The Holistic Health Warrior

If you know anyone that has struggled with addictions then you know how devastating that type of lifestyle can be. What’s even more devastating is when they finally do go to rehab, get out and eventually go right back to what they were doing.

What you need to know, is that it is not all their fault. We have been tricked into believing that checking into rehab will be the answer. But now we now different.

A.Scott Roberts has spent years researching this topic and now has a much better answer. An answer that boosts more like a 90% success rate for those that give it a try.

Once we understand the Truth of Addictions – It all starts to really make sense.

Why Most Rehabs are Proven NOT to Work. Research Reveals that Daily Management of Addictions is Much Easier, Much Cheaper and More Successful.

-By A. Scott Roberts

There is no shortage of studies on the effectiveness of common 12 step programs and the acute treatment model. Most of the reliable research suggest these common acute treatments and 12 step programs have a 25% or less (long-term) success rate and some treatments even make matters worse!^1,2,3

Studies show that the psychotherapy group or medications group (e.g. Naltrexone and Acamprosate) did worse than the group that used placebo pills and even worse than the no treatment group.

RE: The Rehab Model – Summary and the conclusion “Treating alcohol and other drug dependence solely through repeated episodes of detoxification and brief stabilization is clinically ineffective and constitutes a poor stewardship of personal and community resources…”

According to William  White, acute recovery programs are expensive and ineffective.

“…a shift that will de-emphasize expensive, high intensity acute care and emphasize lower-intensity, lower cost and more enduring recovery support  services.” (Senior Research Consultant at Chestnut Health Systems / Lighthouse Institute with a Master’s degree in Addiction Studies)

According to research, alcoholics that did NOT use common acute programs had a significant improvement!

“alcoholics that were not treated in clinical trials show a greater improvement. Most of the improvement which is interpreted as treatment effect is not due to treatment” (Cutler & Fishbain)

The acute treatment model for addiction is being scrutinized by many professionals because of its poor success rates. In the U.S. the acute treatment model has become a national problem because addiction can cause long-term effects in the brain and it is treated with a short term (acute) remedy.

Science dubs drug addiction a disease:

“The addicted brain is distinctly different from the non-addicted brain … Addiction is tied to changes in brain structure and function is what makes it, fundamentally, a brain disease. A metaphoric switch in the brain seems to be thrown as a result of prolonged drug use”. – Science Magazine, 1997

Scientists agree that prolonged drug use that directly stimulates the reward center in the brain can cause a long term effect. However, do not get discouraged. The brain may have a long-term change from prolonged addiction (especially with heavy drug and alcohol use) but this doesn’t mean that it cannot be managed or even changed.
Scientists and researchers know that the brain is extremely malleable and can be formed, remapped and rewired. Heavy addiction causes changes in the brain, but so do mindfulness techniques like cognitive-based therapy for addiction.

The key neural parts of the brain involved in the functioning and regulation of emotions are changed in individuals who are addicted. This contributes to an addict’s inability to make proper decisions and less able to manage emotions.⁴This also explains why some addicts have less empathy and increased aggression.⁵ Certain mindfulness meditation exercises produced permanent “empathetic” changes in the brain.⁶ In a sense, it rewires the brain which results in enduring “empathetic” changes and greater ability to manage intrusive thoughts and cravings.

Research indicates that even learning a new behavior makes changes in the brain. The brain is very malleable and our thoughts and behaviors impact our brain on a remarkable level.

So what’s the problem with the popular acute treatment model?

English: One of the two European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) buildings in Lisbon, Portugal. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The acute model of treatment usually goes something like this:  An addict moves through the required steps in a treatment program and then graduates. As a result of graduating, the addict is released (and may even think he is cured) and often falls back into the same destructive behaviors. This explains why there is such a high recidivism rate. I have met one addict in recovery that has been through detox over 20 times! The majority of research proves that this model doesn’t work. Long term addictions must be properly managed.⁷

As stated by William L White: “Treating alcohol and other drug dependence solely through repeated episodes of detoxification and brief stabilization is clinically ineffective and constitutes a poor stewardship of personal and community resources…”

So, according to research, what is most effective?

ANSWER: Evidence-based Management Techniques

(That is why we call the “Truth of Addiction” program the ONLY complete program because it includes the most successful evidence-based methods and materials to manage addictions.)

Instead of throwing addicts in a rehab facility for a few weeks or months, methods that help to manage cravings and addictions are most successful.

Addicts often want quick treatment. That may be why expensive acute treatment options are often pursued. Addicts may rather complete some steps, or graduate with a degree in sobriety and told they are cured so they can move on with the rest of their life. The reality is, that the cure is often the problem – leading to more relapses – and in the end, harder to forgo.

Believe me, daily maintenance of addiction is MUCH easier than relapsing over and over again, wasting hundreds or thousands of dollars on high end rehabs and treatment centers or risk having trouble with the law. And in the end, not an inch closer to what addiction really is and what evidence-based practices reveal.

Think about it. Almost anything worth doing in life is a process. Losing weight, keeping thin or eating healthy requires a behavioral change and requires management over a period of time. But after some time it becomes easier to do because our brains are rewiring through the process to the point that it becomes automatic.

Once the neurons in our brain are firing together to learn new behaviors, the behavior becomes easier and easier to do and takes less effort.

Another notable problem in some rehab programs, is that relapse is treated as a sign of defeat, instead of a crucial part of the recovery process. There probably couldn’t be a more harmful doctrine to an addict than to think that all the days, weeks, months or years of sobriety didn’t mean a thing because he slipped.

A relapse is actually a stepping stone through treatment. Research indicates that relapse is generally not caused by physical cravings as once thought, but by emotional states.6 This reveals the great progress the addict has actually achieved. The doctrine of relapse is so incredibly harmful because when the addict thinks he has to start all over again, it feeds the very emotions that led him to relapse in the first place!

When an addict is told that he has to start back at square one because he relapsed it feeds stress, hopelesness and despair – the very emotions that research shows triggers relapse.7 Not only is this doctrine damaging but it also isn’t true. The addict has made huge strides biochemically, physically, emotionally and mentally. In fact, studies show that some brain changes, such as cell regeneration, occurred only after a couple weeks after sobriety.⁸

Recovery and treatment is more like climbing a hill. If you slip and fall you don’t fall all the way down to the bottom, you just fall back a few feet, get up and then continue climbing.

One more notable problem with common recovery centers is something called cross-addictions. You may find in some treatment groups, alcoholics are smoking a lot, recovering narcotic addicts are drinking a lot and that gambling chips are  used to count days of sobriety. The limbic system (the reward center) doesn’t mind if you go to a rehab program as long as “it” gets the needed boost of dopamine it “needs.” Remember, neuroscience calls most addictions a “common neural currency” because in the brain they are largely the same: a chemical addiction.

I mentioned gambling chips  because research indicates that the brain of an addict will trigger a “partial” reward (spike of dopamine) during the anticipation or sight of the addictive material which can perpetuate the addiction.6  This is why even the sight of gambling chips, coffee, cigarettes or alcohol should not be present as it can strengthen the craving to use – because as Dr Anna Rose puts it “you are given a taste of the drug itself.”⁹

– A. Scott Roberts
A. S. Business, B.S. Psychology, M.S. studies in Rehabilitation Counseling
Addiction Specialist

References:

1. R. G. Smart, Spontaneous Recovery in Alcoholics: A Review and Analysis of the Available Research, Drug and Alcohol Dependence, vol 1, 1975-1976, p. 284.
2. Thomas Prugh, Recovery Without Treatment, Alcohol Health and Research World, Fall 1986, pp. 24, 71 and 72.
3. Sehnert, 1992; Larson, 1992 “Seven Weeks to sobriety”
4. Hoshi, R., J. Bisla, and H. V. Curran. 2004. “The Acute and Sub-Acute Effects of ‘Ecstasy’ (MDMA) on Processing of Facial Expressions: Preliminary Findings.” Drug and Alcohol Dependence 76:297–304.
5. Tiffany, S. T., and C. A. Conklin. 2000. “A Cognitive Processing Model of Alcohol Craving and Compulsive Alcohol Use.” Addiction 95(suppl. 2):S145–S153.
6. Davidson, R. J., and A. Lutz. 2008. “Buddha’s Brain: Neuroplasticity and Meditation.” IEEE Signal Processing Magazine (January 1) 25(10):176–174.
7.    Leshner, Alan I. “addiction Is a Brain Disease, and It Matters.” Science 278 (October 3,) 1977:45-47.
8.    Spear, L. 2000. “Modeling Adolescent Development and Alcohol Use in Animals.” Alcohol Research & Health 24(2):115–123.
9. Wills, T. A., et al. 2006. “Behavioral and Emotional Self-Control: Relations to Substance Use in Samples of Middle and High School Students.” Psychology of Addictive Behaviors 20:265–278.
10.   G.A. Marlatt, “Relapse Prevention: Theoretical Raionale and Overview of the Model,” In Marlatt and Gordon, eds., Relapse Prevention,p.39.
11.   Blakeslee, Sandra (2002). “Hijacking the Brain Circuits with a Nickel Slot Machine.” The New York Times (February 19), Sec. F,
12. Medicalnewstoday.com How Chemistry Has Enhanced Scientists’ Ability To See Inside The Brain, September 17, 2006.

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