• Home

• Our Site

• About Us

• Yosemite Then

• Gold Rush

Features

• Home

• Questions and Answers

• Personal Stories

Communities

• Angels Camp

• Tuolumne County

  ---

• Business

  
  
  
  

Please tell the webmaster about any problems that you encounter.

“What I recognize as addiction,” says Larry Bouchard, MA, SAC “is behavior that may have begun as fun or escape, but continues now even though the fun is long gone. It seriously and adversely affects your health, your family, your finances and job. You may even have come to hate it but keep it up anyway. You can’t stop."

“When addicts hit bottom, and denial no longer works, when they realize they DO have a problem, and better seek treatment,” Larry continues, “they still have the feeling that no one else can understand what they’ve been through. Doctors and trained counselors are very important in treatment, but at the first point of contact, people seek reassurance in identification. They want to know they are not alone, that whoever is talking to them is non-judgmental, has been through it too. Most important, that the speaker has reached recovery him/herself . . . that the promise being made, that addiction can be overcome, is first-hand, personal and real."

“Medical knowledge is very important to recovery, but that comes later. There is a vast literature on how addicts will trust another recovered addict when they will not trust a doctor, no matter how experienced in the field.”

Click here to return to Questions and Answers.