The 44th short term therapy camp had 13 participants, of which 3 were women. Twelve had problems with alcohol and one with smoking. Four people came for the second, and one for the third time.

For whatever reason, one of the participants wasn’t screened out for his schizophrenia: thus he had very little self-reflection and a shallow recognition of his problem, which made work with him seemingly impossible. It was a very difficult task to protect him from becoming an object of derision in the group. This case shows how much careful attention needs to be paid during the screening process, because such a situation might damage the progress of the entire group.

The participants displayed a large variety of backgrounds, which seemed to be more striking than in many earlier camps. The religious and esoteric "masks" proved again to be a bigger hindrance in admitting and assessing one’s own problem than sheer “worldly” and materialistic life-styles – the latter participants being more direct and bold to speak openly.

This was the first time that the Ten Commandments, which usually formed the basis of the evening-devotions, now served as texts for the morning lectures. These special texts of the Bible address every area of human life in an extremely practical way, so the group discussions, which followed the morning-lectures, could also be very practical. Personal dramas unfolded in the group and during individual counseling. The inventiveness of the alcoholic husband who, being locked in the second-floor apartment by his wife, "hooked" vodka-bottles with his fishing-rod, caused hilarity. However, everybody knew, this was a sad and deadly inventiveness, shared by all of them.

It was one of those camps in which we had an abundance of testimonies from recovering alcoholics and their relatives. One of them came with his daughter, whose intention was only to give a lift to her father. It was the afternoon with the seminar about family relationships. The father spoke about his way out of alcoholism, the daughter recalled her sad feelings of past times, expressing them for the first time in the presence of her father. Their dialogue became a model for the group for sharing thoughts and feelings among family members.

Interaction among the long and the short-term therapy groups proved again to be beneficial for both of them.

Written by minister and program coordinator, Kálmán Adorján