The result: the first sizable population of over-50 adults to struggle not just with alcohol but also with drugs, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), a federal agency. The number of aging boomer addicts, however, continues to grow. Only after the drugs had left his bloodstream would he begin the intense individual and group therapy, with about 30 other men from their 20s through their 50s, that would launch his life as a sober person.Īt 57, Ron has been sober and straight for more than five years. At the Hanley Center in West Palm Beach, Ron would spend the next 48 hours in a sweaty, hazy, queasy detox, coming down from booze, tranquilizers, the narcotic painkiller Ox圜ontin, and the sleeping medication Ambien. Within hours, the family and Bob boarded a plane to Florida, where Ron was scheduled to enter residential treatment - that day - for alcoholism and drug addiction. Ron fell down on his knees and grabbed for Sammy. "I saw - outside of myself - what I was doing to my loved ones. Seeing his little boy fall apart finally got through to Ron. Then he came to me holding a picture of the two of us and cut it in half." "He grabbed a pen and carved the words 'I DON'T HAVE A DAD' in the doors of his closet. "He marched to his bedroom and ripped up his letter," Ron says. "If you don't go to rehab," Patricia screamed, "you'll never see me or Sammy again!" "I was calling the cops to have everybody thrown out." Patricia, a slight size 4, threw herself at her bear of a husband. He ran upstairs and grabbed the kitchen phone. Sam had written that he'd lost his father and wanted him back. Haltingly, each family member read him their letter. They had all written him letters explaining how much they loved him and how much they wanted - needed - him to get sober. So this morning his family had no idea how Ron would react to their collective action to end the chaos. He became unpredictable, sullen, and sometimes violent. Only a few years into their marriage, however, Ron began drinking at every possible occasion and started doing drugs more and more often. They had also built a beautiful home: three stories with a bay view, an emblem of Ron's business success. When Ron was enticed out of bachelorhood at 40 by his stunning Venezuelan bride, they had made an attractive and charismatic couple. "He had gained a lot of weight and was all swollen." And he looked far older than his 52 years. He looked awful that morning - "like someone had hit him with a baseball bat," recalls Patricia. Patricia had hired Bob, an interventionist, to ensure that the family's initiative would succeed - and that no one would get hurt. In the world of substance-abuse treatment, an intervention is a loving but direct call to arms, and often the last attempt by loved ones to end the destructive path of addiction. Not only had Patricia recruited other family members for the intervention, but she had involved young Sammy. "He's going to have a chat with you."Īnd that's when Ron got it: This was an intervention. Perched nervously on the edge of the sofa were Ron's 8-year-old son, Sam Ron's two older brothers his 13-year-old niece and his 86-year-old mother. Or maybe he'd drunk too much wine and vodka last night, or maybe it was the Ox圜ontin and the Ambien he had popped along with the alcohol.īut the guy in the turtleneck wasn't alone. "What's a priest doing here?" he thought. Ron was groggy - and confused, because standing by the fireplace was a stranger wearing a white turtleneck under a black sweater. En español |In the predawn darkness of December 5, 2005, Patricia Dash woke her husband, Ron, and led him downstairs to the den of their house in New York.
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