A writing from Jeff Gould’s blog – one of our trusted interventionists here at Broad Highway Recovery & Interventions:
Some years ago, the local Arizona newspaper had an article on ‘recovery’ (written tongue-in-cheek) and with that article, they printed some statistics that they felt supported their expose, by means of whatever yellow journalistic research had gone into the piece before going to print.
In essence, what the article said was this: Only 8% of those afflicted with alcoholism and addiction with get well, and of those approximately 90% will go on to live ‘fringe’ lifestyles: food stamps, unemployment; constant supervision by case workers; & section eight housing. For life.
Now, to be fair, whomever had penned the article surely did the best they could, and kept the facts & numbers true to the control group they studied. Surely, if you are conducting interviews through a social work agency, or deriving your numbers of success rates from the local methadone clinic…why yes, those numbers would seem quite grim, but accurate to the group you are working with. Kind of like saying ‘Of the serial bank robbers we studied, ninety five percent of them continued robbing banks’. Which, inversely could go like this: ‘Of the reformed bank robbers we studied, almost ninety five percent of them never robbed a bank, ever again.’ Wait, what? A different perspective that doesn’t support the conclusions that have been drawn?
Sadly, many members of the program itself buy the same story- hook, line & sinker.
The last treatment center I ever resided in had multiple meetings per week brought in. Almost inevitably, some zealous -but misinformed- 12 step volunteer would wag a finger around the room, touting the message that went something like this:
‘By this time next year, three of you will be dead, and the rest will be drunk or in prison. Only one of you is going to get this thing.’ Only one of you.
Pause for effect, let that hopelessness sink right in.
I heard that message not once, but three times.
This, for a person whose never won on a scratcher lottery ticket. This, for someone who’d experienced a life long pattern of unbelievably bad luck, and misfortune. This, for a guy who rarely won at board games, and whose team often lost in sports meets. Surely, that lucky individual couldn’t possibly be me. Surely, when this phantom illness plucks us from the room- one by one- and drags us back to hell, I will again find myself among the unfortunate majority, harboring ill will towards that lucky soul who squeezed himself through the crack of percentages, never to drink again.
And, like the others, I was to remain under-informed, and buy into the lie. Nobody really gets well, of course not. We are all wasting time, hoping for an interval of calm in a lifelong hurricane, doomed to the same fate.
Lucky for me, I was oh-so-wrong.
The truth is simply this: people get well, and do so everyday. Our literature states that of those who honestly tried, 50% got well immediately, and almost half that number recovered later after some more bouts of trying to do things their way. What does that tell me? The same thing the literature tells me.
‘Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover cannot or will not give themselves to this simple program…’ The ‘Cannots’ I believe, are sociopaths. Persons who operate without conscience or regard for other people. Like alcoholics, they whole-heatedly act out of self interest. Unlike alcoholics, they do not experience waves of guilt after doing damage. Guilt, after all, is the act only of a being that possesses‘conscience’. Then, we have the ‘Willnots’; those whose intellectual pride condemn them from trying any idea not born of their own best thinking. Stuck in the mud of pride and self sufficiency, they often perish; and a combination of these two just about makes up the hapless 25% who are doomed to the bitter end.
As for the rest, well, you might not recognize them on the street if you saw them. They might be working the counter at your favorite restaurant, re-financing your home for you, or passing you on the street wearing a suit and tie. Such is the gift of anonymity, as has been my experience. Historical train wrecks of human beings, refitted and retooled with a new purpose. It is these folks, I think, who are rarely placed in positions to be in case studies, and collect data from. These folks rarely hang around social services offices, or ride the fringes of society, looking for a handout. It is these folks, who aside from their friends and family, are able to enjoy being re-born into a life, not wearing their past on their sleeve for all to see. It is these, the walking talking proof of success, that go quietly unnoticed, as it should be. There are, in fact, millions of them, growing in number everyday.
They are, well, Anonymous.
Jeff Gould, Interventionist
Broad Highway Recovery
(520) 270-8663
jgould72@yahoo.com