The Wrong Way to Do the Right Thing
Friends tell me that I have a knack for doing the right thing in the wrong way. It’s compliment, I think. I imagine doing the right thing is always, well, the right thing to do. Anyhow, let me get to my story and I’ll knit the headline together with the point I want to make here.
I had dinner a couple of nights ago with a screenwriter in Hollywood where I’ve been staying for a few months. A friend of mine introduced us. She’s been worried about him for a while, I came to find out. You see, he’s been drinking heavily.
We talked about the movies, his recent trip to Mexico and the new publication on the film industry which he’s trying to get off the ground. As the conversation rolled on, I watched him drink an entire bottle of wine. The wine barely affected him. This can’t be the first alcohol of the day, I thought. He’s a drunk, I painfully realized.
My frieds say I have another knack: I can pierce the social veneer and get to the person hiding behind it. Easily. I don’t mind invading a person’s space, so to speak, if I sense that their space is hostile and forbidding to them.
Snesing that my new friend was in trouble, I set out to pierce his veneer and to get to the heart of the matter. The veneer crumbled quickly. He suffers from depression, he told me. Went to a doctor just the other day for it. Gave him anti depresssants. He took one. By this time, as his story splayed before me, I cringed. I knew one of two things would come next. He was at a crossroads of truth. Either he would discover the danger of taking drugs to “solve” his alcoholism or he would not.
I asked him what happened when he took the anti-depressant. His eyes grew big, almost wild with amazement. “I collapsed in the bottom of my bath tub for an hour with the shower running full stream on me, feeling nothing, unable to move. I’ll never take another one again.”
“Oh God thank you”, I thought. I can do something for this lost soul. I know I don’t have a lot of time. If he doesn’t handle the real problem and soon, he will once again become desperate, and desperate people are prone to do the wrong thing.
If you’re trying to handle addiction, the wrong thing to do is hook the addict on potent, mind altering medications with well known side effects which as his doctor admitted can cause suicide. That’s the wrong way to do the right thing.
In 30 minutes of intimate conversation, we discovered the source of his depression for real. I got him to see how something could be done about it. Gave a few simple suggestions to take back control of his life. He got it, and he’s reaching for real help. Help that will rid his body of drugs and alcohol for good.
When it comes to beating addiction, doing it the right way is the only way to go. We specialize in helping our Clients find the right way to do the right thing. If you or a love one need drug rehab in Georgia, please call us today. We can refer you to a program that can help you or your loved one beat addiction for good.
Here’s to your success,
Fritz Alders
Managing Partner, Georgia Alliance