Ken - If I were a doctor, understanding and having experienced addiction, I would ask questions such as:
1. Do you know that you are *not* a *bad* person, you simply have an addiction that is treatable?
2. How much and how frequently are you using?
3. Please tell me everything you're using so that I can set up the correct physical tests to determine how to proceed?
4. Are you in a position (living-time and financially) to try in-patient?
5. Ask me any questions you want about in-patient. I'll tell you the *truth* to the letter.
6. Do you *really, really* want to stop... for yourself?
7. How has it affected your life? Family? Job? Finances?
8. Are you willing to take medications or do you want to approach this with a nutritional/vitamins method?
I think I'd leap up and kiss a doctor that approached treatment like that. Sound good?
Julie.
:Posted by Ken on November 15th, 2000
:I'm medstudent and I've seen some of the doctor's I've been working with interrogate some of the addicts that have come in to the clinics. I know it doesn't help the addict at all when a doctor is just a jerk because the patient won't want to come back for help. but i was wondering what questions I should ask when I start to talk about drugs with a patient. What would make you feel comfortable. And what can a doctor do to try and understand better.