Book Review
Helping the Addict You Love
By
Apr 15, 2008 - 11:30:40 AM

The New Effective Program for Getting the Addict into Treatment


(HealthNewsDigest.com) - Hollywood has long set the standard for everyday Americans to shape their lives around the trends they set. Currently, drug and alcohol abuse is trendy among the most recognized stars. A recent, New York Times article, “New Generation Gap as Older Addicts Seek Help” magnifies substance abuse not in just the Lindsey Lohan or Britney Spears crowd but in an older generation—aged 55+. Therefore, it goes without saying that drug and alcohol abuse is a problem affecting us all one way or another and a fresh solution may change this trend wave for the better.

In Helping the Addict You Love: The New Effective Program for Getting the Addict into Treatment (Fireside Books / A Simon & Schuster Trade Paperback; April 15, 2008; ISBN: 0-7432-9214-6; $15.00), Dr. Laurence Westreich offers a compelling new method for addicts and their loved ones to positively reach the road to recovery.

According to Dr. Westreich, the traditional “tough love” approach to persuading an addict into treatment will ultimately lead to failure. As a result, he wrote HELPING THE ADDICT YOU LOVE to help family and friends of drug-addicted loved ones reach their ultimate goal without having to endure the pain of watching them hit rock bottom.

Helping the Addict You Love offers professional advice on how to recognize telltale signs of drug abuse in a step-by-step program that will ultimately change the face of addiction. Throughout, Dr. Westreich covers all angles of addiction and treatment in four sections, including:

An Addiction Primer – presents foolproof ways to know your loved one is addicted, details various drugs and teaches effective ways to talk to an addict.
Strategies for Getting the Addict into Treatment – discusses how to engage a therapist in the process and teaches methods for combating an addicts defense mechanisms.
Treatment Options – outlines what treatment options require of the recovering addict and their friends and families, and how successful they are.

When Addiction is Just One of the Problems – discusses special situations in addition to substance abuse problems such as: the addict is pregnant, has mental or medical illnesses, or is a minor.

In this powerful book, Dr. Westreich equips us with detailed information on the effects of each drug of choice to better initiate early action. In addition, the two main concepts of his program, Creative Engagement and Constructive Coercion, offer more pain-free approaches to combating addiction and reaching the most effective level of treatment.

Creative Engagement is a concept that takes the “tough” out of “tough love” and advises family and friends of addicts to keep the lines of communication open and continue to encourage treatment options without threats and ultimatums.
Constructive Coercion offers a less demanding, alienating alternative to intervention and has fared much better than the traditional approach.

With this innovative program, from the lifelong work and experience of Dr. Westreich, comes an effectual solution for anyone facing the destructive power of drugs. By taking the advice in HELPING THE ADDICT YOU LOVE, we can combat addiction with a strategy that not only maintains support among addicts and their loved ones but also achieves the results that too often seem hopeless.

About the Author:

Laurence M. Westreich, M.D., is a board certified psychiatrist who specializes in the treatment of patients dually diagnosed with addiction and mental disorders. He is currently associate professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the NYU School of Medicine. Dr. Westreich formerly worked as the Director of Bellevue Hospital’s Detoxification Unit and then as Director of the hospital’s Dual Diagnosis Unit. He is board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in general psychiatry and forensic psychiatry, holds a certificate of added qualifications in addiction psychiatry, and is certified as an addiction specialist by the American Society of Addiction Medicine. Dr. Westreich is also the chair of Park West Associates, a group of private practice psychiatrists who focus on the treatment of addicted and dually diagnosed individuals as well as forensic matters. He also serves as Consultant on Drugs of Abuse to Major League Baseball. He lives in Upper Montclair, New Jersey, with his wife and three children.

HELPING THE ADDICT YOU LOVE

The New Effective Program for Getting the Addict into Treatment

Fireside Books/A Simon & Schuster Trade Paperback

On Sale Date: April 15, 2008 / ISBN: 0-7432-9214-6 / Price: $15.00

For more information on HELPING THE ADDICT YOU LOVE, please visit: www.helpingtheaddictyoulove.com or www.simonsays.com.

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