How to Stop People From Being Self-Destructive
The founder of a drug treatment center on overcoming vaccine denial—without dunking on anti-vaxxers.
Illustration: Joel Plosz for Bloomberg Businessweek
According to Jeffrey Foote, co-founder of the Center for Motivation and Change drug abuse treatment program and author of Beyond Addiction: How Science and Kindness Help People Change
I see it in substance use struggles all the time: Families are afraid, angry—their kid’s behavior is so obviously harmful and destructive. So their urge is to rage at them: Just freaking stop already! Stop being a scary person! Stop upsetting us! It’s natural to want to scream: Would you get a frickin’ vaccine already? But screaming won’t change other people’s minds. In fact, it will only cause them to dig in and get defensive. That’s human nature, too. If you want to see it in action, check out social media.