Columnists, fans, even family members bemoan the failure of Lindsay Lohan's rehabilitation stint.
Forced to attend a 30-day drug program under protest, she left denying she's an alcoholic and quickly resumed her all-night drinking and drug use.
She was quickly rearrested for a DUI accident.
Reacting with contempt and pity, observers say Lohan should be forced back into treatment until she acknowledges her addictions - like the Salem witches were dunked until they admitted cohabitating with the devil.
But I have a different approach. I don't begin by telling people they're addicted, then work backwards towards abstinence. I ask them how they see their lives, including their drug use and drinking.
An interaction might go like this:
"Tell me about your substance use."
"What do you mean?"
"How much do you drink and do other things. Describe the circumstances."
"When night comes, I just feel an urge to go out and party. I know that's what my friends are doing, and I feel like being with them."
"I see. How is that working for you?
"Fine. . . . I've had some problems."
"Tell me about these."
"Well, I sometimes get foggy about what I'm doing and where I'm going."
Notice that I avoid condemning the person. I find that this encourages honesty and trust.
In addition to exploring problems, I am equally concerned to examine the positive, strong parts of my clients' lives - including activities, people, and values that counteract their negative behavior.
Questions that tap into these things include:
"What else do you enjoy doing aside from partying?"
"Do you have friends who don't party?"
"What is most important in your life? What would you like to achieve?" (In Lindsay's case, she has had a successful acting career and has indicated that she wants to be taken seriously as an actress.)
My goal is to elicit and emphasize the forces already in people's lives that have the potential to outweigh and overcome the addiction.
Note that I don't assume that a young person (Lohan is 20) is saddled with a lifetime disease. For one thing, I don't believe it.
[Photo: Lindsay Lohan passed out in a car, reportedly after drinking in a club.]
Perhaps you recall that People ran a cover story on 13-year-old Drew Barrymore calling her "America's youngest addict."
In 2007, the magazine selected the 32-year-old Barrymore as the world's most beautiful person! Her interview was devoid of any reference to her "disease."
Barrymore, after her stint at drug treatment at age 15, became emancipated so that she could work as an adult. Her career was soon on track Through work, positive friends, and a changed self-image, Barrymore transformed herself.
Yet this is not the aim of drug and alcohol treatment, whose goal instead is to force young people to see themselves as a lifetime alcoholics or addicts.
One person who refused to do this was Koren Zailckas, whose book Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood describes her decade-long dependence on alcohol from the age of 14.
After graduating college, Zailckas finally found meaningful work and companionship that ruled out constant drinking and intoxication.
Zailckas was criticized for defying the standard approach to drug and alcohol treatment, even though she was a success story!
Her response to such criticism is indicative: "the brand 'alcoholic' prevents a lot of young people from reevaluating their relationship with alcohol."
The point of my approach - which is often called motivational interviewing - is to allow people to confront their problems in terms that they find meaningful.
This makes their problems more manageable, and they can tackle them from their own perspective based on their strengths and values.
For, as we see with Lindsay Lohan, simply putting a person away for 30 days is not a lifetime solution.
From Stanton Peele's blog
http://www.peele.net/blog/index.html
