The Road Out Blog

Hello everybody, sorry about the long silence, I have received some emails asking what’s up. I have been busy launching a couple of new projects, one on the net and one in the classrooms. But I should be able to catch up here soon!

During a lecture in a library last week, a teacher asked a question:         

“Tony, what are the chances of anybody completely overcoming drug addiction, really?”

Before I answered him I asked if he ever knew someone who was successful at overcoming addiction to drugs and he said, “You are the only one.”  The students just stared at him. 

So what are the chances of not only beating addiction to drugs but getting back to “normal”?   Excellent

A man just left my office with a plan to speak to students in chapters of his old fraternity around the nation regarding the drug problems being found in the various chapters. 

He had come to me for suggestions on how to approach the administration in the fraternities home office so they would support his efforts with at least travel expenses, he is willing to do work for free, but can’t run all over the US without at least expense money.

Caleb is a young teen living in an affluent area of a major California city. Although he is quite young, Caleb, (not his real name), has shown himself to have unusual talent in acting and singing and has starred in plays in middle school, high school and the local community college. He’s even acted in a few television commercials.

I first heard of this young man from his aunt who attended a parent seminar I gave at a high school in another part of town. The aunt told of her increasing worries over drugs and alcohol abuse among the crowd that Caleb was hanging with. She said that although he was talented and quite handsome, his judgment was poor and he had more courage than sense. I tried to reach the family but got no response.

Addiction to drugs or alcohol hasn't an on-off switch. There is not really a point at which you can say, "Wow, yesterday I was just a drug abuser, but today I am a drug addict."

Most of the drug abusers do not become addicted. They abuse drugs for a certain period and then just sort of graduate out of it; or they become interested in life and realize that drug use is getting in the way of their goals and simply stop.

The truth of the matter is this, the addict has control, always did. Claiming otherwise is what keeps him a slave to drug abuse. Only when he acknowledges that it is he who is responsible for taking the drugs will he ever be able to stop taking them. 

What is the difference between an addicted individual and one who has stopped their drug taking?  If we examine this, we can learn something useful about drug addiction.