Drunks, Drugs & Debits: How to Recognize Addicts and Avoid Financial Abuse

(1) Alcoholism is a biological disorder, based in ancestry. It¡¦s inception has nothing to do with one¡¦s environment, circumstances or psychological type. These determine instead, the form that addiction takes.
(2) Why the addict is incapable of self-diagnosis. AA¡¦s ¡§20 questions¡¨ for the addict are converted to 60+ questions for the observer/close person. These questions are largely behavioral.
(3) Because no one can predict when or how destructive the behavior of a practicing addict may become, others need to disengage at the earliest possible moment. How to do so.
(4) Addiction mimics virtually all the Personality Disorders and mental illnesses. Most diagnosed with these problems are, in fact, addicts.
(5) Why pain from consequences is the only means by which to set the stage for intervention. The missing link in intervention.
(6) Via numerous stories, that close persons are in a far better position to identify the problem than are therapists and doctors.
(7) How to protect oneself, personally and professionally, from the financial and other problems that relationships with addicts create.
(8) How the media misinforms keeping the public ignorant about addiction. Numerous news reports and movies are described. The greatest movies about alcoholism have rarely been identified as such.
(9) The role of Psychological Type and Temperament in identifying and treating addiction.
(10) How to recover from the ordeal of having been negatively affected by a alcohol or other drug addict.

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

An over-looked threat to our fiscal health, 2008-04-07
This book was a wake up call. For anyone unconvinced on the health and financial dangers of dealing with drunks and addicts. This is a must read. Well written and pulls no punches. I followed some of Doug Thornburn's advice and quickly found an improvement in my bank account and personal life. I think that I also saved myself from making some serious personal mistakes. My only criticism of this book is that it black lists anyone who drinks or uses drugs. That makes for a pretty large segment of the population.

I highly recommend the book's check list on identifying addicts. Very revealing, if not scary.

Doug Setter
Author of Stomach Flattening


1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Great job and a must read, 2008-01-24
Great job, Doug! For those of you who don't really understand what alcoholism is, nor how to identify who might be an alcoholic, get this insightful, intelligent guide and use it to help you spot the addicts and alcoholics among you. It just might save your life...

Michael Z, Author, The Wisdom of the Rooms A Year of Weekly Reflections


1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Drunks, Drugs & Debits - a must read, 2006-06-23
Mr. Thorburn provides a comprehensive overview of the manifestation of an addict. While alcoholics are not the only addicts discussed, they are the most socially enabled. He has done extensive research on the psychological, biological and physiological factors of the addict.

Enabling of addiction is the biggest issue with family, friends, co-workers, the media, and society. Mr. Thorburn demonstrates how in all our great intentions, we are exacerbating the problem while all the while we believe we are helping. The medical and psychiatric professions are certainly not exempt from enabling of this problem.

From Mr. Thorburn's professional expertise, he describes the financial impacts on all involved. He provides important advice for loved ones of the addict in protecting the addict's finances and most importantly, the family's finances. There are anecdotal stories from his personal life as well as other situations that we can all relate.

The ultimate message of the book is that there is hope for the addict. The book covers that lowest point that the individual will reach and ultimately, intervention can be effective and recovery is achievable.

I truly recommend this book to everyone. I personally hear stories from friends that are struggling with family members that have issues associated with addiction with alcohol. I have been able to go trough the questions in the Thorburn Addiction Indicator and get them to admit there is an addiction problem. Mr Thorburn's books get all the credit.








1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

important advice for financial advisors, 2005-08-16
This offers very important insights for those of us in the financial field. Based on Thorburn's statistics, I would imagine many financial advisors have seen the impact of addiction in their client's financial lives, but most have not been trained to recognize it. The ramifications are far-reaching.

I had the opportunity to interview Doug Thorburn about his book on my Internet radio show and it was an eye-opener to say the least.

This is a must read for anyone who work in a financial advisory capacity with clients.


2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

The Way It Really Is, 2005-08-16
This book explained so much human behavior to me that I did not understand before. Like Copernicus revealing that the earth goes around the sun and not the other way around, Thorburn reveals that addiction is the root cause of much horrid human behavior rather than bad character or upbringing. With 10% of the population under the throes of addiction, it touches every one of our lives in a personal way. Just last weekend I heard a story at a party of a boss who terrorized his pregnant female employee, calling her derogatory names and assigning her tasks that required physical exertion beyond her means. Immediately I suspected alcoholism. Sure enough, upon further questioning I found out that this boss would go out on two hour lunches and come back drunk. Many stories I read in the newspapers are now comprehensible to me rather than merely bizarre. For example, the woman who hit a homeless man with her car and drove home with him embedded in her windshield and allowed him to bleed to death overnight. These are not just evil people, these are people suffering from a disease over which they have no control. And many of these people are in positions of power: police, doctors, lawyers, business executives, heads of state, the list goes on. Can you afford not to understand what makes these people tick, what obscenities they are capable of, and what can be done to stop them?

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