Narcology: Help or Utopia? Why Does a Cat Need a Pastry?

True stories about how deep and persistent the misconceptions about the nature of addiction are for most people, including the addicts themselves, their relatives, and medical workers. How difficult and painful it is to gain this understanding when attempting to help the addicted. How irreconcilable, ineffective, and dramatic the clash of values between the addicted and the healthy is. This book is about how the existing world order is hopeless in terms of hopes for freeing humanity from the chains of addiction. Fighting against whom, what, why, and how — these are eternal questions; they are akin to existential ones that concern anyone who has faced the problem of addiction firsthand. Stories from practice, descriptions of the peculiarities of working in a narcological hospital, vivid memorable situations, reflections on the experiences gained, and, essentially, a banal but always non-obvious answer: a mere mortal can only change oneself and one's life. The book reveals what is hidden behind the walls of the hospital. How the treatment of the addicted proceeds, what goals patients pursue when agreeing to hospitalization, and what difficulties medical workers face when assisting drug addicts and alcoholics. The author reflects on questions whose answers are not at all obvious. Can relatives and close ones of patients influence the outcome of treatment? Where are the boundaries of help? Whose doom is more dramatic: that of the addict or their loved one? Are the hopes for recovery not ephemeral? Where to draw strength to continue living? The book urges reflection and search, disputes with official approaches, and provides necessary support to suffering loved ones and relatives of patients in any decisions they make. The book is addressed to people whose personal and professional fates are intertwined with the life paths of the addicted.