Truth or Dare

Or should I say, "Dare to tell the truth". Why is that addicts lie? Last while speaking to an addict, who had just returned from a trip to his home town for the holidays where he spent two weeks with his parents, he told me that he had had a "minor slip up" and had "used" on one occasion. Yeah right. Today he told me that he was lying (no surprise) last week and wanted to set the record straight. The "minor slip up" included 180 Lorcet, 180 Percocet, and 60 Xanax in a period of two weeks. Not only did he find a bottle that he had stashed at home but even paid a visit to his local doc for a script for the Percocet. Shame on the doc for writing the script! He assured me when he got back to his treatment program that he had been off the narcotics for the past week but had taken much more Ultram than he had been instructed. Upon leaving the office he told me how much better he felt that he had cleared the air. Before he left the office I found out that he lied to me again!!!

If you put an addict on an operating table and opened hem up you still could not find the truth. It happens everyday in my office and in our treatment program. Last week an alcoholic told me she only drank one day over the past 30. her husband told me today that she was sober only one day over the same period.

Obviously the primary motivating factor behind the lies of an addict is that they just don't want us to know how much they are using. But why minimize it? What purpose does it serve once you have decided to proceed with treatment. In the midst of lying an addict does their greatest disservice to themselves. They are really just lying to themselves and until they come to grip with the truth then recovery is just a myth.