Some Things You May Not Know About Addiction
When You Stop Using Your Drug, You Find the Real Issue
“Ask one of the patients at your unit if you could interview him,” my professor said, giving me a tape recorder. “Ask him if he would tell you why he uses drugs.”
I said I would. I was ready. I wanted to know why people use drugs. I was an intern at a chemical dependency unit at a VA medical hospital.
“Above all,” my professor added. “When you interview the patient, be non-judgmental. That’s all you have to do. When you’re non-judgmental it becomes easy for them to talk, and they need to talk. You’ll be graded on how non-judgmental you are.”
I thought the assignment would be easy, but when I found someone who would talk with me, once he began to speak, he told me what he said he had never told anyone before.
“I’m a child molester,” he said.
I almost packed up my tape recorder and went to find someone easier. I was supposed to be non-judgmental. I was being graded on this.
He went on to tell me that the first time was his little sister, then some children he’d babysat. He hated himself for it. He joined the Navy just so he wouldn’t be around kids, but they stationed him in the Philippines, where there were plenty of child sex…
