The Struggle With Substance Use Disorders In Frey's Life

Frey’s novel gives readers’ insight to what it is like to struggle with substance use disorder. The story begins in the midst of Frey’s contemplation stage, when awakes on an airplane with four teeth missing, a broken nose, hole in his cheek, and eyes swollen shut. He is informed that he is on a flight to Chicago and had been brought on the plane by doctors. His parents were waiting for him at the airport and explained to him that he had fallen down a fire escape when his friend called them; he had no memory of what drugs he had consumed. At this time, he was very aware of his problem, and began to weight the positive and negative aspects of his substance abuse. The first time readers’ see a glimpse of his substance use disorder, is when Frey insists that he needs a ‘couple of bottles of wine’ and a pack of cigarettes on the way home from the airport, and finishes the bottles within twenty minutes.

When he woke, he agreed to his father’s request to spend some time in a clinic, transitioning into the stage of preparation. This stage was marked by his decision to take his father’s advice, and take corrective action. Frey’s family struggled with seeing him in such a terrible state; his mother cried every time she would look at him. He was checked in, by his family, to the oldest Residential Drug and Alcohol Treatment Facility in the World, which was located in Minnesota, founded in 1949, and had treated over twenty thousand patients. Frey’s, “A Million Little Pieces”, explores the journey of one man struggling with substance use disorder, and his road to recovery over six weeks in a rehabilitation center. This paper will use the transtheoretical model to focus on Frey’s addictive behaviors and history with drugs and alcohol, the symptoms he experienced, and the difficult treatment one must undergo to overcome this