Expert: Jurriaan Plesman, Nutritional Psychotherapist - 6/19/2008

Question
I am a 45 year old female registered nurse.  I have been with my boyfriend for 3 years.  He suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (I believe...he has never been properly diagnosed),alcoholism and now, I am afraid he has recently become addicted to crack.  I am at the point of giving up on our relationship but this is my last ditch effort to save it.  I want to help him any way that I can.  I am at a loss.  I feel as if he wants help but isn't ready to seek it.  He has not been honest with me about the crack use, I am clean so I sense he hides it from me.  He has told me he has been using it however.  Where do I start?  I confronted him last night, I wasn't mean about it, just told him how concerned I was and how much I loved him and missed the "real" him.  Please help me get started on how to handle this from here, I don't want to do the wrong thing, I love him very much but I'm afraid his self destruction will eventually kill him.  Thank you so much. :(

Answer
Hi beth,

Dealing with an addict is always difficult, because addiction is a very serious disease, and difficult to treat. An addict has to be really motivated to seek treatment (see Values Clarification below) and the trouble is that the most treatment facilities fail, because they do not understand the biochemical underpinnings of addiction. So long your partner is addicted you may expect him  to lie about his addiction and use of drugs, because they simply cannot help it. If he is motivated the best is to have him detoxified in a medically supervised detoxification centre.

See:

Values Clarification course at:
http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/psychotherapy/values_clarification.html

Treatment of Drug Addiction at:
http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/articles/treatment_drug_addiction.html

Then he needs to be treated for the biochemical abnormality that keeps him returning to drugs. Please read:

Drug Addiction is a Nutritional Disorder at:
http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/articles/drug_addictions_nutritional_disorder.htm...

Alcoholism (Addiction) is a Treatable Disease at:
http://curezone.com/upload/PDF/Articles/jurplesman/alcoholism_treatable.pdf

Why Alcoholics Drink? at
http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/articles/WAD.html

Self-help Personal Growth Psychotherapy at:
http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/articles/self-help_personal_growth.html

and ask for a referral to a Nutritional Doctor, a Clinical Nutritionist or a Nutritional Psychologist.

_______________________________________________
Jurriaan Plesman
Editor of
The Hypoglycemic Health Association of Australia.
www.hypoglycemia.asn.au
Author of "Getting off the Hook"
Freely available at Google Book Search
Skype: jurplesman