[f you are like most people who live with or love a Dependent--<br > someone who is addicted to alcohol， cocaine， heroin， or<br > prescription pills---you want to get right to the "action" part of<br >intervention. You want to find a way---quickly， if possible--to<br >fix your "problem." You don t want to do any more soul-<br >searching. You don t need to hear again that you are part of the<br >problem. Your patience and understanding are all used up， and<br >you re ready to :hand this problem over to the professionals and<br >have them fix it， Then， you hope， all will be well， and life will<br >be worth living once again.<br > We wish we could offer you easy answers and fast solutions.<br >But we can t. We d be deceiving you if we did. Addiction to<br >alcohol and drugs affects not only the body but the mind and<br >even the soul; it affects not only its victims but its victims <br >families and friends. The addiction has entrapped you--an inno-<br >cent bystander--in its tentacles， and it has blinded you to your<br >own imprisonment. You know that things are not right， but the<br >reasons escape you， and you blame yourself for the joyless-<br >ness of your life.<br > Intervention--stepping in and stopping the addiction--must<br >begin with self-assessment and self-discovery. As a process of<br >education and enlightenment as well as action， intervention<br >must take into account the depth and power of the addiction s<br >tenacious hold on both the Dependent and the Dependent s<br >family. Thus， we must start at the beginning， by identifying<br >~at has happened to your life and why it happened.<br > In the next seven chapters， we will lead you gradually into<br >understanding the disease of addiction. Our goals are to help<br >you:<br >3<br ><br >