A MESSAGE TO ALCOHOLICS AND ADDICTS When I, as a confirmed and chronic drug addict, booked myself into rehab, the message was clear. Psychologists, psychiatrists, doctors, occupational and all sorts of other therapists, even the nurses, made it very clear. ‘Once a drug addict, always a drug addict.’

Several times a day, every day, the affirmation was drummed into the minds of the abusers trying to kick the habit
.
Surely this meant that I was wasting my time in a rehabilitation centre trying to conquer the addiction?
That I was powerless against this force?

Nothing can be further from the truth.
A human being has the power to change anything in his/her life.
All you need is the desire to do so.

 

The only person at this rehabilitation centre that did not affirm this every day was the psychologist who had been assigned as my personal therapist.
I am not sure if it was the fact that she was an intern at the time and still a bit naïve, or if she maybe knew better, but Trudi de Ridder played a major role in guiding me towards lifting the fog from my brain.

I have been drug free for over eighteen years now.

I am technical enough to not say ‘I will never do drugs again.’

But I am not currently a drug addict.
I haven’t been a drug addict for over eighteen years now.
Therefore, I can confidently say that I was ‘once a drug addict’, but I am certainly not ‘always a drug addict.’

Kader Khan
Editor
info@yummie.co.za