What is Motivation for Recovery from Drug Addiction?

What is Motivation for Recovery from Drug Addiction? The question is long and involved, complex and unique to every situation. Were it not so, AlAnon would have never needed to open, let alone be conceived.

Anyone who’s ever seen parents have to bury their children – or in my case, watch your grandparents bury your parent – knows firsthand the fears and incomprehensible repercussions of trying to get help for addicts to get their life on track. The scary realization is that sometimes the only true way to figure out how to help a drug addict or get help for drug abuse for those suffering from addiction is to be their motivation until they can motivate themselves. The man behind the curtain, so to speak.

But those who have done this before know it is not as simple as it sounds. Those who have done this before develop a newfound respect for those who have worked in Al Anon and other such organizations that help provide solutions and phases of recovery from chemical addiction.

Whether your experience looking for help on drug use for loved ones is first hand, searching the internet for online drug addiction recovery information or something as simple as reading your loved ones’ poems about drug recovery, solutions come from those who have done this before. Those who have been down this road before, who are willing to share what they learned while enduring the pain and anguish of addiction and dependency have war stories worth listening to.

Those like Joe Herzanek

“Why Don’t They Just Quit” by Joe Herzanek

Joe Herzanek is a man who has done this before and continues to sit on the front lines helping those who are going through phases of recovery from chemical addiction. He’s not a Doctor but a Chaplain at the Boulder County Jail in Boulder, Colorado. Joe Herzanek has worked as both a Chaplain and Addictions Counselor for the last fifteen years. His book “Why Don’t They Just Quit,” provides solutions and advice to loved ones, giving them help for addicts to get their life on track. “Why Don’t They Just Quit?” was the winner of the Best Self Help Book at the 2008 Next Generation Indie Book Awards.

The thought and research that went into the award-winning “Why Don’t They Just Quit?” not only came from his professional experience but from his life experience. At the time of this post, Joe Herzanek has been sober nearly 30 years. His wife, Judy, nearly 25 years. According to the Changing Lives Foundation website, Joe struggled with drug and alcohol addiction from the time he was 13 until his sobriety began at age 29.

With all the diversity among the issues, solutions and ideas Joe Herzanek outlines in “Why Don’t They Just Quit?” Joe continues to focus his writings around a fundamental question. The same question addressed by AlAnon, NA, Chaplains, shelters, counselors and anyone who helps to try and provide solutions for how to help a drug addict, help for drug abuse, or how to give motivation for recovery from drug addiction:

How can you help people with a drug/alcohol addiction?

You can also find an excerpt of Joe Herzanek’s “Why Don’t They Just Quit?” on the website by the same name.

For those looking for solutions together and sharing in the research and struggle, the “Why Don’t They Just Quit?” series also provides a DVD that allows loved ones to watch and consider solutions together.

Joey Herzanek is trying to show you how you can help people with drug/alcohol addiction. If you choose to listen, I believe he would be gracious. If you choose to find your answers elsewhere – AlAnon, local church…- I believe Joe would be happy as well. In the end, the idea is to figure solutions so no one ever again has to lament,

“Why Don’t They Just Quit?”

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