So this is an alt account not my main. short little backstory. I (29M) am clean 5.5 years from drugs and alcohol. I currently work in addiction treatment. My goal is to open my own Christian based treatment center eventually. Anyway, I got clean and decided I wanted to help others get clean so I started working in addiction recovery. I’m the Lead Behavioral Health Technician at my job so I know the programs (AA/NA/Etc) inside and out since I’ve been through them and now guide others through them. So I should be well versed. Here’s my problem.
I have a friend, we’ll call her K (26F). K and I met at an AA meeting 5 years ago. We had a romantic interest but ultimately decided to remain friends as I had a child and she doesn’t want kids. We’re very good friends. She’s met both of my sons, she’s met my family and closest friends, she’s even met my gf. She has an addiction problem. Cocaine is her favorite as was mine. She’s such a sweet girl. She’s just caught in the grips of addiction. She can gather some clean time. She does good. She slips. She can’t get long term sobriety.
How do I help her? I can help random strangers get clean and change their lives but I can’t seem to help one of my best friends get clean. And before anyone says “she has to want to get clean,” this girl has cried to me countless times and been to treatment countless times and can’t grasp it. How do I as her friend and a professional in this field help her? I can’t put her in my program because of conflicts of interest. What are y’all’s opinions and advices. Thanks in advance.
Comments
Reach out to your immediate recovery community? Please let me know if you’ve tried that and for some reason it hasn’t worked out.
IME the recovery community isn’t 110% reliable, but the majority subscribe to the message of service and want to help.
You don’t.
Head over heart. Especially when it comes to recovery.
And if one euphemism wasn’t bad enough, here’s another one.
Don’t set yourself on fire to keep someone else warm.