DR. DREW SAYS BEATING ADDICTION IS MORE THAN IT'S 'CRACKED' UP TO BE

"We've become very glib about rehab. We joke about it like it's some easy
thing. People have no idea how much effort it takes. True rehab from
addiction takes a minimum of three years to complete. People aren't coming
here for a time out. They're coming because they need help." - Dr. Drew Pinsky

The girl was melting down.

She stood behind a translucent screen during an episode of MTV's
"Loveline." The screen showed only the shadowy outline of her body as she
confessed her troubles anonymously to a studio audience.

She'd been sexually abused as a child. She struggled with drugs. She was
asking the hosts, comedian Adam Carolla and Dr. Drew Pinsky, a
board-certified addiction medicine specialist, about some problem in her
sex life and she burst into tears.

The audience fell quiet. She just sobbed. Dr. Drew sprung from his chair
and practically ran behind the screen. The trembling young woman asked him
for help.

Pinsky hugged her and promised her it would be OK. To the viewers at home,
everything returned to normal after the commercial break, but the real
delay was much longer than that.

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"We had to stop taping for more than two hours," Pinsky says, speaking by
telephone from his office at Las Encinas Hospital in Pasadena, Calif. "The
issues that girl was fighting were coming out right then and there, and she
needed immediate help."

Dr. Drew has dedicated his life to helping others. His book "Cracked:
Putting Broken Lives Together Again" details his life helping drug addicts
and alcoholics fighting to control their diseases while piecing together
the roots of their dysfunction.

"Cracked" deals more with Pinsky's private practice than his life as host
of "Loveline," the syndicated call-in talk radio program that deals with
sex and sexuality, and the now-canceled MTV show by the same name.

The doctor's story reads like Pinsky talks. On occasion, he drifts into
dense medical jargon that's more appropriate for medical students, but
mostly one hears the voice of a caring man who desperately wants to make
people feel better.

Pinsky spoke to us recently about sex, drugs, the abuse of both and why he
won't just make his patients' pain go away.

Q: You theorize that alcoholics are a "more evolved form of the species."
What do you mean by that?

A: If you look at the cultures that have long histories alcoholism -
Ireland, Scotland, central Europe, the North American Indian - what do they
all have in common? They've all survived military genocidal assault.
They're survivors. They're more intense.

Q: More intense in what way?

A: They are more activated by the thrill. In group sessions, I ask
alcoholics what they would do if Attila the Hun and his horde were coming
over the hill after them. Without fail, they say they would pick something
up and run toward them. The rest of us would take a spear in the back.

Q: You make it sound like addicts are great people to have around.

A: When they aren't under the influence, many of them are. Many addicts
I've treated are very smart, cunning and charming and bright. Look at the
lines of addiction you see in the creative community of artists, musicians
and actors. These are fun people when they're clean.

Q: What most often drives people to alcohol and drugs?

A: Today, it's all about trauma - most of it childhood trauma. Sometimes
it's peer pressure, the workplace or society. Most of the time it's some
deficiency we had in our care as children, such as issues of abandonment,
sexual, physical and verbal abuse. The list is really endless.

Q: So alcoholics and addicts are more than just people who lack willpower?

A: This notion that alcoholics drink or addicts use drugs because they're
weak contradicts everything we know about the disease. A good portion of
addiction is just how we're wired. It's a complete disorder of priorities
in the brain. Addicts come to us on their knees begging to stop, and they
can't. If they could just stop, they would stop.

Q: Yeah, but all you've got to do is get the rehab and then you're good to
go, right?

A: We've become very glib about rehab. We joke about it like it's some easy
thing. People have no idea how much effort it takes. True rehab from
addiction takes a minimum of three years to complete. People aren't coming
here for a time out. They're coming because they need help.

Q: Are we getting crazier or healthier?

A: With mental disorders, we're still slower to get help. We hate the idea
that everything we do isn't a result of free will. The brain is like any
other organ. Sometimes it malfunctions. But we think we have more control
over the brain than we do and we're not willing to do the things necessary
to let it heal.

Q: Your book says your fantasy is to take their pain away. What's so wrong
about that?

A: Because it only makes them feel better in the moment. It gives them
nowhere to grow. Going through the pain and struggle is necessary for the
healing. I can't stand to watch people in pain, but I have to be there in
that moment to help my patients.

Q: So how do you keep getting up in the morning, knowing that you're going
to have to face all this pain and that you really can't take it away?

A: Because the reality is so much more satisfying. If you can help someone
make peace with their addiction and get into recovery, that's a much more
beautiful experience than some quick-fix that comes from a pill or magic.

"Cracked: Putting Broken Lives Together Again" By Dr. Drew Pinsky Published
by Regan Books, 273 pages, $24.95