How many chances?

The other day, I was working with a old client who happened to be one of our residents in our treatment program that I use to facilitate. I have not seen this client in a few years. This particular client requested that I can share this story with others if I felt it would help. I ran into her, when I was taking another client to her psychiatrist appointment. She looked at me kind of funny. I did not recognize here at first, then as I got closer, could see that we knew each other. I remember that she attended all of my groups at the treatment center, but was very guarded and did not have a lot of feedback. She actually appeared more interested in the peer's then listening to one of my lectures on addiction. She did not graduate from the treatment's program. I believe this was her 12 th time at treatment. I walked over to her, and said hello, do you remember me? At that point, she looked at me and responds of course I remember you, you did all the talking. I smiled, and she continues on that her life is out of control, and she recently got out of relationship with one of the other clients she met in treatment. This co-dependence piece with addicts can happen very easily if proper boundaries are not in place. As I recall, she was kicked out of her last treatment facility for having a inappropriate interpersonal relationship with another peer before she came to our treatment program. We sat down at the coffee shop in the clinic. I asked her what was going on in her life. She then began to say that she does not deserve another chance, because she uses all of her chances up in treatment trying to hook up with people. I looked at her in disbelief, and said you get it, you understand your unmet need. She then looked at me, and began to describe all of her emotions from her previous treatment experiences. For the first time, it appeared she was being honest with her self and willing to accept feedback. I then looked at her and asked what she thought about the number 13? She goes, friday the 13th, oh, I get it, you want me to go back to inpatient treatment! I said you are ready, and need to give it another shot for you this time, and not anyone else. Regardless of how many treatments you have been to, or how many times you have relapsed, it really does not matter if you are willing to try again! I'm not sure why we bumped into each other that day, but I do know that a higher power is looking after her, and for the first time she realized that you can't live other people's lives, you have to live your own. Her addiction was meth and suffered from a sexual disorder. Her unmet need was her co-dependence and her past. Today she was able to recognize that her unmet need was not going to be the reason why she kept on using and self-sabotaging her interpersonal relationships. It does matter how many chances self gets, only that self keeps trying.  Stay in your health, stay in the moment.