Should I decide against putting my loved one into treatment because I don’t want them to be insulted or offended?

In this video, I want to talk to you about a family called me. They had an adult son in his late 30s who had been dealing with substance use and mental illness issues for about five years. Addicted to marijuana, pain pills, heroin, meth, you name it.

We had a long discussion over several weeks about Marchman Acting the individual. Finally, the parents told me, “We’re not going to do it.” and I asked them why. They said, “We’re worried that he’s going to feel that he’s being insulted and offended. We’re not going to do it.”

I just felt such sadness for the family. When somebody calls us, we’re certainly flattered. We cannot decide for you to put your loved one into treatment because you have to decide. I give you options, but when I hear that kind of a response, it makes me very sad because when somebody is dealing with substance use or mental illness, and it’s been going on for years, they are typically getting worse with the time. This is what happens with those diseases. Ultimately, if the state doesn’t take custody of them, either through a Baker Act or through the criminal process, they’re going to end up dead.

From literally the thousands of parents that we’ve spoken to, I understand that you don’t want your child to hate you, you don’t want to insult your child, and you don’t want them to be offended. But if I’m not beating around the bush, if you don’t take action, if you don’t decide to get your loved one into treatment and keep them there, they’re either going to end up in prison, in the state mental institution, or they’re just going to be dead. I know that might sound harsh, but we lost three people, all women last year. It made me so sad because this is all we do. We don’t do anything else here at Drug and Alcohol Attorneys. I don’t take any other kinds of cases. I’m not filing Marchman on Monday, divorces on Tuesday, and a car accident case on Wednesday. We only take substance use and mental illness cases, and we take them seven days a week, 24 hours a day, from families all over the country.

I know this is a serious commitment of time, energy, money, but this is serious stuff, and if you don’t make the decision that needs to be made and something terrible happens to your loved one, you will hate yourself. I know this from experience from families who have not taken action and then have called me and said, “You were right, we should have done it.” and now their loved one is imprisoned or dead.

I’m happy to talk to a family, but I want you to do the best you can to be objective and think rationally. Because right now, things are crazy. Don’t worry about your loved one being insulted or being offended or hating you when you get them clean and get them into recovery. They will be the first ones to thank you for saving them because they’ll see the light, and they will feel like they did before this devil, this disease that took hold of their life.

With that said, thanks for tuning in. Thank you to that family that called us. I hope that at some point, they call us back. But if you’re a family who’s got a loved one struggling, we’re here to help you. So please reach out for help. Take care, bye.