Treatment
Hnery here. According to the New York Times “Representative Patrick J. Kennedy said Friday that he was seeking treatment for addiction to prescription medicines after he crashed his car into a traffic barrier on Capitol Hill, in the latest crisis for one of America’s storied political families.”
Some people will say that Kennedy is seeking treatment because he was caught, and that may well be partially correct. But the hardest battle to deal with for an addicted person is not whether they are caught or not. Many addicted people are caught in their addiction but they do not change.
The hardest thing to deal with is rather something inside themselves. That something is their denial that they are addicted. Addiction to anything is seductive, insidious, and destructive, as well as hidden. It is this need to hide the addiction especially from oneself and ones loved ones which is the biggest barrier to getting help.
Kennedy is doing the right thing. Hopefully he will stay in treatment long enough to help him overcome this evil and take it “one day at a time.”