12-step programs give people excuses
Whether people realize it or not, the traditional 12-step program tells people that they are sick with an incurable disease. The important thing to remember about accepting this (or rejecting it rather) is that there is no scientific basis for this statement whatsoever. There has never been any scientific study that suggests that a person is incurable in relates to addiction. Suggesting that a person has an incurable disease already sets them up to fail.

After all, why not use drugs or consume alcohol? You have an incurable disease – it is not your fault. There is no denying that battling addiction may be the hardest thing a person ever has to do in their lifetime, but suggesting that it is something that they cannot combat is not going to motivate anyone.

Power leads to success
When you empower someone, like non 12-step drug rehab does, you are giving him or her instruments and guidance to succeed without making them feel helpless. That is why the percentage of success for those that enroll in a non 12-step drug rehab program is much greater when compared to the traditional 12-step programs. Non 12-step drug rehab programs have reported success rates of upwards of 70%, this is a number that a traditional program cannot even remotely come close to.

Part-time addiction?
Aside from the fact that it makes people feel weak and helpless, there is also the problem that traditional programs only provide guidance during designated times. If the only time a person is battling addiction is between five and seven every Thursday evening, sitting in a circle discussing their problems may actually help. However, addiction is not wrapped up in a neat little package. Oftentimes the craving to use drugs or consume alcohol rages at inconvenient times. If you give people the tools and the life skills to increase their own responsibility and control over their addiction, they do not need the approval of others.

Addiction is like snowflakes…sort of
To assume that one-size fits all when it comes to addiction is the reason that traditional treatment often fails. Some people made a mistake experimenting with drugs or alcohol and became dependent on the rush it provides – others only take drugs or alcohol to numb emotional pain. Non 12-step drug rehab provides therapy and individualized counseling that focuses on the individual. This gets to the emotional root of the addiction rather than just telling someone that they have a disease. This provides people with the ability to break the cycle and to banish addiction from their lives.

It impacts more than one person
A person battling addiction negatively affects family members and friends, not just themselves. That is the reason that addiction is a family disease – it affects more than just one person, even if just one person is addicted. Oftentimes family members and loved ones are forced to sit helplessly because they are not sure what they can do. Drug intervention can help families and friends motivate someone who is battling an addiction to seek treatment. Because life has become so narrow for someone addicted to drugs, oftentimes they need to realize how their actions negatively impact those that they care about.

Boundaries
Even in the situation where a drug intervention does not immediately help an addict seek drug treatment, it is still beneficial to family members and friends. The reason is that drug intervention established boundaries. Boundaries are needed to keep a support system in an objective fashion.  Establishing boundaries means that false promises and empty words are no longer accepted as viable responses. With a drug intervention, you clearly state what the consequences of refusal to seek treatment for their addiction are.

The reason for professional help
Every drug intervention is different, and both results and methods are going to vary depending on the history of the person that is addicted. For example, the method for dealing with people that are abusing inhalants or methamphetamine is different from those dealing with cocaine abuse or heroin addiction. It can often be too difficult for families and friends to provide an objective and accurate assessment of the person that is battling addiction.

It is crucial that family members and friends realize that getting help from a trained professional does not mean that they somehow let their loved ones down. It means that they realize that this is something that they cannot do on their own. A professional understands what information is required to come up with an effective strategy for battling the addiction.

Most people underestimate their problem
Those people that are caught up by drug addiction oftentimes do not realize the severity of their problem. They only care about their next usage, not potential consequences. Legal problems are not considered. Health problems are not considered.

A successful drug intervention can be a critical step to getting the person that is battling their addiction of drugs back on the right path and make them twice as motivated to want to detox. If you want to help them back on the right path to a successful and healthy life, drug intervention should not be overlooked.

Here is a simple explanation of what some of the terms mean when it comes to drug rehabilitation.

Drug Rehabilitation
True drug rehabilitation means a program that is designed to help the addict through a series of processes lose their dependency on their drug of addiction, both physically and mentally. The goal of the total drug rehab program should not be a compromise, or a one or the other treatment, such as focusing on the physical addiction or the mental addiction. A successful treatment must offer success in its entirety.

Detox
This is often referred to by those with a limited knowledge concerning drug treatment as a dry out. Often addicts figure that all they need by way of a treatment is this dry out period, and that will be the end of their addiction. For heavy users of some types of drugs immediate withdrawal can have consequences to it like seizures. In these cases medical detoxification is needed where medical intervention can be made if necessary. Aside from this type of detox there is the detox period that an addict will go through as the first step of a rehab program. Detox of any form is just one step of many to full rehabilitation.

Intervention
Contrary to the belief of many that intervention only consists of a group of people getting together and confronting the addict, there are various types of intervention. All it takes is one person to put forth an effort to help an addict and they are performing an intervention. It is wrong to think that one person can’t make a difference in an addict’s life.

Inpatient / Outpatient
There are various programs which each have their own mandate. Some drug rehab programs make it mandatory for the addict to become an inpatient which means they must stay at the rehab center for a set period of time. There are other programs that only offer outpatient options such as group meetings, for example.

Drug Rehabilitation Facilities
These are the actual physical location that the addict attends either as an inpatient or outpatient depending on the program being offered.

Drug Rehab Programs
Here is where it can get really confusing. All drug programs are not the same, and it isn’t just a matter of luck if the addict is successful at rehabilitation. There are drug rehab programs like the 12 step program, the drug replacement treatments, duel diagnosis program, and one particular one that you may not be aware of is, the biophysical program. This particular one is well worth looking into if you are an addict because you will be the best judge as to how effective it is as you will be able to relate to what it is offering.
So this just gives you the basics of the type of terminology you will be dealing with as an addict that is looking for a way out of addiction. You can make it a simple process to get started on recovery by using professionals who specialize in getting everything set up for you to get you started into a program that is right for you. Let’s face it, the bottom line is all you want to do is get out of this pit you are in, and you want to do it now either before it’s too late, or you change your mind.

The problem with such studies is that they are showing physiological changes in a person after stimulating them with pictures of food (same can be done with drugs and alcohol). The fact that chemicals change in the brain during such exercises or that brain images change during such tests ONLY SHOWS THAT THESE CHANGED. But it does nothing to show WHY.

The dangerous path this leads down, every time psychiatric studies of this nature are conducted, is that new drugs are theorized into existence to mute such changes in chemical activity or to prevent sections of the brain from lighting up when someone thinks of a drug or food. But that is treating the SYMPTOM, not the cause. And, it would not be so bad if drugs actually worked; but studies time and again show that they are little more effective than sugar pill placebos.

So, isn’t it time that we take all our medicine and science and funding put into garbage projects – and really get down to the bottom of what is happening when someone is exhibiting addictive behavior? Only then can we really hope to help people.

Drug rehab centers around the country have very low success rates. The norm is less than 10%. There are some rehabs that are as high as 70% or better. Why not do long term studies on those drug rehab treatment programs and document what works? I know for a fact in my review of them that it’s largely because they do not drug their patients under the guise of ‘drug replacement therapy’ and because they are usually longer than the traditional 28 day drug rehab protocol used today. This allows them to really get into the problems and underlying issues so to free a person from them.

Maybe I am an idealist but it occurs to me that if we can put a man on the moon we can sure do a better job than this psychobabble that is dished out on the subject of addiction.

One way to determine whether or not an inpatient rehab is necessary is through an assessment of the alcohol abuse symptoms.  Sometimes these are more obvious than others, but if a person has had several attempts at lesser forms of treatment, then it may be time to step up to a residential facility.

Traditional programs often tell alcoholics that they have an incurable disease, which can lead them to feel hopeless and somewhat helpless.  It can even become a built-in excuse for them to relapse.  This is just one of the reasons why we strongly urge non-12 step rehabs for people who are looking to put alcohol and drug addiction behind them forever.

People (and most doctors, too) often underestimate the need for a long-term drug rehab that works, and offer too many chances to fail with light punishments, short-term inpatient rehabs or even outpatient treatments.  The most effective approach, according to The New Face of Recovery, is a long-term, drug-free non-disease-based treatment that promotes personal responsibility and doesn’t give more drugs to addicts.

However, The New Face of Recovery has recently publised an addiction recovery book that has a new twist on the old celebrations – that addiction is NOT a disease and that people can and do permanently recover without relapse.

The theme for this year’s National observance is “Now More than Ever” and events are being held all month long across America.  It’s time to end the false idea that addicts are diseased for life and that they must stay “in recovery” forever.  Join the growing number of people denouncing the prescription-driven disease theory and help restore responsibility and accountability in the treatment industry.

Today there were more than 120,000 admissions to drug rehab programs in America in 2008 where opiates other than heroin were listed as the primary substance of abuse.  The number in 1998 was only 20,000, meaning there has been a 600% increase in those addiction treatment admissions just ten years, yet FDA personnel continue to protect the profits of drug companies instead of working to protect the people.

While it may seem common for celebrities to immediately enter addiction treatment centers following an arrest or some other sort of public humiliation, it is not limited to them.  In many cases it is the form of intervention needed to get someone to seek help for their substance abuse problems.

One of the main reasons why we see repeate offenders is due to the length and methods of treatment.  For example, a 90-day drug rehab program is going to be more effective than a 30-day facility, and one that is responsibility-based instead of disease-based greatly increases the chances for permanent recovery.

“In a British study of 127 people who previously failed to beat their addiction, scientists gave them either injectable heroin or methadone. After six months, those who got heroin were much less likely to continue taking the drug illegally than those who got methadone.”

Well, let’s see here, when you give someone free heroin, of course they will be less likely to obtain the drug illegally – that’s a no-brainer!!!!  The only good thing about this study is that it showed that methadone is really not very successful at ending opiate drug addiction.

The most successful form of heroin addiction treatment is and always has been a long-term (more than 90 days) drug-free rehabilitation program that is not based on the disease concept and helps former addicts repair damage to their bodies as well.  Unfortunately, there are only a few of these truly effective drug rehabs around.