Drew Pinsky

“Childhood trauma is really what puts the rocket fuel behind addiction.”

“I've had people that I've given up on, kicked out - situations where I was becoming part of the problem because I was sort of enabling so I said, 'Godspeed, farewell.' And they've come back to me four years later and they're in a CDAAC program or they're getting a PhD.”

“The road to sobriety is not easy and rehabilitation and the recovery process are not to be taken lightly.”

“If you're experiencing symptoms such as depression, anxiety, uncontrolled use of substances, or any other behaviors that affect your functioning, please see a professional.”

“Patrick Melrose' is a frantically accurate exploration of the addict mind tormented by trauma, magnificently brought to life by Benedict Cumberbatch. At its core, it is a story that has a timeless quality with echoes of Cervantes.”

“Narcissism is not about self love. It's a clinical trait that belies a deep sense of emptiness, low self-esteem, emotional detachment, self-loathing, extreme problems with intimacy.”

“I'm deeply involved in big problems.”

“The people and places that cause terror in childhood cause attraction in adulthood. We end up being repetitively attracted to the same kind of person that obliges us by acting out the same behavior over again.”

“People now know of the word intervention and think they understand what it means, but more often than not they go about intervening the wrong way. I see people staging things on their own. But discussing the nature of somebody's condition over breakfast isn't an intervention.”

“I have a pretty keen ethical compass.”

“Childhood trauma is the rocket fuel for addictive pathology, and this fundamental truth is laid bare in 'Patrick Melrose.'”

“As a clinician, I would never want to be coercive in relation to a patient, nor do I harbor the illusion that as a physician I am capable of forcing someone to change their behavior, no matter how detrimental to their health.”

“In medicine you go from dying to chronically ill. You don't go from dying to better than you ever knew you could be. That just doesn't happen.”

“All I treat at the hospital is trauma survivors.”

“I won't do any print interviews anymore. No matter what I say, it gets distorted.”

“I have no agenda.”

“Back in the day, I was the first non-recovering doctor working in recovery. People would say, 'You can't do that! We need recovering guys in this.' But usually recovering doctors have a lot of baggage and so there's a certain amount of liability with a recovering doctor. But of course it can be ideal.”

“The term 'doctor' has been so abused lately! I didn't live in a hospital for 10 years so that term could be bastardized.”

“The Internet is a seemingly unreal environment where we think we are anonymous. It's a potentially provocative place. As a result, we may not behave the way we would in the real world. Some of us are drawn into what could become a dangerous situation.”