Family Intervention stories
Listen and read successful family intervention stories that inspire
This episode of The Addiction Podcast – Point of No Return is brought to you by Narconon Suncoast
Joanie Sigal and Jason Good with Narconon Suncoast speak with Bobby Newman about getting help with sobriety through Interventions and rehab centers like Narconon. Bobby shares some success stories of some tough cases, and some tips on how to get your loved ones agreement for an intervention.
Bobby Newman is a Certified Substance Abuse Counselor, Prevention Specialist and Intervention Professional with a 90% success rate of getting people into treatment. He is a former addict, so knows all the whys and hows that prevent the addict from getting clean and sober.
Bobby has developed a “25 Tips for a Successful Intervention” guide and an online course consisting of a series of videos to help YOU to do your own intervention and get your loved one into treatment NOW.
Family Intervention Stories – The Addiction Podcast
Transcript
Speaker 1:
The Addiction Podcast – Point of No Return, brought to you by Narconon Suncoast.
Joanie Sigal:
Hello, Jason.
Jason Good:
Hello, Joanie. Here we are. Another week down, another week for the books.
Joanie Sigal:
Episode number 67.
Jason Good:
That’s awesome.
Joanie Sigal:
Yes.
Jason Good:
We’ve come such a long way and is interesting because I was sitting with a bunch of the executives here and stuff like that, and everyone was commenting how many people seem to be reaching in that are listeners of the podcast. So it’s actually very, very cool that it’s being noticed.
Joanie Sigal:
I like that.
Jason Good:
How many people are actually taking action after listening to an episode, so I think it’s great. I think we’re actually… It’s doing what we want to do and it’s getting people to the point where they want more information. They want to do what they can do to help themselves or a loved one. And they’re picking up the phone and calling.
Joanie Sigal:
I like it. I mean, that’s the whole purpose. The whole purpose of why we’re doing this is to give people hope and get them to call in and get the help that they need.
Jason Good:
Exactly. And you know, the more people that keep calling, the more people that get to understand what it is that we do, get to understand that there is another alternative to getting clean rather than the ones that people keep trying over and over getting again, expecting it to work the sixth time or the seventh time or the eighth time. And I think the more people that know that we’re here, the more people that lives can actually be saved and someone else doesn’t have to think they’re a throw away client. You know what I mean?
Joanie Sigal:
Exactly. And you don’t have to white knuckle your sobriety. You can actually get to the point where you were before you were on drugs in the first place. And that may not be totally realistic to a lot of addicts, but you know it’s true. The people that we interview know it’s true. The interview today knows it’s true. It’s like you can get back to where you were, even better than where you were before you started, because then you can also confront the problems that you had when you started in the first place and address those so that you don’t have to be unhappy and you don’t have to be addicted and you can be sober.
Jason Good:
Exactly, exactly. And you know, that’s why I always tell people, we don’t return people to where they were before they used drugs because the spot people were in before they used drugs was relatively unhappy with something or had some unhandled things in their life that they couldn’t figure out how to handle, didn’t want to handle and wanted to make it go away all together. So we actually get them to a point better than where they were.
Joanie Sigal:
Exactly. That’s exactly the point.
Jason Good:
It’s a very awesome, awesome experience. And I’ve said this before, I feel like Narconon would be great for people that aren’t even drug addicts just because what we do here can help literally encountering any difficulty in their lives. The unfortunate thing is here at Narconon we only treat drug addicts.
Joanie Sigal:
Right. So anything-
Jason Good:
So today we have-
Joanie Sigal:
We have a good interview today, but just anything else new or exciting at Narconon that I should know about? Are you guys-
Jason Good:
There’s always new and exciting things here at Narconon. It’s never a dull day. And I know I say that constantly over and over again. I could probably go on and on and tell you all the stories of all the wacky stuff that happens behind the closed doors of a rehab center. But you know, keeps me on my toes. Ordinarily on a weekly basis, I see something or encounter something completely new that I haven’t encountered or seen before in all my years working in rehabilitation. And so it keeps you on your toes, definitely is interesting. And you know, it’s never boring. I can say that. And right now I’m taking on a huge PR front and campaign. So I’m doing everything I can to make Narconon on a little bit more widely known. And so that’s really exciting and we’re going to keep pushing forward, getting people clean, patching people back together, making them better people, and giving families their loved ones back. And so that’s what we’re doing every day.
Joanie Sigal:
I love it. I love it. Well, you started demand and we do… We have an interview today. We are interviewing Bobby Newman. We have interviewed him before. You know him well, he’s a professional interventionist. I had the delight of meeting his wife recently. She was there at an Narconon graduation, beautiful lady. And yeah, he’s got lots of good things to tell us today. And when we are done, I’ll tell you some other things that he wants to talk to us about. So let’s put him on the air. Today, I am pleased to announce that we are going to be interviewing Bobby Newman again. We interviewed Bobby a few weeks ago. Bobby is a professional interventionist. He steps in when friends and family know that someone is addicted, but they don’t know how to get that person to agree to go to treatment. Let’s face it.
Joanie Sigal:
If someone does not agree to go to treatment, it’s not going to work for them. So Bobby has a step by step approach that works very well in these cases. 17 years ago, Bobby completed a long term rehabilitation program. And since then he’s educated more than 100,000 youth on the dangers of drug abuse and he’s helped hundreds of people find rehabilitation. So now his focus is on doing interventions that turn situations from tragic to hopeful. And that of course, is all that we are about here on the podcast. He knows that when he encounters a room full of family who have asked for help, he knows how to cut through the emotion and confusion and establish ground rules to make the intervention a success. He has fabulous credentials. He is an internationally certified prevention specialist with the international certification and reciprocity consortium.
Joanie Sigal:
He is the certified prevention specialist with the Oklahoma Drug and Alcohol Professional Counselor Association. He is a certified substance abuse counselor in the state of Hawaii. He is also a certified intervention professional, and he’s also an internationally certified alcohol and drug counselor. So without further ado, let’s talk to Bobby Newman. Hey Bobby, thank you so much for being on the podcast again. I’m really excited to have you here. It’s great.
Bobby Newman:
Thank you for having me. I’m glad to be back. It’s always good to get the story out there.
Joanie Sigal:
Well, that’s what I think. And I don’t know if Jason told you or not, but last week we did an interview with Angela and Angela had actually been on the receiving end of an intervention that you did. And I thought it was absolutely fascinating to hear her story because it was exactly what you told us you do. She said that… I said, “What was it like?” And she said that her husband and her kids had each written her a letter. And she said that the letter from her kids was really, really the toughest thing to have to listen to her kids saying that they wanted their mommy back. And I don’t know if you remember that one. Do you remember that one?
Bobby Newman:
Oh, sure.
Joanie Sigal:
You probably remember them all, don’t you?
Bobby Newman:
Well I do once certain instances come up and I definitely remember all their… They’re all in my memory banks, and it’s really good to see. I’m always concerned about every one of them, how they turned out and you know how they’re doing, et cetera. So anyway.
Joanie Sigal:
Yeah, I think one of the things that makes what you do special is that even though you have a certain formula that you use, if you will, when you do your interventions, every case is different. Every person is different. I’m sure there are similarities, but there are also differences. And I think what makes you so successful is that you have done this for so long that you pretty much know most of what can come up.
Bobby Newman:
You know, that’s true. And it’s almost like being able to stay at least one step ahead, sometimes two or three steps ahead, of what’s actually going to go on. And I even had a kid in Hawaii. I went out there and I met with the mom and then I went over and met with the dad. And you know, a lot of times you actually have to handle the family members individually or all at the same time. And usually they’re dispersed and they have different ideas and some people are wanting to do something. Some people are at are basically… They’ve felt like they’ve tried and they’ve given up and they’re frustrated. And so you got to go in there and get the core group handled and rock solid and then go and approach the addict, which is what I had to do in a very short period of time going to Hawaii.
Bobby Newman:
And I sit down with the mom and the dad and the sister. And the sisters, funny enough, it’s the sisters are always the ones to come in and percentage wise, it’s always the sisters that will kind of come in and make sure that we’re going to do something now. They’re tired of baby brother doing this to the family and they’re going to make sure it happens. You know, usually they’re pretty mad, but at the same time they really care a lot.
Joanie Sigal:
Right.
Bobby Newman:
So I went in and handled the family. Then we went in to handle the kid and I told him, I said, “This is what’s going to happen. And if he says this, this is how we’re going to respond. And this is going to…” So we went in and even the kid, after he arrived at the center, he said, “It was almost like they knew what I was going to do or say before I did it.”
Joanie Sigal:
And you said, “I wonder how that could be?”
Bobby Newman:
And it is like… He would get mad. He’d leave the room. He went up to his room and then he… I said, “Give me a minute. This is what’s going to happen, just hang tight.” And I went up there and come back. And then the second time I went up there to talk to him, I just told him, I said, “You know how this is going to go, this is what’s going to happen. You understand, right?” He looks at me, kind of ducked his head. And I said, “So I know you want to go. So we might as just pack a bag.”
Bobby Newman:
And he just kind of shrugged at me. And I said, “Okay, I’m going to go tell him we’re going to go pack a bag.” And that’s all I got. I went downstairs and told the mom, I said, “Okay, let’s go pack a bag. We’re going to book some flights.” And they’re like, “What the heck?” Anyway, but once he actually committed to going, we went and got something to eat. We talked all the way to the airport. And we were just like two guys traveling like we weren’t actually going to rehab. We were just two guys traveling to the mainland on an airplane. That was all it was about. But once he took that step, he was committed at that point. So getting them over of that hump is the hard part.
Joanie Sigal:
Yeah. I can imagine. Our guest today is Bobby Newman and he is an intervention specialist. His website is newmaninterventions.com. And for more information on Narconon, call 877-339-3324. That’s 877-339-3324. You know, I was just thinking while you were talking, have you ever had to do an intervention where it was kids wanting you to do an intervention on a parent?
Bobby Newman:
Yes. Yep. And usually it’s… Actually, in my own family, to be honest with you. I had a cousin, well was married to my cousin, and he was a successful realtor out on the East Coast. And my cousin had divorced him, but her kids, teenagers, were wanting to try to do something, to help their father. And so they came to us to me, to help them get their father into rehab. So my cousin stepped up to the plate and kind of took things over and they still had a good relationship. And so we formulated the family or got the family all together and got them some backup. Basically, I call it circling the wagons with the family members. So we can kind of put things in order to help handle any objection that the person’s going to have.
Bobby Newman:
I mean, he had a business. He had a house he had for sale. He had certain business dealings, and he needed somebody to step in and take care of it for him. So we actually got him to sign over a power of attorney to my cousin and which is his kid, the kid’s mother and got everything, I think, taken care of and got him into the facility.
Joanie Sigal:
Wow, interesting. You know, it’s something I never think of is kids having to handle their parents who are addicts, but my guess is probably is happening more and more, especially with the whole opioid epidemic that we’re looking at.
Bobby Newman:
You know-
Joanie Sigal:
Go ahead.
Bobby Newman:
Well, that just makes me think of one… This is something I never really like to… One of the things is what I try to do is help the families and then obviously help the addict too. But at the same time, the families have generally gotten themselves into a situation that they don’t know what to do. And they’re totally feeling the brunt of everything that’s going on financially, emotionally, sometimes physically. And so the idea is to put them in a position of control and there is a certain amount of people out there, a very, very small percentage of people, that truly can’t be helped. You do everything that you can to help them and then they just can’t be healthy. There’s been times that addicts have walked away from their kids.
Bobby Newman:
They’ve walked away from their kids. They’ve walked away from their family. They’ve walked away from everything that matters. And they’re literally living on the streets and you try to find something that would be real to them, that they would want to change about their life, obviously, and it’s not… And you try and try and try, and it just can’t be done. So then the family has to take a look and go, “Well, all right, where’s the best place to utilize our resources or can we continue to try to help somebody who doesn’t want help?” When you have somebody that’s walked away from everything that matters to them and their children, it’s a pretty good indication that this person may not be able to be helped.
Bobby Newman:
And they have to look at it like, “Well instead of it bringing everybody down, we’re going to focus our attention elsewhere.” And that’s really hard for families. It’s tough to do. It’s not something I don’t even know if I could do it or not. Luckily I don’t have that problem anymore. I mean, I did have to go through this with my son too, but he got on the right path and he’s doing well, but at some point you got to make that decision and it’s very tough.
Joanie Sigal:
That’s got to be tough. But I can understand that there’s got to come a point where if the person truly does not want help, truly, truly does not want help in spite of everything, you got to kind of move on and that’s got to be one of the toughest decisions ever to make. But as you say, there are some people out there who do not want to be helped. They cannot be helped. And hopefully that’s a very, very small percentage. I’m guessing that it is because I think mostly deep down inside, someone who’s addicted doesn’t really want to be addicted is my guess.
Bobby Newman:
No, no they don’t. And you know, that’s the reason… If I thought that were the case on the larger part, I wouldn’t be doing what I was doing because the thing of it is, you put the family in position to say you’ve done everything you possibly to help this person. And so at some point now, again, that’s a very, very small minute percentage of people. Because like you said, most people want help and sometimes they will kick and scream and raise all kinds of Cain getting to the facility. But once they get there and they get cleaned up and they start to feel better, they then will go, “Wow.”
Bobby Newman:
I might have mentioned this before, but it’s almost like a drowning victim, a person that’s out there drowning and they’ve got to hold the anchor and they’re dragging the boat down. Now you can try to get them back in the boat so the rest of the whole family can be saved or at some point you’ve got to cut the chain, but you might have to kind of reach down there and kind of whack them around a little bit and then you yank them in the boat and they go, “Oh wow, thank you for doing that.”
Bobby Newman:
It’s not that you really wanted… That’s the reality of it is. And I’ll give you an example. I actually went to New York City and got a girl off the streets of New York City and had to drive her for 22 hours straight to the facility with her parents. We were doing a round robin on who was driving.
Bobby Newman:
She was in the backseat and we had the windows locked and the doors locked. Now she got out to go to the bathroom and different things like that. And she walked and got into the car, but every once in a while she would freak out, but she had warrants out for her arrest in Virginia. And so we just said, “Look, you can go. You don’t have to go, but this is what we’re going to do. We’re going to call the police. They’re going to arrest you. We know you got drugs on you. We know you got paraphernalia on you and they’re going to come get you, put you in jail here. And then they’re going to ship you back to Virginia. And you got two different counties down there.” And so she was raising Cain. At one point, she was completely naked.
Bobby Newman:
Then we got her to put her clothes back on. She’s just raising Cain. And then she was that way for two or three days into the program. And the doctor said that this girl did not have a week to live. If she would’ve stayed out there, she probably would’ve died. He said, “I wouldn’t have give her a week.” She had all kinds of teeth problems. I mean, she had lice. She had she just was on the streets of New York, but she’s doing great now. She’s put on weight. She’s put on 25 pounds. She’s actually gotten got all cleaned up, looked like a completely different person. And she’s like, “Thank God somebody cared.”
Joanie Sigal:
Right. What was she on, Bobby?
Bobby Newman:
She was on everything. I mean, heroin, methamphetamine, pills. It was primarily heroin. And the one thing about it is that obviously brings up a something I just thought of, is I knew that… We got her in the car, we got her headed out and we’re just going for it. And I knew sooner or later, the drugs was going to wear off and she was going to have what they called being dope sick. And when that started happening, took the wind right out of her sales. And she’s like, “Please get me somewhere.” And that’s when we had that… We used that in our favor, of course we’re trying to help her, but there’s ways of… People get the idea somebody on drugs, they are out of control, but they are also dependent upon drugs. They’re usually dependent upon the family members. So you’ve got to work that in your favor. They’re very easy if you do it right to gain control of.
Joanie Sigal:
So, wow. What a story. 22 hours in the car.
Bobby Newman:
22 hours. The one before that was 19 hours.
Joanie Sigal:
Oh my goodness. Was that another one that was on the streets or was that different?
Bobby Newman:
He was living in the Oakland airport.
Joanie Sigal:
Living in the airport.
Bobby Newman:
We flew out there. He’d been out there in the Oakland airport for two days. And he was calling his friend in Denver who this friend was talking to the family and his friend was keeping him on the phone and telling him, “I’m going to come get you. I’m going to come get you.” But in route he was telling us what was going on. So I showed up out there and told him that I was his friend, I was sent out there by his friend.
Joanie Sigal:
Right.
Bobby Newman:
And then his dad and his cousin show up and we just kind of popped up. We show up and we’re going to take you back to where your friend is in Denver. And he says, “Well, no, he’s going to pull up here and get me in a minute.”
Bobby Newman:
And I said, “No.” I said, “Well, he sent me out here. He’s not coming.” I said, “Ask him.” And so he texted him and the guy said, “No, I sent him out there. You need to go with him. You need to go with your dad and your cousin and him. And they’re going to bring you back to me.” He said, “Okay.” I said, “Well, right, let’s get a plane flight. Let’s go. We’ll go in here and book him a flight.” He goes, “I’m not going to fly because somebody implanted something in my ear.” And I’ve been listening to my family argue over family problems, but they’re in New Mexico. And he’s in Oakland. So he is obviously a little bit-
Joanie Sigal:
Hallucinating.
Bobby Newman:
Yeah. And so I said, “Okay, we’ll just walk. We’ll go over there and rent the car.” We went over, we walked across the street and rented a van and off we went. We took off and just drove. And then we did an intervention once we got to Denver.
Joanie Sigal:
Wow.
Bobby Newman:
And so, and he didn’t [inaudible 00:22:50] I will find out who put that in your ear. You’ll just stay there. I promise I will to go to the end of there and find out who implanted that in your ear.
Joanie Sigal:
Wow.
Bobby Newman:
Come to find out well, he was addicted to methamphetamine and come to find out he had an ear infection. So he did have a problem with his ear.
Joanie Sigal:
Oh, wow. Heavy duty. Where have you been geographically lately that you’ve been doing interventions?
Bobby Newman:
I just came back from Mexico City.
Joanie Sigal:
Oh, okay.
Bobby Newman:
I literally just got back this morning. I went to San Francisco and got a guy and took him to a facility in Mexico City.
Joanie Sigal:
Oh, okay. But you did the intervention in San Francisco?
Bobby Newman:
I did the intervention in San Francisco and right before that I was in Los Angeles. And then right before that I was in… Shoot. I can’t remember.
Joanie Sigal:
You were here because I got to meet you.
Bobby Newman:
Yeah, I did that. Exactly. There was the girl in Tampa that I just brought in too, so I’ve literally had to put these things down on the calendar with the location because I lose track of where I’ve been. I was coming home last night and they were already texting me going, “Okay, we got another one for you.”
Joanie Sigal:
And you’re like, “Wait a second. Where am I? And where am I going?”
Bobby Newman:
Right.
Joanie Sigal:
So it sounds to me like you do, in addition to interventions, if you also… As part of that, you end up having to accompany whoever it is to treatment to make sure it happens. I’m kind of talking out loud here. I’m voicing my thoughts, but it makes sense to me. You do the intervention. You’re not going to walk away. You’re going to do the intervention then actually make sure the person makes it into whatever treatment program they’re going into.
Bobby Newman:
Oh, oh yeah. I mean, no, I have to take them to the facility. Once I do the intervention, they are not left alone until they arrive to the facility. I mean, it is just getting through logistics of traveling, making sure the bags are packed, making sure you get to the airport, making sure you got your flight scheduled and if you have a layover or whatever, you’ve got to consider all… There’s just so many different things that can go wrong and the family is so emotionally distraught that they don’t know. I mean, they’re usually just all over the place and so you really have to be a stable person for them to go, “Okay, now we need to do this. Now we need to do that.”
Bobby Newman:
And then sometimes even when the person agrees to go, then the family was continuing to be dramatic about things. And you have to say, “Okay, let’s tone it down a little. We’ve got his agreement. He’s going. We need to just maintain a course.” For instance, I had a girl coming back from Tennessee once and methamphetamine, it’s just getting through security is and doing those type of things. I mean, I asked her like three times before we got to the airport, “Do you have anything on you? We’re going to be going through security when we get to the airport.” And, “Nope, Nope, Nope.”
Bobby Newman:
She’s all over the place. She’s just all just talking about this and that. And then it dawned on her, right as she was about five feet from the security guard or whether we’re going to look at her ID her boarding pass, what was about to happen. And her face just turned white. And luckily, I walked over to the airport policeman, which would been standing there talking to her parents and I said, “Look, I got a situation. I’m trying to get this girl.” He said, “I know what’s going on. Her parents…” I don’t know that I actually said anything to him because I can’t. But the parents had told him that. I said, “Look, I got a situation here.” And he goes, “I know what’s going on. Her parents have already told me.”
Bobby Newman:
I said, “Look, she’s got…” And he said, “I tell you what?” So he walked up to the girl and he said, “Look, I’m going to get that black bag from your mom. I want you to put anything in there that you don’t want them to find in that black bag. And I’m going to give it back to your mom. Are you okay with that?” She said, “Yes.” And so we did that. And then the TSA person knew what was… We told her what was going on. And so they did everything they could do to escort the girl through there, make sure she was okay. And then the TSA person walked her all the way back to the gate.
Joanie Sigal:
Wow.
Bobby Newman:
And it was amazing because you get these guys in there. So it was amazing. But anyway, we had a layover in Charlotte and the girl wanted to smoke a cigarette and she was literally trying to go out all the exits in the airport where the gates are. And so emergency exits, if you go out, the door’s going to go off and she’s going to get arrested. And I kept having to pull… I said, “Look, you go out that door. You’re going to get arrested. Oh, if you go out that door, you’re going to get arrested.” And she would even go up to employees and go, “Where can I go smoke?” They’re like, “I can’t tell you that. I’m not going to lose my job.” I managed to keep her corralled, managed to get her to where she was going. And then we went outside the airport and before we got in my car to go to the facility I said, “Sit down, just smoke away.”
Joanie Sigal:
There you go. There you go. It’s interesting that you bring that up because Steve and I were at Narconon recently and they have drug dogs at Narconon and I was kind of like, “Wow, why do you need a drug dog?” And Jason said it’s because people will try and bring drugs into rehab. And so the dogs will locate it. And so when you talk about her having drugs in her bag, I mean, that’s exactly… I hadn’t thought with that, but it makes total sense. They’ve agreed to go into rehab, but then haven’t necessarily given up the drugs yet.
Bobby Newman:
Right, right. Exactly. They’re still holding on. There’s actually things that as far as a person… I’ll even say, look, this is… I had a guy that I’d went and got from Oakland and he was addicted to alcohol and the anxiety just goes through the roof with alcohol. People addicted to alcohol and so they start thinking about not drinking and amplifies it. Then they stop and the withdrawal symptoms start kicking in and I’ll just say, “Look if you need to get something on the way, when we get to the airport, when we get on the plane to calm your nerves and you can definitely do that.”
Bobby Newman:
I said, “I don’t want you to be feeling terrible. I don’t want you to feel anxious right now. Let’s just let’s get there. Let’s do this.” Then they’ll go, “Oh, thank you.” But giving them a little bit, so you understand that they are so dependent upon the chemical that giving it away is just like jumping on the cliff. So you give them that one last… And it’s not necessarily something you could promote. I mean, to be honest with you, it’s a judgment call and people have to be very careful but you give the person a little bit and they go, “Okay, I could do this.” And then they’re more agreeable to go. Because like you said earlier, they really do want help. Sometimes even like Angela she told me, “I didn’t know, I felt as bad as I did until I started feeling good again. And so I didn’t realize how bad it was, but at the same time, I knew I wasn’t happy.” And that’s the way these guys are. And so they really need a push.
Joanie Sigal:
But the other thing too with alcohol, Bobby, you make a very good point, but coming off of alcohol is life threatening. The residual effects of alcohol and oftentimes Narconon has to send someone who’s addicted to alcohol to a medical facility so that they can be stepped down with the use of other medications. And so it makes total sense to me. You don’t want someone on the plane with you who all of a sudden goes into DTs and has a seizure. I don’t think that would be a good thing. So if it’s a choice between that or having one drink, I’m sorry, I think you made the right judgment call. That’s what I think you would need to do at that point. They’re not in the facility, they’re not getting the treatment. They’re on their way and you have to at least get them there.
Bobby Newman:
Right. I had one guy in Oakland, I told him I stepped outside and you could tell, you could just see the wheels turning in his head. And I just stepped there. And I told him, I said, “Look, dude. I know want to go. I know you want this.” I said, “So if we need to make a stop before we get to the airport so you can, feel right about things.” And he looks at me and I just said that because I… He looks at me, his eyes get wide and he says, “You and I are going to be friends.”
Joanie Sigal:
Jason told me one of those too, where he was driving up from South Florida and they made a stop. I don’t think it’s out of the question. You’re not asking someone to go into immediate withdrawal without any support. I know you deal with different rehabs, but you know that in Narconon, they don’t just come off cold turkey with nothing. They have vitamins, they have calcium, magnesium. There’s a lot of things that have to happen. You’re not expecting someone to go through that cold turkey. So it makes total sense to me that if it’s going to be a really long journey to get to rehab, they may need that final hit.
Bobby Newman:
Right. Exactly. And you bring up a good point too, is I actually had a kid come in to Narconon from… And he was addicted to Opana.
Joanie Sigal:
What’s that?
Bobby Newman:
It’s an opiate. It’s actually a very addictive opiate. He was like, “I just can’t do cold turkey.” I said, “Well it is a drug free facility. But they’re not going to… If you need a medical detox before you start the drug free program, they’re going to help you with that.” And he’s like, “Okay. I’ll go.” I said, “You don’t want to be taking anything anyway. You don’t want to be on Suboxone or methadone.” And he said, “No, I don’t.” I said, “Okay. So we’re going to work with you to make this…” But then as we were on our way to the facility, I started telling them about what drugs actually do, what vitamins and stuff that they actually burn up.
Bobby Newman:
They burn up calcium and magnesium and B1, and just a series of other things that caused the withdrawal symptoms if you were to take someone that hadn’t used drugs and robbed them of those vitamins, they would have the same symptoms or very similar symptoms. And I said, “It’s hard for to believe, but if you’ll actually consider… Again, you’re going to get a medical checkup. So the doctor’s going to determine what… But if the doctor says you could probably get by without a medical detox, you’re going to be better without it, because you’re going to go into withdrawal after you finish the medical detox. You’re still going to go into withdrawal. You’re still going to feel bad. You’re making something last 10 days or more versus something that could probably be over five to seven days.”
Joanie Sigal:
Right.
Bobby Newman:
So if you do it without the medical detox… He was a young man, 22 years old. And he looked in good health, of course I wasn’t physically checking him out or anything, but I’ve done this thousands of times. And he actually told me, I saw him later and he said, “I never would’ve believed it, but on the fifth day, and when I actually just woke up and it was like all my withdrawal symptoms were gone and I immediately started doing better.”
Joanie Sigal:
Wow.
Bobby Newman:
I tell them, I said there’s no way to convince somebody addicted to opiates that actually occurs, but does.
Joanie Sigal:
Right.
Bobby Newman:
All the time.
Joanie Sigal:
Right. Well, Bobby, thank you for being with us again. I think I’ve kept you long enough. I know there are people who need you more than I need you on the podcast, although I really, really appreciate you talking to us. And for anybody listening, if you have a loved one and either you don’t know how to intervene or you’ve tried it and it hasn’t worked, Bobby Newman is a professional interventionist. And if you go to newmaninterventions.com, and that’s Newman like Paul Newman, interventions.com, you can reach out to Bobby and he can help.
Bobby Newman:
Thank you very much. I really appreciate it. And hopefully I know that we’ve been of help to someone out there, answered their questions or offered them some hope or guidance of some sort. And definitely if they need it, please give me a call.
Joanie Sigal:
Absolutely. And you keep fighting the good fight, Bobby. I appreciate you being with us and we will have you back.
Bobby Newman:
Thank you very much.
Joanie Sigal:
Thanks, Bobby. What’d you think?
Jason Good:
I thought it was great. I think it was great to hear Bobby’s perspective on what happens during interventions and the reality associated with it. And the fact of the matter is not everyone is real excited right off the rip to go to treatment. I said a thousand times, when you bring someone to treatment or you offer rehabilitation, in essence you’re threatening to take someone’s security blanket away. You’re threatening to take away the very thing they used to deal with life. And so sometimes calling in the big guns, I call Bobby, it’s necessary to get someone willing to make a logical choice and to make a logical, pro-survival decision for once in their lives and actually move forward, do something to handle their condition and actually give them a chance to break free from the trap of addiction.
Joanie Sigal:
Right. I agree.
Jason Good:
And we use Bobby a lot here for our interventions. We use him and he’s very, very successful, getting people a ride safely into treatment and on the road to recovery. So we are forever grateful for him and his help and fighting the scourge of addiction, just like all of us are.
Joanie Sigal:
Right. Well, I also, I had asked him before we actually recorded the interview to tell us different stories. And I thought he told a bunch of really good stories because I wonder sometimes if people listen to the podcast and they think, “Well that’s all well and good for Angela or that’s all well and good for Derek, but that’s not my story. And that doesn’t apply to me.” And so I think the more we can give different scenarios, the more people can understand that while addiction is addiction, everybody does have their own story. But Narconon is pretty well equipped to handle anybody that wants help.
Jason Good:
Absolutely, absolutely. And I encourage everyone listening, give us a call. We’re here to help. I can personally answer any of your questions and hopefully get you or your love one moving in the right direction. And that’s all any of us want.
Joanie Sigal:
Exactly. And I told Bobby that we would have him back. He has written a book and once he gets his book published, I thought it’d be interesting to talk to him about it. Of course, it’s all about life after rehab. And actually that’s not his book. That’s somebody else’s book. His is secrets to successful recovery and I’ll be interested in looking at his book and talking to him about that.
Jason Good:
Absolutely.
Joanie Sigal:
So with that, I think we should sign off and we will talk again next week.
Jason Good:
Until next week. And we’ll talk to you then.
Joanie Sigal:
Okay.
Speaker 1:
You have been listening to The Addiction Podcast – Point of No Return. For more information, call 877-339-3324 or visit www.narcononsuncoast.org. Narconon is a non-12 step rehabilitation program based on the works of L. Ron Hubbard.