Face it & fix it

Ken Seeley is an interventionist with two decades of experience, and he co-hosts A&E's popular series Intervention. Over that time he has worked with people and families facing life-threatening addictions. His clients have included people who had lost everything and people with great wealth, and their struggles covered alcohol and drug dependence, compulsive gambling, sexual compulsion, abusive conduct, and psychiatric conditions. Early in his career he noticed that every one of these clients shared a single trait: denial. Since then he has built his practice around a method designed to locate denial and address it directly.

Seeley argues that everyone is in denial about something, whether the issue is a serious dependency or a minor obstacle to contentment. Some denial is trivial, like coasting at work when you could be pushing harder. Other denial is severe, like an addiction quietly wrecking your life right now. Regardless of your circumstances, he suggests, denial keeps you from living fully.

Denial is widely recognized as the chief sign of addiction, the cover that allows an addict to avoid facing what their behavior is costing them. Seeley points out that denial is also what allows addiction to take root, and that it sits beneath many other disorders and habits that damage a person's life.

The book lays out a three-part approach. Readers first learn to recognize the behaviors that are hurting them. Next they are given practical tools for dismantling the defenses denial has built over time. Finally they learn how to sustain a balanced life and healthier relationships. The book is meant for anyone trying to help a loved one as well as for people struggling with their own addiction, and it aims to build self-awareness and the skills needed to strengthen relationships and build the life a reader wants.