The Addiction Podcast – Point of No Return – Intervention Explained – Interview with Bobby Newman – Episode 53

Joanie Sigal and Jason Good with Narconon Suncoast speak with Bobby Newman about what happened in his life that led him to his substance abuse and how he got clean. He discusses how he made a pivotal career change after exiting a rehabilitation program to teach children about the dangers of drug and alcohol use, and how that progressed to him becoming a professional interventionist with a 90% success rate.

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.

Transcript

Audio:
The Addiction Podcast-Point of No Return brought to you by Narcanon Suncoast.

Joanie Sigal:
Hello, Jason.

Jason Good:
Hello, Joanie.

Joanie Sigal:
This is episode number 53. We are officially into the second year of podcasting.

Jason Good:
Can we call it our second season?

Joanie Sigal:
Yes. In fact, that’s what I will do because I uploaded to … Where do they ask me about season? I think it’s in Libsyn and it says which season is it? So now I can say season two, episode one. But most podcasters will just keep-

Jason Good:
Keep rolling.

Joanie Sigal:
Cumulative. So I’m going to say this is episode 53. So there we go.

Jason Good:
Let’s be organized. But that’s amazing to think of what we’ve accomplished in the last year.

Joanie Sigal:
Exactly. I agree. Hey, did you get a lot of feedback on last week’s podcast? When we met Amy [Ron’s 00:00:52] husband and talked about marijuana?

Jason Good:
Not from my listeners over at the center. Why? What did you get?

Joanie Sigal:
Nothing. I just … You said usually whenever you blog about marijuana, you get a lot of feedback so I just didn’t know if you’d gotten any feedback on the podcast.

Jason Good:
It’s one of those seriously emotionally charged topics.

Joanie Sigal:
But that’s what I mean.

Jason Good:
And what happens is, is during that podcast, it’s funny. It’s like your reviews will come in a different medium. Like I do a blog about marijuana on the website. I post it to Facebook and then in the comment section, my fan club starts writing about how correct and right on, spot on, and we agree with you. Actually, it’s the opposite. I’m told I’m ridiculous, that I don’t know what I’m talking about. I’m a joke, I’m a quack, I’m a this, I’m a that. And it’s like, okay, guys. And you really find out how much people really love marijuana from a blog in the comments. It’s written so I can see it. It’s there. Got it. With a podcast, the medium is a little bit different because my online chat agent will get all the feedback. Because people that are listening to the podcast will then go to the website and from there-

Joanie Sigal:
Okay, and then up comes the little window.

Jason Good:
… the window comes up and that’s the first person they get to tell how much they completely disagree with what either you or I said.

Joanie Sigal:
Well and did they get some of that?

Jason Good:
Oh yeah.

Joanie Sigal:
Oh yeah? Okay.

Jason Good:
Now that I’m thinking about it, we did because my online chat agent hates it when I do something really-

Joanie Sigal:
Controversial?

Jason Good:
Yeah. I’d say controversial because they have to field all that because they get people that want to … Where’s Jason Good? Can you get me in contact with him. I want to tell him. And then my online chat agent says, “Sure, here’s his email address.” I’m like, “Stop doing that.” Because then I can’t … My inbox is full of people that just completely hate me. But it’s fine. You know what? We’re causing a change.

Joanie Sigal:
Exactly.

Jason Good:
We’re affecting a change out there. And so if anything else, I want what we discuss to get people to start having some sort of conversation.

Joanie Sigal:
Exactly.

Jason Good:
I don’t care if people don’t agree with us.

Joanie Sigal:
I don’t either.

Jason Good:
Because there’s a lot that don’t. There are a lot of people who do agree with us. I want us just to all just have a conversation. I mean what is a conversation if both sides are agreeing about everything? It’s not-

Joanie Sigal:
It doesn’t work.

Jason Good:
… a chat.

Joanie Sigal:
Yeah.

Jason Good:
It’s not a two-way thing. It’s like you have someone here has ideas, the other person over here has ideas. And it’s like they might not line up but you should talk about it. You can get in communication about it.

Joanie Sigal:
That’s exactly right.

Jason Good:
And then, thus, we get understanding after a little while.

Joanie Sigal: (
Exactly.

Jason Good:
And so that’s what I want us-

Joanie Sigal:
And maybe not agreement but it’s okay. This is a subject that needs to come up and it needs to be discussed and it needs to be talked about. And yes, we think we’re right and those that disagree with us, we don’t think they’re as right as we are but there you go. They can start their own podcast. This is what I like to say is if you are … And maybe there are … There might be podcasts that are pro-marijuana so you could check-

Jason Good:
Oh, there absolutely are.

Joanie Sigal:
Well then they should be listening to those and not to us.

Jason Good:
Maybe we should be listening to them. But that’s the whole thing. It’s like we don’t have to … It doesn’t matter who’s right and who’s wrong. We just need to talk about it. We need to get it out in the open and just allow people out there to make the best decision for their own survival, period.

Joanie Sigal:
Exactly.

Jason Good:
I mean if you love marijuana, I mean love marijuana just don’t love it near me or near my family or-

Joanie Sigal:
And don’t drive.

Jason Good:
Don’t drive and stuff like that.

Joanie Sigal:
Or operate heavy machinery after you’re smoking it.

Jason Good:
No, it’s just … I think there’s this feeling that each side is trying to get the other side persuaded over to agree with them but it’s like we don’t have to agree. It’s not a necessary thing. We just have to give the data. We have to … And we have our opinions and others have their opinions and that’s fine. Just here it is. You can choose if you want to turn left, if you want to turn right.

Joanie Sigal:
Yeah.

Jason Good:
I think it’s a necessary conversation just like interventions are a necessary conversation because a lot of families out there have this idea that’s like, okay, so I’m not going to do an intervention because I’m not going to force my loved one into treatment because how could that possibly work if they’re not going on some sort of their own self-determinism, how are they going to get anything out of something they don’t want? But since the family bottom lined them, they decided to go there instead of on the streets. And that’s a necessary conversation that I have with families all the time. I’m a product of an intervention.

Joanie Sigal:
Well either that, either they don’t want to intervene because they don’t want to somehow violate the self-determinism of the addict which I’m sorry, I think sounds a little bit ridiculous. But that’s okay. But either that or they don’t know how. They don’t know what to say and they don’t know what to do.

Jason Good:
Now statistically speaking, family interventions are less successful than a professional interventionist because there’s two things you could do. The family could sit down and have a conversation with the addict and give them a bottom line and see how it goes. Or you could actually call in what I call the big guns and actually call in someone that’s trained to do interventions that’s also a neutral party that’s like I call them Switzerland. They’re neutral. And they’re not emotionally involved in the situation.

Joanie Sigal:
And that’s the thing because let’s face it, we all know … I know as the child of my parents, I knew exactly the right button to push to get the right reaction. And so if the intervention scenario is parents and a child, a child knows exactly the right buttons to push. They’ve been pushing it as long as they’ve been there.

Jason Good:
And vice-versa.

Joanie Sigal:
And vice-versa. And so it definitely has the capability of going the wrong way.

Jason Good:
It does.

Joanie Sigal:
But we’ve got an interview today. I actually did it last week and I interviewed a professional interventionist. He’s a professional. And the thing that was most interesting to me was he actually has an exact protocol which if he follows it, 90 percent of the time it works exactly the way he lays it out. And he says, I think he says in there, that when he doesn’t is when it doesn’t go well. But part of it, and you’ll hear this, is getting the family on-board.

Jason Good:
Right. So 90 percent of the time, we’re saying nine out of ten addicts-

Joanie Sigal:
I think so.

Jason Good:
… are going to go with him.

Joanie Sigal:
I think that’s what it said. I think that’s what he said.

Jason Good:
All right.

Joanie Sigal:
Yeah. I think he gets to a product. Anyways, so we’ll listen to it. His name is Bobby Newman. He’s a professional interventionist. I caught him driving through the middle of Kansas and because it didn’t sound very good on the Bluetooth, he actually had to hold the phone to his ear so we were both hoping he didn’t get arrested or stopped for holding the phone to his ear because in some states, you can’t do that. But we’ll go ahead and play that interview.

Jason Good:
Yeah, good.

Joanie Sigal:
So today, I am interviewing Bobby Newman. I’m very, very excited to talk to Bobby. Bobby is a professional interventionist. And we have spoken over and over again on the podcast about getting help for your loved one or your friend and getting them into treatment. But oftentimes, the addict doesn’t want to do that. And we’ve talked about that many times and so Bobby is a professional that you can actually call in to help you with that. So thank you for talking to us today, Bobby.

Robert Newman:
You’re very welcome. I’m glad to be here.

Joanie Sigal:
Well I’m excited to hear things from your perspective and hopefully you can share some stories with us without naming names. But I looked you up. I looked at, Steve, my husband, had sent a link and it told a bit of your backstory. Tell us how did you get started with drugs and alcohol?

Robert Newman:
Well I grew up in a small town in rural Oklahoma and lived … It’s a bit of a long story but I grew up in a small town in Oklahoma where drugs were like taboo or they weren’t necessarily something that people would do. There was a very small percentage of people that actually smoked marijuana or did anything else. Or at least that I knew about. But the majority of people drank. They drank alcohol and that was socially acceptable. And I remember … Even the first time I actually got drunk was at a rodeo where they had just a big … A tank of ice with beer. And of course, they had pop and beer in there and we would go in there as kids. I was like 12 or 13 and I would go in there and act like I was hitting the pop and I would get a beer. And I’d drink like two beers and of course, that age, you’re going to get drunk. And that was it.

Robert Newman:
But nobody really … It was kind of laughed off. It wasn’t a big deal. I mean Bobby got into the beer.

Joanie Sigal:
Right.

Robert Newman:
And then it just progressed from there. And as I got on, grew older, I lived in the country and you would always hear on Monday mornings at school about the things that happened over the weekend. And so I was just at home and bored and I would just … I couldn’t wait to be part of that. And I could remember when I was 15, 16-years-old being able to go to town. And my friends would go camping. And then it just … We’d get somebody to buy us a beer. And I always swore that I never would smoke marijuana. And I’ve never smoked weed. And so of course, the beer, you try to go on there and there’s people out there that are doing it and I remember when I was beginning of my senior year in high school, first time I smoked marijuana. I realized it didn’t appear to be that bad so I continued to do it. And then I got to when it was more and more often and pretty soon, I was doing it during school hours. By the time I was, at the end of my senior year, I was doing it during school hours and it just got to be more and more of a habit.

Robert Newman:
And then I go to college and of course, there were certain nights of the week that all the college students would go out. And I can remember one of the other football players, I was going to a small school in southern Oklahoma and playing football. And one of the other players came, had this pill, this prescription. It was a capsule. It was some sort of amphetamine. I’m not sure what it is. But he’s like, “Man, try one of these. This will really make you feel good.” So I tried one and it was just like I was instantly sober. And I could stay up later and be drunk and drink and then the next day, I could take another one. I even got to where I was splitting them in half and it was like I could take … That way I could get some sleep and then I could wake up the next morning, take the other half.

Robert Newman:
And it just progressively … Now I’m drinking, now smoking weed, and then I get introduced to amphetamines and cocaine. It’s just … Kept going from there. And all the while, I don’t really have any direction in life. I don’t really know exactly what I want to do. And I’m just kind of going through the motions. I mean I was still going to school. I made somewhat decent grades and I actually stopped going to school because I realized I wasn’t putting all the effort into it. I went to trade school, completed that. But then I just wasn’t really doing well in life, in general. So every time I would suffer a loss of any sort or a failed relationship or anything like that, I just would … My substance abuse would get worse. And it just continually progressed until roll it back and I’m 35-years-old, I’m looking at seven years in prison. And I can’t … For possession and I can’t stop using.

Robert Newman:
Before, when I was younger, if I had a drug test coming, I could always stay clean long enough to pass the drug test. By the time I’m 35, I’m on probation and I’m in a lot of trouble. And I can’t stay clean. And that’s when I was lucky enough to be able to go into a program and get my life back. That was 18 years ago.

Joanie Sigal:
Wow.

Robert Newman:
That’s how it got started. It started out being fun and then it ended up being not so fun. Not so fun at all.

Joanie Sigal:
Right. And then how did you get into the work that you’re doing now with the interventions that you do?

Robert Newman:
When I first completed the program, one of the things that I wanted to do was learn how to go out and talk to kids and I wanted to help other people. And I had … I opted to do that and then it just kind of, through the progression of my career, it just moved into interventions and people … I was in a remote location. I was stationed in Hawaii for a while in the drug education program. And people would call me and say, “Hey, we’ve got this family in Hawaii that needs help and can you go and help them?” Before that, I had even been involved with the [inaudible 00:13:52] process but I hadn’t really gone out and done an intervention. But I talked to some other interventionists and kind of got a good game plan and went out and first started doing interventions probably 15 years ago.

Robert Newman:
And it just kind of … One thing lead to another and I happened to have a pretty good knack for it. And people started calling me, even when I was trying to go into other areas or do other things, people would say, “Hey, now you got to come back and help this family because we got to have you.” And I just finally just … There’s nothing more rewarding than to be able to go into a chaotic situation such as this scenario that we all know is involved with drugs and alcohol and be able to help that family sort it out and get their family member into rehab. And actually happy about it. It’s like night and day.

Robert Newman:
I have a real passion for that. Actually, if I could pay my bills, I would do it for nothing if I could. So-

Joanie Sigal:
I understand.

Robert Newman:
Yeah.

Joanie Sigal:
Now what would you say is the biggest challenge that you run into when you go in to do an intervention?

Robert Newman:
The biggest challenge is initially getting the family to confront the situation and follow through with the plan that you lay out before you actually do the intervention. And there’s a lot of enlightenment and basically training or [inaudible 00:15:29] that you give the family to get them to fully realize what’s going on and what they need to do. They’ve usually been trying, attempting to help their loved one for many failed attempts. And so they get the idea that that’s the way it’s going to be when you do an intervention. But the point in what’s this guy going to do that I haven’t already done? And time and time again, it’s once you set [inaudible 00:15:59] this is what we’re going to do. And this is how we’re going to do it. And they’ll … Some people, it’s usually their biggest challenge is getting the family to operate together as a unit.

Joanie Sigal:
Yeah, you know I can-

Robert Newman:
And-

Joanie Sigal:
I almost kind of knew the answer when I asked you because that makes total sense to me. My co-host is Jason Good and I think you know Jason.

Robert Newman:
Yeah.

Joanie Sigal:
And I interviewed his parents and his dad knew pretty much from the get-go that Jason was an addict. But Jason’s mom just couldn’t confront that and enabled him for quite a while until they found a support group and the support group said, until you stop enabling him … And of course, we all know enabling is when you let them live at home, you give them money, and you don’t take the right action to actually get them treatment. And so it wasn’t until his parents found a group like that that they were able to get help. We’ve talked about this over and over again. It’s like it’s not easy for a family, especially a parent, to admit that this has happened to their child, you know?

Robert Newman:
Right, right.

Joanie Sigal:
So I can see where that would be a really difficult thing in that you don’t … The whole idea of an intervention doesn’t just mean you’re going to talk and work with the addict because you have to handle probably certain family members. Some are probably with you and some aren’t, I’m guessing.

Robert Newman:
Right. Yeah. And then it’s also when a person is not doing well, there’s obviously some negative influence in their life. Although they’re responsible for their condition and getting it straightened out, there’s obviously some negative person or influence in their life and sometimes it’s inadvertently … And sometimes it’s not on purpose. But you have to look for that and understand that and be able to work around that.

Robert Newman:
The other thing is, is the situation you described, it can be reversed. Most of the time it’s the mom, sometimes it can be the dad. And their family member attempts to this [inaudible 00:18:15]. And of course, they probably gave them a very loving home and they … It’s hard for … I’ve even had parents tell me, well why do you think he’s an addict? Do you … It’s almost like they don’t even, like you said, they don’t even want to admit that their kid could be addicted to drugs because they’ve had three other kids that turned out just fine and this one here is now using drugs.

Robert Newman:
And so they have to understand, they immediately have to change what they’re doing in order to change the situation. And so once you can do that and you are now past the first hurdle [crosstalk 00:18:55] getting them some help. So-

Joanie Sigal:
Right. Do you have … I mean I know every situation is somewhat different but then somewhat similar. Do you have a certain protocol that you use when you go into a family to do an intervention?

Robert Newman:
Yeah. I do. I actually found [inaudible 00:19:20] get all these peoples that are going to be influential in the person’s life. And I’m going to get any possible … I don’t want there to be any loopholes or any possible means of an out for the person. In other words, there’s a mom or a grandmother or a girlfriend or whomever that might be an escape route for this person. I’m going to do my best to handle that person. Get them all on-board with this and so they fully understand what we’re doing before we approach the individual.

Robert Newman:
And then I’m going to describe that there’s basically three phases to the intervention. The first stage is we’re all going to write letters. This is completely planned out to where we’re going to time it to where the person has to get on airplane. We’re going to be there three or four hours before the planes leave. We’re going to have a multitude of flights. We’re going to have it planned out. We’re going to have bags packed. We’re going to have every objection that the person could possibly come up with. Basically, we’re going to have it … We’re going to address it, we’re going to handle it. We’re going to have the solution for it.

Robert Newman:
Then we’re going to have … And we set out in the first … Then we’re going to write letters to the person. The reason for that is because you want to control the approach completely. And if you’re just sitting down trying to talk to the person, it gets emotional. People lose track of thought. The person, the addict, usually wants to argue or interrupt. So you have the opportunity to read the letter to them and you’ve got it composed. You’ve had it specifically designed letter that will hit the high points concerning the relationship with the family [inaudible 00:21:05] the addict. And then if the addict does interrupt, and we’ll just quietly ask them, let them finish. They really put a lot of thought into this. Give them a chance to speak and then you can speak later.

Robert Newman:
And then it goes around and so for me, I want the person that has the most emotional impact to speak last.

Joanie Sigal:
Right, that makes sense.

Robert Newman:
And oftentimes … Right, right. And then oftentimes, the person themselves, won’t even want to [inaudible 00:21:31]. They say, “Oh, I can’t do it. I can’t do it.” No, it’s very, very important. The addict will say, “Oh, it’s okay. We don’t need to do this. We don’t need to do this.” And I’ll say, “No, we need to finish.” [inaudible 00:21:42] have an affect on him, right?

Joanie Sigal:
Right.

Robert Newman:
And then as soon as we’re done with the last person, we ask him, okay, so … And I will then tell them. Obviously, we’re here. We have a program picked out and we know that … Having a little background on the person we’ll have identified that they’ve reached for help and there’s something in their life that they wanted to handle. And we’ll then ask them.

Robert Newman:
And the biggest percentage of people will say yes at that point. Because when their family is pouring their heart out to them and you’ve really tugged on their heartstrings, [inaudible 00:22:18].

Robert Newman:
But then after a minute, it could be a minute, it could be an hour, it could be three hours or many hours later, but you get to the point where you’re not getting commitment out of the person and it’s going around in circles. And at some point, you would ask to the family, is there anything else that you want to tell your loved ones? And that’s where we enter into phase two and that’s where we’ve already predetermined bottom lines and consequences for their saying no.

Robert Newman:
Now obviously, you can’t force somebody into treatment. But you can … The family doesn’t have to be forced to support their habit anymore either. That’s what happens. They’re forced into this situation that they don’t want to be in. So-

Joanie Sigal:
Right. And that’s a really good point. I like that, that’s a really good point. Sorry, go ahead.

Robert Newman:
No, no, it’s okay. And that’s the word. You kind of flip them around and give them a different viewpoint. You’re not forcing … You don’t have to go. They don’t have to go but you don’t have to allow them to live in your home and feed them and clothe them anymore, either. So that’s the decision they have to make before you ever go in and approach the person because you’re going to mock this up, the worst possible scenario and you’re going to plan for every possible scenario that could happen all the way down to the very, very worst one before you ever go in. That way, you’re not caught [inaudible 00:23:38].

Robert Newman:
And if you go into phase two, then you have to be ready to back it up. You can’t put anything out there that you’re willing to do. And if you’re not willing to truly do whatever it takes, then you’re not willing to truly handle the problem. Because if you have your loved one sitting down, the people that mean the most to you, asking you and begging you and pouring their hearts out to you for you to get help and you don’t submit to that, then there’s a huge … It’s one of the things I explain to the family. You now will see how big this problem actually is. This is … So then we have to be bigger than that. We have to be willing to …

Robert Newman:
I’ll give you an example. Just the other day, I was in Arkansas and there was a family that the kid … Was a very, very nice family. Got the kid over there. He didn’t know I was there. They set him down. I walked in. [inaudible 00:24:33] stopped and I said the family, told him who I was and I said the family is very concerned about his well-being and they had something they wanted to say to him. And so they pulled out the letters. Well he immediately jumps up and is not going to have any of it. He wants to go out the door. And I went over and stood in front of the door and I said, “Man, you really need to listen to your family.” And he [inaudible 00:24:53] me and I said, “Look, I don’t want this to happen. You don’t need to do any of that but I’m not … You really need to sit down and to listen to your family. They have something they want to say.” Well he goes out the back door, he jumps in his car, and he was drinking. He was very drunk. And the family had already decided that if he does that, they’re going to call the police because they didn’t want to be responsible if he goes down the road and kills somebody. They wouldn’t have want that happened to their family so they were going to … So they called the police.

Robert Newman:
When the police come, we took a picture of the police car in the driveway and we sent it to him. And he got basically … Well they left and then he comes back by the house blaring his horn and they just went out. So they were right around the corner. We call them again, they pull him over and take him to jail. Of course, he was double over the limit for drinking and driving. That’s how intoxicated he was.

Robert Newman:
And so he spent the night in jail. The next day he gets out. They let him out because they were [inaudible 00:26:03] charge. He had no money, his car was impounded. His [inaudible 00:26:06] was impounded. He didn’t have money to pay the rent. And he called his family for help and they said are you ready to get some help now? And he went and picked him up the next morning and took him into the facility.

Joanie Sigal:
Oh, okay. Yep. Yeah.

Robert Newman:
That’s what it took. They did whatever and that’s my point. It was kind of a long story but that’s what it took. They had already made up their minds that they would whatever they need to. And you know what? When the kid got there, he was happy to be there.

Joanie Sigal:
Yeah, yeah. Wow. That’s quite a story.

Robert Newman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Joanie Sigal:
I’m sorry if I put you on the spot when I say this but are there any that you go through everything you can do and you can’t get them into treatment? Does that happen sometimes?

Robert Newman:
It does happen. We really … I had a kid in New Jersey late last year. One of the things about it is having a specific protocol to do the intervention. And the family was a little bit … This girl was trying to do the intervention by herself and her mother was stricken with cancer. She didn’t want to bother her mother with it and I normally would have tried to involve the mother to a degree. But I kind of understood why she didn’t want to involve her. But it turns out that had we done it standardly, we would have had a much better chance.

Robert Newman:
But the kid actually said no, he didn’t want any. Moved out of the house, and his mother was going through chemotherapy for cancer and all kinds of problems. There was all kinds of things that needed to happen at home and he walked off and moved in with a bunch of drug addicts and basically said, “No, I’m not going to get help and I don’t want anything more to do with you guys.” And so, not only did he walk away to continue his habit but he also walked away from his mother and his sister who lived alone in the house, his mother with cancer. The father died years ago. There was nobody to do the things around the house that would need to be done. Plumbing leaks and [inaudible 00:28:12] containers and things like that. So that was …

Robert Newman:
So it really tells you where you’re at and where the mentality of the person is but it also lets you know what you’re actually contributing to when you have somebody living in your house like that.

Joanie Sigal:
Right. And I guess in retrospect, there’s always the thought probably that if you had included the mother, would things have gone differently? Maybe, maybe not. But … Yeah. Yeah.

Robert Newman:
Well in any case like that, I’m sure most people do this but I always go back to look at okay, what could I have done differently-

Joanie Sigal:
Right.

Robert Newman:
… to get a better result?

Joanie Sigal:
Right.

Robert Newman:
And it’s … 90 to 95 percent of the time when these things are done standardly, they work. So …

Joanie Sigal:
Well that’s a pretty good percentage.

Robert Newman:
It was. Well truth is is that nobody really wants to live the way they’re living and they’re not happy and they’re looking for a way out.

Joanie Sigal:
Exactly. And you give them a way out that makes it maybe somewhat easy for them to admit that they were wrong or easier than it would be.

Robert Newman:
Yeah. You know one of the things I even tell the family is that let’s don’t make it about drugs and alcohol, necessarily. Obviously, there’s a drug and alcohol problem but to them, it could be something else. To them it could be loneliness or boredom or just despair, lack of self-esteem. I don’t know how to get along with others. I had one kid tell me in Hawaii, he said, “I don’t have a drug problem.” I said, “Okay, all right well obviously things aren’t going well.” He goes, “No, they suck.” And I said, “Well what do you think the problem is?” He said, “I hate people.”

Joanie Sigal:
Oh.

Robert Newman:
And I said, “Well, I completely understand that and there’s a lot of people out there that I don’t really like either. But unfortunately, we got to learn to deal with them because they’re not going away.” And he said, “Well how can you help me that?” And I explained the treatment program that actually Jason is involved with and did. They have parts of the program that help a person deal with those types of things and I explained that to him. And he was like, actually got very excited about it. He said, “You can help me with that? I’m all in.”

Joanie Sigal:
You know that’s really interesting because we say this over again, another thing on the podcast we say over and over again, that drugs aren’t the problem. Drugs are the solution. And that’s just an example of getting to what was the real problem that the guy had. And I think that’s really key because … Especially with that particular fellow because that’s what ultimately lead him to treatment. I think that’s brilliant.

Robert Newman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Joanie Sigal:
Well you serve … You serve an extremely valuable purpose. I would love it if we could get rid of the addiction problem and have you find another line of work but I think that right now what you do is super valuable.

Joanie Sigal:
Now if anybody’s listening that needs intervention, how do they go about finding you, Bobby?

Robert Newman:
They can go to my website. It’s newmaninterventions.com which is N-E-W-M-A-N, interventions with an S, .com. Or they can call me at 866-989-4499.

Joanie Sigal:
That’s perfect. Because I know that … Well we have well over 13000 downloads on this podcast and I know that there are people who are probably pulling their hair out and don’t exactly know where to turn.

Joanie Sigal:
So today, we’ve been talking to Bobby Newman and he is a professional interventionist and he has an exact protocol for getting your loved one to ultimately agree to treatment. We all know they have to agree to treatment and that’s easier said than done. And he’s got a protocol and he can help you. Bobby, give your phone number one more time.

Robert Newman:
866-989-4499 and I’ll be glad to answer any questions or help people however I can.

Joanie Sigal:
Bobby, thank you so much for driving down the road with your phone to your ear, I’m glad you didn’t get stopped, and talking to us today because I think that you really fill a very valuable need in this problem that we have today with drug addiction.

Robert Newman:
Thank you very much. You know I wanted to add one thing.

Joanie Sigal:
Absolutely.

Robert Newman:
I would love to … Yeah. I would love to find another line of work as well but I went to the prescription drug conference last week in Atlanta. I spent four days up there. And there’s a lot of like-minded people to me. I don’t believe … My philosophy is that addiction, whether you believe it’s a disease or not a disease, I don’t believe that you have to be an addict for the rest of your life. I know that I’m certainly not. And I definitely do not fall for the … What’s being pushed is the medicated-assisted treatment. And you have pharmaceutical companies that have created this problem and actually, a lot of them are being sued from false and misleading advertising in marketing practices. Yet they are the same ones that are then providing the drugs that are supposed to be ‘the answer’ to addiction. And then you have people out there with vested interest that are promoting this as … Just basically telling people, you can’t overcome addiction without being on some sort of medication. I happen to know that’s not true, personally. And I see a lot of people doing it all the time.

Robert Newman:
And so it really … So the truth is is that there’s a lot of folks out there that don’t want people to get better.

Joanie Sigal:
And that’s sad. That’s just sad. But you are absolutely right and that is not a conspiracy theory. That is flat-out the truth, it is.

Robert Newman:
I can prove it.

Joanie Sigal:
Yeah, I know.

Robert Newman:
If somebody wants to argue that point, call me.

Joanie Sigal:
I know. And it’s interesting that you bring this up because we talked about it last week on the podcast and Jason is a perfect example as well. Jason is a former addict. Jason lives a drug-free life. And we were getting some flack, I think it was on iTunes, about, “Oh, methadone and suboxone, the best thing since sliced bread, saved my life.” And my comment was, “That’s great. Can you stop taking it?” Because our wish for you, is to be drug-free. Okay? Not dependent on any drug to exist. And if you want to get mad at us for that, well hey, go ahead. But we’re never going to stop telling people that. And I’m glad you brought that up because that’s … You know it’s true and we know it’s true. You can live a drug-free existence, you can.

Robert Newman:
Well you know, yeah. And if a person wants to live that way, so be it. But there’s a lot of people that I talk to that don’t. And they don’t want to be trapped. And they never … They didn’t have full disclosure. They didn’t realize the fact methadone and suboxone were actually much harder physically to get off of than heroin or other opiates.

Joanie Sigal:
That’s right.

Robert Newman:
They didn’t know any of that. And then I talked to one poor guy that was on like 270 milligrams.

Joanie Sigal:
Wow.

Robert Newman:
And he was like, “I never knew. I don’t know how to get off this stuff.”

Joanie Sigal:
Yeah.

Robert Newman:
And he desperately wanted to. I knew a guy that wanted to get a job up in … Somewhere up in the northwest, Montana or some place like that, and he couldn’t locate … This is his dream job and he didn’t know of a methadone clinic close so he couldn’t go up there and get his dream job because there was not a methadone clinic. And I said, “Well are you tired of being trapped?” And he said, “Trapped?” And I said, “Well yeah, I mean on the methadone.” And he said, “Well my gosh, you wouldn’t believe, this has saved my life.” And I’m sorry, I’m actually pulled over if you hear the train.

Joanie Sigal:
Oh, yeah.

Robert Newman:
They’ve decided they need to blow their horn. But the … He said, “The methadone has saved my life.” “Yeah, I understand that it was a solution for you at one point but if you …” I didn’t want to argue with the man but he couldn’t see that he was restricted because he was dependent upon the drugs. And so anyway, again, if a person wants to go that route, I don’t have time to try to convince them. I just know a lot of people falling into that trap and not realizing that’s what they’re doing. And that’s the people I’m talking to.

Joanie Sigal:
That’s right.

Robert Newman:
So …

Joanie Sigal:
That’s right. Well I’m glad you added that in. I think that’s very important and before I let you go, I just want you to say your phone number one more time because I want to make sure people get it.

Robert Newman:
866-989-4499.

Joanie Sigal:
Awesome. Thank you so much, Bobby. I can’t thank you enough for being on the podcast today.

Robert Newman:
You’re very, very welcome. I’d love to come back some time if I’m allowed.

Joanie Sigal:
You have an open invitation.

Robert Newman:
Thank you.

Joanie Sigal:
Okay.

Robert Newman:
Bye.

Joanie Sigal:
You know we are all about offering hope and help and I think that’s the thing I took away from Bobby’s interview is that for people that need it. There’s another resource there for help.

Jason Good:
Absolutely. And I think what he offers is a completely valuable service because I’d say a good half the people at Sun Coast and Narconon are there by … Are products of an intervention. I was a product of an intervention. If it hadn’t been for an interventionist, my family never would have found Narconon. And so I think it’s a fantastic thing that he does because here’s the thing, people will say they have to hit rock bottom. I want them to reach out and then we’ll get them help. It’s like, look, an addict reaching out for help and saying, you know what? This is the most destructive thing that I’m doing and I need help stopping is a logical decision. You can’t expect a lot of addicts to make a logical choices because they’re abusing drugs which in and of itself is not a logical thing. And when you’re addicted to drugs, most things that you do are completely illogical to the casual or objective observer.

Jason Good:
And so reaching out for help is a logical decision that a lot of the addicts aren’t capable of making. So an interventionist is just a tool to allow them to make the best decision for them. Because when you’re in it, you’re wheeling and dealing and running and gunning, you have blinders on. You’re so not here with the rest of us. You’re stuck in the past, stuck in the future, all over the place. And you just know you need to get high. You need to get your fix. You need to do this and that’s all your focus is ever on and that’s why sometimes an interventionist just goes, stop. And just puts pause on everything and it’s like, let’s look at what’s going on here and bring some order to the chaos. And so Bobby helps us with all of our interventions here at Narconon Sun Coast and he does a great job and I’ll recommend him to absolutely anybody.

Jason Good:
So I hope the people listening out there, if they know of a family that needs an interventionist or their family themselves needs an interventionist, call Bobby. He’s really good at what he does. He’ll help you get them into treatment, save their lives, get them on the road to recovery, and handle one of the biggest problems that family has and that’s their addicted loved one.

Joanie Sigal:
Exactly. I’m betting that there is a very, very small percentage of addicts that might wake up one day and say, oh my goodness, I’m addicted and I need help. But I think it’s a very, very small percentage. And I think if you have a loved one or a friend who’s an addict, don’t go on hoping that they’re going to ask for help. And if you can’t get them into treatment, then this is an option.

Jason Good:
That’s [inaudible 00:40:30] to go.

Joanie Sigal:
And you can either call Bobby directly or you can always call Narconon, we can give you the number at the end of the podcast. And you can call Narconon and you can get help.

Jason Good:
Yeah.

Joanie Sigal:
There you go.

Jason Good:
There you go.

Joanie Sigal:
We’re going to talk next week and next week is going to be an interesting interview. It’s an actor, friend of mine, who did a short film and it’s called Son to Son. And it’s about addiction. And I want to hear from him about what that story is and how it came about and how he became interested in it. So that will be an interesting perspective next week. So we’ll be back.

Jason Good:
All right. We’ll talk to you then.

Joanie Sigal:
Take care.

Audio:
You have been listening to the Addiction Podcast-Point of No Return. For more information, call 877-339-3324 or visit www.narcanonsuncoast.org. Narconon is a non-12-step rehabilitation program based on the works of L. Ron Hubbard.