The Business of Recovery is a documentary focusing on the rehab industry, which I understand is huge. And if you are like me, you have a lot of secondhand experience with recovery and the claims made to entice or scare people into a rehab clinic.
I tell a story about a wonderful friend who, at the age of 84 following a life of wonderful achievement helping people, decided she smoked and drank too much. She was not inconveniencing people, but had heard the messages society gives out about smoking and drinking. She checked herself into an addiction center and passed away of a heart attack while checking in. My takeaway is that if you have reached the age she had and enjoyed smoking and alcohol, why stress. In my belief, we want to identify those who are on a trajectory to addiction and help them before the symptoms are so severed that they are shamed or bullied into going to rehab.
My ex-mother-in-law had an alcohol problem and went to rehab a number of times, including the revered Betty Ford Center. She still had a drinking problem when she passed away at a very young age (40's). I have an uncle who was a regular in rehab for decades before he also passed away at a too young age (60's). Unlike my elderly friend, their habits were the product of severe ACE's, and their trajectory to behavioral issues and health problems was readily apparent early on in their lives.
When we wait until the symptoms appear, the behaviors are much more difficult to treat. That's why the documentary refers to the 90 to 95% failure rate for alcohol treatment. We pay a huge price for ignoring identification of an unhealthy life trajectory and intervening when the solutions are more achievable.
When I refer to an unhealthy life trajectory, I am not saying that people with a high ACE score and increasing visible ACE-generated behaviors are always going to sink to the bottom. I am aware that many traumatized adults are functioning fine despite many such behaviors. But it only takes one episode for a traumatized adult to sink rapidly in a short period of time. I am reminded of a young woman who was driving while intoxicated and hit and killed a cyclist. The trajectory accelerated rapidly. In many systems, mistakes and errors have minor consequences. But one mistake or error can have life-shattering consequences.
As always, I am trying to provoke thought and a conversation about what is achievable with a different way of thinking. And while this documentary is provocative, it does challenge many of our long-held beliefs about treating addiction. Maybe we should pay heed to the challenge and start that new conversation and try to bring it to our policymakers in our state legislatures and Congress.
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