Thought about this today because I met someone who's been in more than a dozen programs. Halfway houses, treatment, sober living. You name it and he's been there. And not for a short time either. He says that he spent a year or more in some of these places. Maybe seven years total.
When I asked him why so many rehabs, he kind of shrugged his shoulders and said "they just didn't work for me.
So he and I got into a lengthy discussion about responsibility. And the bottom line is I told him in a nice way that he was simply too lazy to put in the effort to change. He already had plenty of information.
Because while I'd been running TLC for 25+ years and think it's the best, I know there are many great programs. There's the Salvation Army, Teen Challenge, Chicanos por la Causa, and a myriad of smaller programs.
And one thing I know about them is that if one does what the program directs them to - they'll succeed.
When a person says a program "didn't work," what he's really saying is that he didn't work.
I've seen people get sober just by going to 12-step meetings. By joining a church. Or falling in love.
The real thing about recovery is we have to have enough pain to want to change. If we have the desire most any program will work - if we put in the effort.
