Before It's Too Late: Working With Substance Abuse in the Family (1989 Norton)

Patterns of substance abuse often persist in families over many generations, but until the abuse becomes completely unmanageable the family seldom seeks treatment for it. Instead other problems come to the fore- marital distress, psychosomatic disorders, depressed or out-of-control children- all awash in alcohol or clouded by drugs. This book shows therapists how to tackle the dilemma of the presenting problem not being the "real" problem and presents a variety of step-by-step models for working with the substance-abusing family. In bridging family therapy and substance abuse treatment, Dr. Treadway offers approaches which respect both the developmental level of the family and its members and the power of alcohol to distort family relationships.

CRITICAL ACCLAIM:

"This clear. compassionate book is a welcome and necessary addition to the literature. It pays long overdue attention to the 'grey areas" of substance abuse and gives practitioners useful, well-researched ways of considering the options." -Michael Elkin

"David Treadway has written a wise and tender book. Openly he has shared the ways his personal experiences have shaped how he listens, and cares, and heals. As he lays out his abundantly thoughtful and practical clinical strategies, his ever-present voice renders the book at once authoritative and intimate. Though he claims the book breaks no theoretical ground, I would modify his statement, for it is precisely the kind of self-awareness that he builds into his work that pushes us to experience the limits of out theoretical maps, enabling us to revise them. At its core, this is a bok about courage; I commend it to you."          -Kathy Weingarten, Ph.D.