A SIMPLE HUG: This is for that one client. In a single shift, working in substance abuse it is possible to go through every human emotion possible; Happiness to despair; from A-Z and then back again. You are also, on most days, given an in depth review of your character; a courtesy granted to you by the clientele. It is the job of most clients to find the chinks in your armor. This is their goal. They will attempt to break you to make you angry, frustrate you, exacerbate you or just bait you in general with the premeditated intent of trying to push you off of your metaphorical personal cliff and into the abyss. They need for you to be off balance for any imbalance in you surely signifies justifies why they should not look to you for direction, hope, and a better life. They look for what they perceive to be your character defects using microscopic laser sharp attention and then display those defects, real or not, back to you in 3D full Monty graphic detail accented with surround sound. They do this only as a means to rationalize their continued substance abuse not because they give a damn about you. They are addicts, getting high is the only thing they want, they care not for you or anyone because they have no sense of care and love for themselves. They are truly lost and broken. They know one thing, and that is to chase that dragon; getting to that imagined perfect high. They do this, and yet every addict in their deepest stage of addiction fully realizes deep inside that there in no perfect high; even they know this is just a lie and that is the reason why so many die because nothing else matters. So with all the above being noted why would anyone with a sane mind put themselves though this seeming torture and choose substance abuse as a profession? For myself, it comes down to just one. Just one client. That Acutely suicidal client that told you in total cold honesty while also being fully genuine that they did not ask to be in this world, that they do not want to be in this world, and at the present age of 27 they will not be here by the age of 30 because they have made a deal with the darkness to kill themselves. It comes down to just being there to listen with an open heart in that moment with that client. Being there with them in their darkness as they teeter on the verge of falling off of their personal metaphorical cliff and into the abyss. And many times it comes down to helping them not to fall off their cliff by simply giving that client not words in that moment but a warm authentic honest tender hug. Granted, a firm empathetic not sympathetic kick in the ass and tough love is what most clients generally need but clients dont care until they truly believe that you do. So, It comes down to that client coming to you on their first day in treatment with soulless dead eyes and the sincerest honesty to tell you that they intend on killing themselves, how they will do it and when, and then having that same client come back to you 10, 20, 30, 90 days later and wrap you in a full bear hug filled with a sincere love and a bright unmistakable spark of life in their eyes. It comes down to that one client. It comes down to that one client, in that one moment, in that one hug freely returned when the client says to you, thank you. But, it is not about being thanked by the client because it is not about you. It is about them. It is about being able to look in that clients eyes and say, no, thank you and thank yourself. That is why a person would choose to work in the substance abuse field. This song is for that client. Because this client now has a chance at living this song.
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 19:26:49 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015