myth that an addict must hit "rock bottom" to be ready for treatment. The reality is, treatment works regardless of whether a person has hit rock bottom; and catching a person earlier in the addiction cycle, may mean fewer accompanying problems and a better overall prognosis for long-term recovery. Further, "rock bottom" is a dangerous place to be, and for many addicts, that point is when a near-fatal overdose or other serious health or criminal justice consequence has occurred. If you think a loved one is in need of treatment, it is advisable to do everything in your power to help them find the courage, determination, and means to seek treatment as early as possible.