When reading the following story you may find
yourself thinking “What does this have to do with substance use?” Or, perhaps
if you have been around the treatment community for a while, you may find this
updated old story strangely familiar. Either way, once you have completed
reading the story below, follow the simple directions and then process its
meaning as a group. Afterwards find out what the real meaning of the story is
how it applies to the process of positive change.
Abby and Greg
first met 3 years ago and a strong loving bond bloomed almost immediately.
After 2 years of dating they became engaged and had set a date for marriage.
Abby and Greg’s relationship was loving, faithful and true and as a result they
were the envy of all of their friends because of how close and inseparable they
appeared to be. They were in love and the future looked bright.
Then one day
tragedy suddenly struck. Greg worked as an importer/exporter which on occasion
required travel to some exotic places. While visiting an obscure country far,
far away Greg contracted Alligator fever, an extremely rare disease that put
its victims in to a deep coma-like sleep. Greg was quickly flown back to the US
to meet with the best doctors but none could awaken Greg from his viral-
induced state of comatose. Abby was desperate and refused to give up on Greg so
she did extensive research and found a retired old doctor living overseas who
was the only person in the world to have successfully ever brought anyone out
of the slumber caused by Alligator fever by performing a simple but
controversial surgical procedure. His name was Dr. Sinbad. Abby right away had
Dr. Sinbad flown in to do a medical consultation about Greg’s desperate
condition.
When Dr. Sinbad
saw Abby he was immediately taken aback by her appearance. Abby was extremely
beautiful and miraculously she was the spitting image Dr. Sinbad’s long lost
love who had died over 30 years ago. Dr. Sinbad was very blunt with Abby. He
told her that the controversial surgery was not covered by insurance and it
cost over $250,000 to perform, however if she spent one night alone in a hotel
with him, he would perform the procedure on Greg at no financial cost.
Abby was
disgusted at Dr. Sinbad’s indecent proposal so she went off to find the money
herself. Dr. Sinbad said she had 24 hours to think about it before he flew back
to his home country leaving Greg in his current state of unconsciousness. Due
to the time shortage, Abby went to the only person she could think of who could
come up with that kind of money right away, and that was Greg’s brother Ivan.
There was one catch however, Greg and Ivan hadn’t talked in years. It turned
out that Abby had dated Ivan briefly prior to meeting Greg and when she met
Greg it was love at first sight so she left Ivan for Greg three years ago. Ivan
hadn’t spoken to either one of them since. Still, Abby turned to Ivan in
desperation and she apologized for how things had turned out and for hurting
him in the past. She begged Ivan for help. She pleaded with Ivan reminding him
that Greg is family. Ivan, who was wealthy, had the money and at one time loved
his brother Greg dearly, however he refused to help out Abby and Greg in spite
of the seriousness of the situation with Greg his only brother. He couldn’t get
beyond the past betrayal and rejection and left Abby to fend for herself.
Abby then felt
like she had no choice. She reluctantly consented to Dr. Sinbad’s proposition so
that Dr. Sinbad could save Greg’s life. Dr Sinbad kept his end of the bargain
and the next day he successfully performed his controversial but effective
surgery on Greg to cure him of the coma induced by Alligator fever. Greg woke
up and Dr Sinbad then left and went back from where he came from.
When Greg awoke
fully and came to his senses he was ecstatic and he and Abby were full of joy
to be back together. They were again looking forward to their bright future
together. However, not too long after, Greg started asking some questions and
he soon discovered that his lifesaving medical procedure was very expensive and
not covered by insurance. He pressed Abby to find out how she paid for
everything with no money. Abby eventually admitted to Greg what had transpired with
Dr. Sinbad as part of their “deal” to cover the cost of his treatment. Abby
swore that everything she did was only motivated by her deep love for Greg. Immediately
Greg was shocked, infuriated and outraged. He called Abby every hurtful name that
he could think of and then he cancelled the engagement. Abby pleaded with Greg
to try to get him to understand but he cast her aside with anger and disdain,
insisting that she never speak with him ever again.
Abby fell into
a deep depression. Abby turned to an old friend Gus for comfort. Gus had been
Greg’s best friend for years which is why Abby went to him, thinking he would
understand and perhaps he would be able to talk some sense to Greg. When Gus
heard the story, he was sickened and he insisted that he and Abby go have a
talk with Greg together which they then did. As soon as Gus saw Greg and
witnessed his callous attitude he was overcome with anger and he attacked Greg
with a baseball bat and beat him brutally, sending Greg back bruised, broken
and unconscious to the hospital. Abby tried unsuccessfully to stop the attack
but couldn’t. Afterward, however, inside herself she actually felt a little
satisfied that Greg got his due for mercilessly rejecting her after all that
she did and she even cracked a little smile as Greg was taken away in the
ambulance.
Your assignment now is to rank all five characters
in order from who you thought was the worst, to the one you though did the
least wrong. The character you rate with a 1 is the worst in your opinion, 2-
the second worst, 3 the third, and so on up to 5:
Abby _____
Greg _____
Dr. Sinbad _____
Ivan _____
Gus _____
Discuss your answers as
a group and include your rationale for your choices
“If you
are going to keep your mouth open,
make sure
that you are thick-skinned” - Al
Ligator
Process:
So
the question remains: What’s the point of
the story? The answer is that the story itself is not all that meaningful.
There are really no right or wrong answers to the follow up discussion on who
people thought the worst characters were. The goal of this story is to get
people thinking about and then discussing VALUES
Values is a crucial topic that
should never get old. What we think about, how we feel, and what
we choose to do all starts with our own personal set of values – What is most
important to us
Consider
some of the commonly esteemed values that the Alligator Fever story touched upon:
Family
-
Friendship -
Faithfulness -
Trust -
Money -
Health -
Loyalty -
Respect –
Love -
Life -
Other? -
Friendship -
Faithfulness -
Trust -
Money -
Health -
Loyalty -
Respect –
Love -
Life -
Other? -
So in
essence, as you discussed the characters in the Alligator Fever story whom you
barely even know, you were not judging them as individuals, but rather you were
prioritizing which values stood out the most to you based on your own
priorities.
Closing Exercise &
Discussion:
Go back through the list of values above and starting at the top with
Family, go through each value one by one and complete the following sentence:
“When it comes to (Value from the list – starting with Family) the kind of
person I used to be when I was getting high was ______ (Describe). But today as
I am changing for the better, my goal in this area is ______.”
Do
this for each of the values above: Family,
Friendship, Faithfulness, Trust, Money, Health, and so on – discussing your
answers as a group
Additional Links for Counselors
in Relation to this Topic (Values) - Click below to view:
