EXCLUSIVE VIDEO INTERVIEW: It Will Take Three Years To Treat Tiger Woods, Says Dr. Drew
Jan. 21 2010, Published 4:40 a.m. ET
Celebrity Rehab's Dr. Drew Pinsky sat down with RadarOnline.com for an exclusive interview and spoke very candidly about Tiger Woods treatment for sex addiction.
Dr. Drew has no doubts that the golf ace is suffering profoundly at the moment and does not, for one minute, think this is any kind of publicity stunt as has been reported by some outlets.
"I've worked with sex addicts, I've done a show about it. Tiger Woods is a sex addict," Dr Drew says. "He has to meet criteria for that condition in order to enter a treatment program. He was admitted to one of the premier programs."
Dr. Drew raised concerns about RadarOnline.com's exclusive report that Tiger is getting special treatment because he requested not to have a roomate. "He is getting special consideration treatment which always goes poorly for the patient - when they don't mix with the other patients, they get special rooms, special facilities, that is going to have to go eventually, so we will see how that plays out."
Dr. Drew says one of the biggest obstacles Tiger is facing prognostically is being Tiger Woods. "Prognostically it's difficult being Tiger Woods. And to go out and do 12-step meetings and do the things he needs to do. So we will see, it's usually not a straight line to success, so we will see what kind of bumps in the road there are.
"Bottom line is what people need to understand is that this man is in incredible pain, this believe me, is no p.r. campaign. He has disrupted his family, he has jeopardized his children's well being. This is not a bad guy, this is a good guy. Believe me, he feels this profoundly."
Dr. Drew says he hopes that Tiger's wife Elin, "will get in the program. Get through the betrayal, get through the trust issues, or at least learn to live with a certain amount of mistrust and work on herself.
"It takes about 3-5years to treat a sex addiction so its going to be an ongoing process that she is going to have to actively participate in and it's hard to get the significant other to participate when they aren't the identified patient. 'He did me wrong why should I be doing all this work?' Well there was a reason she was with him and these couples often end up in really good places, better than they ever knew they could be, and hopefully on behalf of the children she commits to this."
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Drew says very often it's the significant other that has more work to do than the sex addict. He goes on to say that Elin and Tiger aren't responsible for his sex addiction but it's Tiger's responsibility on how he deals with his recovery, "He is responsible for his recovery and she is responsible for committing to his recovery and to their family."
Dr. Drew says that it's better for Tiger's recovery if Elin is participating in his recovery, "It will be better for him if she does participate. It gives him a real motivation to stay. I'm sure what is primarily motivating him now is his family and wife and as long as she commits he has a reason to really stay with this program."
And clearing up some misconceptions about sex addiction, Drew says, "The primary misconception about sex addicts is that it's in their control.
"This isn't some single guy having a lot of partners. This is somebody that is married with kids that has done things he wishes he hadn't - he wishes he could of controlled and he could not.
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"He has damaged the people he loved, he's a danger to his career, his health, he's hurt other people. I mean, this isn't a bad guy that doesn't care - he cares deeply about it.
"The bottom line is that sex addicts want to change and they can't. If people are enjoying and acting out and whatever, but you know, these kinds of behaviors work till they don't."
You can catch Dr. Drew on Celebrity Rehab on VH1 Thursdays, 10pm EST/PST