I've spent 5 1/3 years as a chaplain in an 86 bed rehabilitation center for men.  Here are my observations:

• Addicts and alcoholics are incredibly attractive people when they are sober.  They are caring, intelligent, and sensitive. 
• Many people have had terrible upbringings.  Their parents have verbally and physically abused them, abandoned them, given them drugs and alcohol, and trained them in self-destruction.
• Hungry, desperate, broken people recover from their addictions and live positive, productive lives.  I've seen dozens of men do it.
• Most human beings mistakenly think they are good people.  After addicts tell me about their trail of tremendous self-destruction, crime, wrongdoing, and inflicting misery on other people, I ask them; "What kind of person are you?"  Almost all of them answer:  "I'm a good person."
• People who are not hungry and desperate for a better lifestyle, prefer their familiar misery and pain over unfamiliar success and happiness.
• Humans lose their hunger and desperation very quickly after their circumstances begin to improve.  After a few weeks of getting better, most men I've worked with become satisfied and complacent with themselves.  They quickly begin to think that they are fine and dandy.
• Race and class are meaningless myths.  I've worked with many homeless men, many middle class men, and a few rich men.  I've worked with whites and blacks and a few hispanics.  They may look different, but inside they are all the same.
• Everybody needs two things:  truth and love.  To improve, people must overcome denial, openly face the facts of their sin and self-destruction, and humbly repent.  They need to see the truth boldly proclaimed with compassion, tenderness, and tears. 
• Life is short and should be treasured.  I've known at least 17 men (many much younger than me) to die; either in their addiction (violence, overdose, accidents) or of an illness brought about and/or complicated by their addiction.
• People need parenting.  Jesus called it discipling.  People need someone who is living a life of victory over self-destruction to warn them, to challenge them, to wake and shake them up, and to demonstrate heart-rending love toward them;  not from afar, but in an ongoing, face to face, intimate relationship.