How do I know if I should start treatment or schedule an initial consultation? There’s no need to distinguish between them—it’s all part of the process. From the moment a patient requests a consultation, questions arise: Is this normal? What’s wrong with me? Should I be worried about my health? Am I having problems with my family because of this or something else? etc.
That question in and of itself is highly therapeutic for the patient, because it involves taking stock of their current state (looking at themselves in the mirror), recognizing themselves from that perspective, and comparing emotional and psychological states—in short, a “before,” an “after,” and a “now.”
A question has great power if it is listened to professionally—or what is known as “active listening”—since one begins to to problematize The issue—which is the first step—because if I can see that there is a problem, then I can anticipate that there is a possible solution to it.
We don’t have a clear answer to this question until we sit down to listen during an intake or assessment interview (whatever we choose to call it) with the patient, that’s when an opportunity opens up to pose more questions to the person seeking help, to get them to rethink things, to reason with them, or simply to create a space that was previously blocked by addiction or the substance in their daily life. In Greek, an *addictus* is someone who, from the prefix *a* (meaning “not”), has lost their voice or diction (*dictus*). Our work from UniAdic It's so that the patient can regain their voice and look the people they love in the eye without feeling shame or guilt. Answering the question: How do I know if I should start treatment?
