often don’t have this kind of credibility. Recovering rehab counselors can
be sympathetic and still hammer away at the self-deception they recog-
nize from their own experience.
After his second DUI, Brandon lands in alcohol treatment. He
thinks he can stop anytime he wants. His rehab counselor thinks
he’s in denial.
“Brandon, you’re just like I was five years ago,” the coun-
selor says. “A practicing alcoholic. Myself, I practiced every day.
Thought I could quit too. And kept thinking that until I lost my
wife and kid, and got canned from my job.”
“That’s you, not me,” Brandon says. “I’m not an alcoholic;
I don’t need alcohol. I don’t have any craving at all.”
The rehab counselor smiles and shakes his head. “Hey
buddy, that’s just your denial talking. I said the same things five
years ago.”Rehab worked, Brandon got clean and sober.
Take away the addiction from someone like Brandon and there’s still
a psychological disorder underneath. The 12-step model works less well with
these. Mostly it’s because of the very thing that makes it so effective with
addictions—the personal experience of the person doing the treatment.
Therapists who identify too strongly with their clients tend to become
advocates or prosecutors, or a weird combination of the two, as Brandon
discovered when he asked his rehab counselor for advice about anger.
“Hey, I know that scene backward and forward,” the rehab coun-
selor says. “Instant a-hole, just add beer. Been there, done that.”
“But I’ve been clean and sober three months now,” Bran-
don says, “ and my wife says I still have an anger control prob-
lem.”
The rehab counselor leans forward in his chair. “How did
it make you feel when she said that?”
“I don’t know, I guess it kind of ticked me off.”
“Did you tell her how you felt?”
“No, but —”What’s Wrong with These People? ❧ 43