S himi’s parents wanted me to see him because he was spending his days smoking marijuana. He had been in a 30-day rehabilitation program about a year ago but it didn’t much help him since he wasn’t really interested in stopping the course he was on. I told his father that I’d be happy to speak with Shimi but I was honest in sharing my less-than-optimistic expectations.
“I’ll meet with him and see if I can be helpful” I said. “But curing substance abuse is all about a willingness to change and it doesn’t sound like Shimi is too interested in changing right now.”
But given that Shimi’s parents were interested in seeing him change and had extracted a promise from him that he’d show for an appointment I figured it was worth a shot.
Shimi did his part and came to meet with me. He even did me the chesed of showing up on time. We started talking and he told me that he’d spent most of the past six months living in a friend’s apartment in Beit Shemesh. He didn’t use any other drugs besides the marijuana and he didn’t tell me about any disturbing symptoms of depression anxiety or psychosis. His schedule was pretty much fixed: He’d wake up smoke marijuana cook himself lunch smoke again make dinner and then smoke some more until he fell asleep. Apparently he made a mean pizza and he really enjoyed cooking Italian food. Ravioli baked ziti and lasagna were standards on his culinary repertoire.
