Beautiful Boy

by

David Sheff

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Beautiful Boy: Chapter 11 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
As David drives to the rehab center, Nic tries to talk him out of it. He says that he’ll try to run away. He screams, “You fucking think you know me? You don’t know anything about me. You have always tried to control me.” When Nic’s words start to slur, David realizes that he is still high. David starts to think that Nic is like a stranger to him.
Nic and David’s interactions here highlight the difficulties of parenting a child who is a drug addict. David does want to control Nic because Nic is not making good choices for himself. Gradually, however, David recognizes that he cannot live Nic’s life for him—though he can try to support his son, he must let go to an extent and live his own life.
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Support vs. Enabling Theme Icon
At the rehab center, Nic meets with a counselor, seething. After an hour, the counselor asks to speak to David. She tells him that Nic could die from the drugs he’s using, and that he doesn’t understand that he’s in trouble. She says it’s typical of addicts to be in denial and to think that they can stop whenever they want, even if they wind up in jail or the hospital. The counselor gives David recommendations for other programs, explaining that Nic is too resistant and nearly too old for this program.
The counselor emphasizes the need for addicts to seek support from programs, and from people in their lives, in order to get well. When they are adamant that they do not need others, they are more likely to slip and resume using. Nic has already proven this: without going through a program, the prospects have been bleak for him as he continues to relapse.
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Quotes
David calls more rehab programs and finds one named Ohlhoff Recovery in San Francisco. Nic agrees to go for an evaluation. He has a session with the program director, and then David joins them. The director says that Nic is in denial that he is an addict, and that he’s only there because David is forcing him. She says that this is okay, that Nic has as much of a chance of recovery as someone who wants to be treated. The director says that she will check him in in the morning for the 28-day treatment.
Here, David hints at some of the ideas that make recovery from addiction so difficult. Nic doesn’t believe that he has a problem, and therefore it is easier for that problem to escalate and worsen. But with the support of the program, David hopes that Nic can lift himself out of the harmful cycle of addiction and put himself on a road to recovery.
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Addiction, Ruin, and Redemption Theme Icon
Support vs. Enabling Theme Icon
The next morning, when David drops Nic off, Nic is terrified and trembling. David hugs him and leaves. David is guilty, thinking that he has betrayed and abandoned Nic, but he is comforted by the fact that he knows where Nic is. At home, David looks through Nic’s room and throws away Nic’s hidden drug paraphernalia: a glass bong, hand-blown meth pipe, cigarette papers, and empty bottles.
When David drops Nic off at Ohlhoff, he is torn by what he is forcing his son to do. Yet this is a crucial step in David and Nic’s gradual realization that finding support from programs and other people is necessary to recovery. David is supporting Nic by helping him get to one of those programs, rather than enabling him to remain at home and continue his drug habit.
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David and Karen make an appointment with a local specialist in drug addiction. They explain to him that they worry whether they have made the right choices in getting Nic into rehab and worry about Jasper and Daisy. The doctor is supportive of their decision to get Nic into rehab, but his major advice is to take care of themselves, because addiction can destroy families. The therapist also suggests that they go to Al-Anon meetings.
David illustrates how he and Karen need support from others, too—not only from each other, but from someone who can help them understand Nic’s addiction. The specialist’s advice, to take care of themselves, also foreshadows David’s eventual crisis. Because he spends so much time worrying about his son and his lack of control over Nic’s situation, David jeopardizes many other aspects of his life.
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Parenthood and Control Theme Icon
Support vs. Enabling Theme Icon
On Nic’s third day at Ohlhoff, he calls, begging to come home. David refuses. The counselor from Ohlhoff reports that Nic is depressed and confrontational but explains that this is normal. David worries that Nic might run away from the program. When he sees the specialist again, the doctor emphasizes that the most difficult thing about having a child addicted to drugs is that parents cannot control it. He says, “You can support his recovery, but you can’t do it for him.” He also introduces David to Al-Anon’s “Three C’s”: he didn’t cause it, he can’t control it, and he can’t cure it.
David is determined to be supportive of Nic’s recovery, but he recognizes that allowing Nic to come home would simply enable him to return to his old habits. Additionally, the Three C’s of Al-Anon represent the crux of what David wrestles with throughout Nic’s addiction. He worries constantly whether he might have caused Nic’s addiction and blames himself. David also continues for years to try to control Nic’s choices, as the specialist recognizes here.
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Parenthood and Control Theme Icon
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Quotes
A person whom David interviews for work is a recovering drug addict. When David tells him that his own son is in rehab, the man says, “he’s in God’s hands.” David is startled, saying that he never believed in God, but that he wishes he did. The man assures him that he will come to believe in God before this ordeal is over.
The religious aspect of the 12-step program is something that Nic wrestles with himself later in the book. But David comes to understand that the belief that God (or some higher power) is the only one that can determine Nic’s fate—and that David himself cannot—is crucial for his own peace of mind.
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David calls the counselor at Ohlhoff again. She says that it has been difficult for Nic, as meth is a particularly tricky addiction to treat. David frequently hears that meth is worse than other drugs. It depletes the brain’s dopamine, meaning that recreating the initial high is often impossible. This impels users to take more of the drug, causing more brain damage, which increases the need to use in a cycle.
David provides more information on why meth is particularly addictive, illustrating how it changes brain chemistry in a way that makes it dependent upon the drug. This illustrates that addiction to meth is not simply a lack of willpower: there are tangible changes in the brain that make it more difficult to abstain from meth in the future.
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The Disease Model, Stigma, and Treatment Theme Icon
David meets with Dr. Edythe London at UCLA to find more about the brain on meth. She conducted studies of brain scans, comparing average brains to those with meth users. Meth addicts are often depressed, argumentative, and anxious—and London’s studies indicated that these conditions have a biological basis. She concluded that relapsing isn’t a failure of morality or willpower—rather, it may be the result of a damaged brain.
Dr. London provides further evidence for the fact that addiction is not simply about personal choice and control. It is a difficult disease to overcome alone because a person’s own brain chemistry begins to betray them. This is crucial because understanding that addiction is a disease can change its stigma and hopefully change the way that governments and individuals treat the problem.
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Quotes
After a month of abstinence, the depressive symptoms and pain following meth withdrawal are less severe but far from normal. This is why most programs do not succeed, because they only last several days or a week. London tells David that the images also suggest cognitive impairments to various areas of the brain, including those related to decision-making.
London provides even more evidence for the biological basis of addiction: decision-making skills are particularly impaired even after withdrawal, making it difficult for people to make good choices in both the short term and the long term. The study also proves why the disease is thought of as incurable, as meth makes long-lasting impressions on the brain.
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The Disease Model, Stigma, and Treatment Theme Icon
David finds another study by Stephen Kish, who studied the brains of those who had died from meth overdose or had a high level of meth in their systems when they died. He found that neurons in the brain are destroyed by meth. Kish also found that the levels of some neurotransmitters were 90 to 95 percent lower than a normal brain. His research did show, however, that the brains of meth addicts can probably recover, as long as addicts stay off the drug.
Kish’s study, like London’s, illustrates the damage that addiction can do to the brain and why it is so difficult to remain in recovery as a meth addict specifically. Yet even while his research illustrates that addiction can have long-lasting effects, David holds onto the hope that Nic can avoid drugs long enough for his brain to start to recover from them.
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Addiction, Ruin, and Redemption Theme Icon
The Disease Model, Stigma, and Treatment Theme Icon
Karen and David join Nic for group sessions at Ohlhoff. They hear the stories of other addicts and the family members of those addicts. At the third week’s family session, Nic confesses that he would rather work and be independent than return to college. David is surprised: he still doesn’t believe that Nic’s problems are that bad. Rehab is necessary, he thinks, but he believes that Nic is just postponing college and will go back at some point.
Nic’s decision to work and be independent shows how much he has already lost, including the opportunity afforded by college. David’s reaction also emphasizes that he is still having a difficult time fully understanding Nic’s problems. He is spending more time trying to make sure Nic can follow the path of a normal young adult, rather than trying to help guide Nic toward meaningful recovery.
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Parenthood and Control Theme Icon
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A week later, Nic says that he realizes he needs more time in rehab, and he asks to move into the program’s halfway house. David agrees, and at the end of the 28 days, Nic moves into the halfway house. Three days later, however, Nic has vanished once more.
Nic’s disappearance is an immediate repudiation of all of the work he had done over the previous month. His reversal highlights the pernicious nature of addiction: even after doing the work of recovery, one can quickly fall back into the cycle of relapse.
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