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American Morning

Sex, Drugs and Dr. Drew

Aired August 22, 2003 - 09:17   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, sex, drugs and Dr. Drew. The host of "Loveline," a syndicated radio call in show, has become a trusted voice for millions of young adults. Dr. Drew Pinsky is also a director of a California drug rehab clinic and his role there is the subject of his new book. It's called "Cracked: Putting Broken Lives Together Again."
And I recently sat down and talked with Dr. Drew and asked him why addiction does not seem to discriminate.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. DREW PINSKY, AUTHOR, "CRACKED": It cuts across all sort of socioeconomic brackets and all types of people. But you have to have the genetic predisposition. Not anyone can actually become an addict. Anyone with the gene can become an addict.

O'BRIEN: So you're saying then that addicts should just blame their genetic makeup?

PINSKY: No, no. You know, don't blame your genes and blame your parents and then knock off early, as they say. But do be aware that if you have the genetic predisposition, you can throw the switch on that. And once the switch is thrown you have this disease. And that's what I wrote about. And really it was, for me it was sort of an inspiration that Judith Reagan challenged me to write this book about the perspective of the caretaker, which is really -- there's lots of things out there about addiction, about what it's like to be in a program. But I don't know any place where you get the real gritty feeling of what it is to look at it from my perspective.

O'BRIEN: In your book you chronicle different patients coming through the doors of the clinic where you work. Give me a sense then, from your perspective, of what you learned about addiction that you didn't know sort of as a doctor until you got the hands on experience in your clinic.

PINSKY: Oh, my goodness, you know, in medical school, when I was in training, we got very little training on addiction. In fact, I was one of these doctors that, you know, although I spent many years in training putting alcoholics and heroin addicts back together, I would say like, yes, just move away from your friends and yes, you'll stop doing heroin. Stay away from those guys, you're right, that's all you've go to do.

I had no idea. And it was actually the result of working in a psychiatric hospital that I became sort of more expert in detox. As a result of being a detox expert, I started seeing lots of addicts. Lo and behold, I got involved and interested in this disease, where people were coming in near death, really very, very ill...

O'BRIEN: Killing themselves.

PINSKY: Really medically, psychologically, spiritually they were dying, and turning out better than they ever knew they could be. I thought oh, this is amazing. I want to be a part of this. There's nowhere else in medicine that you can take somebody from near death to better than ever. It's like this is, I want to be a part of this. This is exciting.

And it has been a wonderful adventure ever since, although challenging and depleting.

O'BRIEN: Explain, though, why some people can come in through your doors, go through rehab, recover, become sober, that's it, end of story, go on to a good productive life and other people, like Robert Downey, Jr., who is a blurb on the back of your book, like Andy Duke, also did a blurb for you on the back of the book, are in rehab and are in rehab again and again and fail and fail and fail.

PINSKY: Yes, well, there's two ways of looking at that. One is that sometimes relapse is part of recovery. They learn, they didn't capitulate completely to the process and as a result they relapsed and they learned something from that. So they get further and deeper into the process as a result of their relapse.

The other thing, which is what I wrote about in the book, and I almost called the book getting it or get it, how to give somebody get it, which is a profound question.

O'BRIEN: And you mean ooh, I get it?

PINSKY: I get it. I'm throwing myself into the process. I get it. I get what I need to do. That is an unknown. Why some people relapse and relapse and relapse then some day they come back and now they get it, now they're willing, it's a profound willingness in people who have experienced powerlessness as a source of trauma in their life. Because of that, they avoid getting involved with other people, trusting other people, capitulating to a process that's driven by other people, because it makes them experience that powerlessness that was so traumatizing in their childhood.

O'BRIEN: The book is called "Crackled: Putting Broken Lives Together Again."

It's wonderful. I read it last night in one sitting and it was terrific.

PINSKY: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Dr. Drew Pinsky, nice to see you, as always.

PINSKY: Nice to see you, too.

Thanks.

Appreciate it.

O'BRIEN: Thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired August 22, 2003 - 09:17   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, sex, drugs and Dr. Drew. The host of "Loveline," a syndicated radio call in show, has become a trusted voice for millions of young adults. Dr. Drew Pinsky is also a director of a California drug rehab clinic and his role there is the subject of his new book. It's called "Cracked: Putting Broken Lives Together Again."
And I recently sat down and talked with Dr. Drew and asked him why addiction does not seem to discriminate.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. DREW PINSKY, AUTHOR, "CRACKED": It cuts across all sort of socioeconomic brackets and all types of people. But you have to have the genetic predisposition. Not anyone can actually become an addict. Anyone with the gene can become an addict.

O'BRIEN: So you're saying then that addicts should just blame their genetic makeup?

PINSKY: No, no. You know, don't blame your genes and blame your parents and then knock off early, as they say. But do be aware that if you have the genetic predisposition, you can throw the switch on that. And once the switch is thrown you have this disease. And that's what I wrote about. And really it was, for me it was sort of an inspiration that Judith Reagan challenged me to write this book about the perspective of the caretaker, which is really -- there's lots of things out there about addiction, about what it's like to be in a program. But I don't know any place where you get the real gritty feeling of what it is to look at it from my perspective.

O'BRIEN: In your book you chronicle different patients coming through the doors of the clinic where you work. Give me a sense then, from your perspective, of what you learned about addiction that you didn't know sort of as a doctor until you got the hands on experience in your clinic.

PINSKY: Oh, my goodness, you know, in medical school, when I was in training, we got very little training on addiction. In fact, I was one of these doctors that, you know, although I spent many years in training putting alcoholics and heroin addicts back together, I would say like, yes, just move away from your friends and yes, you'll stop doing heroin. Stay away from those guys, you're right, that's all you've go to do.

I had no idea. And it was actually the result of working in a psychiatric hospital that I became sort of more expert in detox. As a result of being a detox expert, I started seeing lots of addicts. Lo and behold, I got involved and interested in this disease, where people were coming in near death, really very, very ill...

O'BRIEN: Killing themselves.

PINSKY: Really medically, psychologically, spiritually they were dying, and turning out better than they ever knew they could be. I thought oh, this is amazing. I want to be a part of this. There's nowhere else in medicine that you can take somebody from near death to better than ever. It's like this is, I want to be a part of this. This is exciting.

And it has been a wonderful adventure ever since, although challenging and depleting.

O'BRIEN: Explain, though, why some people can come in through your doors, go through rehab, recover, become sober, that's it, end of story, go on to a good productive life and other people, like Robert Downey, Jr., who is a blurb on the back of your book, like Andy Duke, also did a blurb for you on the back of the book, are in rehab and are in rehab again and again and fail and fail and fail.

PINSKY: Yes, well, there's two ways of looking at that. One is that sometimes relapse is part of recovery. They learn, they didn't capitulate completely to the process and as a result they relapsed and they learned something from that. So they get further and deeper into the process as a result of their relapse.

The other thing, which is what I wrote about in the book, and I almost called the book getting it or get it, how to give somebody get it, which is a profound question.

O'BRIEN: And you mean ooh, I get it?

PINSKY: I get it. I'm throwing myself into the process. I get it. I get what I need to do. That is an unknown. Why some people relapse and relapse and relapse then some day they come back and now they get it, now they're willing, it's a profound willingness in people who have experienced powerlessness as a source of trauma in their life. Because of that, they avoid getting involved with other people, trusting other people, capitulating to a process that's driven by other people, because it makes them experience that powerlessness that was so traumatizing in their childhood.

O'BRIEN: The book is called "Crackled: Putting Broken Lives Together Again."

It's wonderful. I read it last night in one sitting and it was terrific.

PINSKY: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Dr. Drew Pinsky, nice to see you, as always.

PINSKY: Nice to see you, too.

Thanks.

Appreciate it.

O'BRIEN: Thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com