Everyone knows that people who need drug addiction treatment are usually dead set against it.
They almost always fight the idea tooth and nail looking for every excuse in the world to avoid treatment.
Can you imagine a heart disease patient looking for every excuse to avoid treatment? When you have heart disease other people may feel bad for you but they don't feel bad about you.
You are not a bad person if you have heart disease.
If you are drug addicted other people sometimes do think you are a bad person.
Ouch.
No one wants to be a bad person.
Just accepting the disease of addiction is most often a huge challenge.
In the end we know that addiction is a chronic and progressive disease, just like heart disease.
Either disease can and often does end in death if not treated.
That means what we do every day as treatment professionals really is a matter of life and death.
But that's not what this is about.
Having made the point that drug addiction patients resist treatment there is something of a miracle that happens every for those people who are fortunate enough to get the treatment they need.
After two or three weeks of residential treatment patients who would have avoided treatment suddenly want to stay longer and resist leaving! Amazing, but true.
It has to be a change at the deepest levels of the heart.
Broken hearts are common with addiction patients.
This isn't the kind of heart disease your surgeon can fix.
However, it would seem that broken hearts do heal during drug addiction treatment.
So, among other things, we mend broken hearts as treatment professionals.
What is it that heals a broken heart? To answer this question just look at what breaks a person's heart.
Hearts break when something is lost.
We all know that lost love will break our hearts whether it is a loved one who has passed away or a person we love who doesn't return our love.
These are all obvious heart breakers.
Less obvious is the loss of self-respect or the loss of respect from some one else who is important.
Most insidious is the loss of one's own self worth.
The self worth of alcoholics and addicts is attacked continuously as the drug addiction is practiced.
Unconditional positive regard is absent from the life of the alcoholic or addict.
The heart is going to break as soon as the human being who is addicted comes to believe that they are not worthy of love.
As treatment professionals we really do try to practice what we preach.
Keep it simple is one of the really good ones.
We simply believe that alcoholics and addicts are human beings worthy of the respect, dignity, and love of other human beings.
After about two or three weeks of this, addiction patients actually start to believe it.
The broken heart of self worthlessness begins to mend.
Worthlessness begins disappearing like the rising sun dissolves night's darkness.
The heart realizes something good is happening.
What is broken starts to heal.
It is no wonder why patients who stay long enough want to stay longer.
Drug addiction treatment should be a place where human beings, regardless of whether or not they are addicted, can find unconditional positive regard.
Nothing mends a broken heart like the return of self-worth.
But that's not what this is about.
Do you have a pet cat or dog that you love? When they walk into the room are you happy to see your pet? Can your pet walk into the room fifty times a day and get the same happy greeting from you fifty times a day? Wouldn't it be nice if we human beings all treated each other with the happy-to-see-you greeting we give the animal pets we love? Our animal friends give us unconditional positive regard so that's why we are so darn happy to see them fifty times a day.
There is a lesson in here for us human beings and that's what this is actually about.