You are so welcome, and it's exactly for this reason Icehouse and then me and then all the regulars started/kept posting here.

We really have big plans with the non-profit. One of our doctors who treats alcoholics (and uses sober alcoholics to help him with his patients - which is our treatment model) has a success rate of ... 38%. That is HUGE. (other known treatments are between 3 and 10%, but closer to 3 than to 10). He thinks he can get that to 45% with a better support (like from our organization). As an added bonus: the sober addicts he uses get a massive boost from seeing how their efforts help, thus cementing their own recovery. Helping yourself through helping others.

We have the ear of our government, and they are convinced we have a "winner". With all the paperwork and setup of the organization done, we are now ready to do some real work.

Giving hope to addicts who suffer from PN is obviously a big part of what I/we want to do.

Funny aside: we gave a presentation to 25 nurses (who visit families with problems in their own homes) 2 weeks ago. I did my story, a lady talked about her husband's addiction and recovery, and one of our doctors talked about how he treats heroin addicts (for 30 years now).

His first slide is also the slide he ends with. It's one sentence:

"You can not treat addicts if you don't respect them."

He doesn't mean you have to respect the drinking & drugging, but you have to totally respect the person who tries to get sober.

Scaring them "straight" or treating them like unruly children simply does not work - it actually drives them back to drinking. My first attempt (which I did on my own, 5 months before going to rehab) failed after 3 months on ... the pain. I was motivated, but the pain was intolerable, grew worse, and I thought "if this is going to be my life, I might as well go back to drinking". Sounds familiar?

I did not know about this forum at the time...

I was ready to stop 2 years before I actually managed it. With better support, better understanding of the PN etc., I might have gotten sober earlier than I did (not a guarantee of course, but I'm convinced I'm right).