Today I will be talking about a friend who was relapsing with drugs
after years of sobriety. As I sat there with open arms and looking her
in the eye, I let her cry as I listened. I did not physically comfort her
because many times the person thinks that is a cue that they should
now stop crying. I asked her questions such as what event led up to
her relapse? Did she go out and find the drugs or did a "friend" bring
her the drugs. a I did not interrupt her as she spoke. Much of her
language was rambling, but I did not interrupt her to bring her back to
the topic at hand. I just let her let out all of the pain inside. Then I
asked her a few more questions. a "How do you feel now that you have
relapsed?" I attentively listened. a "Did she think this relapse was a
one-time mistake, or did she give up on sobriety for the time being?"
She would often go off topic, and that was fine with me. a Then what
we did was make a pros and cons list of using. a Once we put it on
paper, she was able to see physically what she wanted to do. She
decided that she wanted to be clean again. So, we looked up Narcotic
Anonymous meetings near her. a I offered to go with her, if she would
like. She said she would appreciate the support. Then we had to
come up with a plan to keep her clean in between meetings. We made
another list of those ideas. a One of them, by here choice, was to call
me daily to let me know what was going on in her life that day. After
we were done, we did embrace, and I told her how strong she was
and how she can do this again. a As far as I know, she is sober to this
day. a I do not take credit for this. a I am just super proud of her and the
strides she made. a I plan on using these tactics in my professional life
(except the hug) and hope I can help even one more person. It was a
very emotional situation, but one that I remember with tears welling
up in my eyes.
