Privacy and Anonymity in Recovery

“We families of alcoholics anonymous keep few skeletons in the closet. Everyone knows about the others’ alcoholic troubles. This is a condition, which, in ordinary life, would produce untold grief; there might be scandalous gossip, laughter at the expense of other people, and a tendency to take advantage of intimate information. Among us, these are rare occurrences. We do talk about each other a great deal, but we almost invariably temper such talk by a spirit of love and tolerance. Another principle we observe carefully is that we do not relate intimate experiences of another person unless we are sure he would approve. We find it better, when possible, to stick to our own stories. A man may criticize to laugh at himself and it will affect others favorably, but criticism and ridicule coming from another often produce the contrary effect”. – Pg125 The Family Afterward from the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous

It is one thing to share our experience, strength, and hope with someone who is looking for alcohol addiction help but it is a totally different story in regards to sharing others experiences. It is neither our right nor our responsibility to do so. If there is something we don’t have experience with and we wish to help someone by sharing someone else’s experience then we need to make it a point to ask that person if it is okay. In Los Angeles rehabs, AA, and other rehab programs in California we are taught to respect people’s privacy and boundaries. Keeping things confidential is of the utmost importance so that everyone can feel safe especially while working the steps. We all have a right to be here and to share our experience with the people we choose to. It is important that we don’t gossip but instead that we are sharing in order to carry the message to the newcomer so that they know that there is an alternative to living the way they are living.

What To Expect At Drug Rehab

The process may differ somewhat at other drug rehab, but Above It All Treatment Center uses this approach:

1. Physical Assessment: When you start drug rehab, a physician will each spend some time with you to assess your addiction and develop a detox plan. The detox plan will be based on the types of drugs you were using, so it is critical that you are honest with the physician about every drug you have taken recently.

2. Psychological Assessment: A psychiatrist, preferably one who specializes in addiction, will assess you for issues such as anxiety, depression, bipolar, or other emotional or psychological issues. The first assessment is not considered a “final” one, because the fact you are still under the influence of drugs may color the picture significantly. For example, some people may feel depressed at this point, but once they are completely free of drugs, the depression lifts.

3. Detox: This part of drug rehab is often the one people fear most. However, Above It All Treatment Center Clinicians are very experienced in developing a treatment plan for detoxification that will be as comfortable as possible. They will often use medications to ease symptoms of withdrawal, such as Suboxone or Valium.

4. Therapy: The evidence shows that group peer therapy is still the most effective form of treatment for drug addiction. Although individual therapy is also important, there is no compelling evidence that more individual and less group therapy is effective. In fact, the opposite is true. By connecting with others who have your same impulses and compulsions, you develop strategies to remain free of drugs and alcohol.

5. Physical Fitness: Most drug rehabs today understand that they must address not just the physical addiction to drugs, but the health of the body, mind, and spirit. Physical exercise is an important part of the healing process. For one thing, exercise triggers endorphin’s; the body’s natural chemicals that make you feel good. It is critical that you develop ways to feel good without drugs or alcohol, and exercise is a healthy way to do that.

6. Nutritional Counseling: Diet can impact how you feel in recovery. Too many processed carbs make you feel sluggish. Too much sugar can mean mood swings. Nutrition is critical to maintaining an even keel in early recovery.

7. Alternative Approaches: Above It All Treatment Center offers alternative therapies as well while you are in treatment. Acupuncture has been shown to be a highly effective pain management treatment, and is very popular among recovering addicts who have chronic pain. Meditation, massage and yoga are some other modalities used in quality rehabs.

8. Aftercare Planning: What do you do when you leave the safety of the rehab? How do you avoid triggers – people places and things that might lead you back to drugs or alcohol? How do you develop a support network at home? What do you do if the impulse to use drugs becomes overwhelming? These questions should be addressed as part of your aftercare planning. The plan should include specific strategies and even people to contact when you return home.

9. Discharge: You have completed treatment and you are at least 30 days free of drugs and alcohol. Discharge day can be exhilarating, joyous, and terrifying. Follow your aftercare plan and the advice of your rehab therapist and avoid triggers to have the best chance of long-term recovery.

 

A Spiritual Experience or a Spiritual Awakening?

“The terms “spiritual experience” and “spiritual awakening” are used many times in this book which, upon careful reading, shows that the personality change sufficient to bring about recovery from alcoholism has manifested itself among us in many different forms.  Yet it is true that our first printing gave many readers the impression that these personality changes, or religious experiences, must be in the nature of sudden and spectacular upheavals. Happily for everyone, this conclusion is erroneous. In the first few chapters a number of sudden revolutionary changes are described. Though it was not our intention to create such an impression, many alcoholics have nevertheless concluded that in order to recover they must acquire an immediate and overwhelming  “God-consciousness” followed at once by a vast change in feeling and outlook. Among our rapidly growing membership of thousands of alcoholics such transformations, though frequent, are by no means the rule.” Appendix ll Spiritual Experience from the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous

While a spiritual experience is necessary the first place to start is by seeking alcohol addiction help and working the steps. When we go to a 30 day rehab program, AA, or drug addiction detox we are given the tools necessary to do the work required of us in order to have a spiritual experience and stay sober. Many alcoholics in recovery are waiting for that burning bush experience. Sometimes when we are new and hear the word spiritual experience we expect that we will be smacked down with spirituality and fixed. That is not the case. Have there been some people who have claimed to have that experience? Yes! But there is also the spiritual experience of the subtle variety. The fact that over time we get better in itself is amazing. At some point in our recovery we are able to look back at the changes that have occurred in our lives, the emotional recovery, and an entire psychic change that has happened to us all of this combined is a spiritual experience. If you stick around you too will be able to have one and share in the gifts, joy, happiness, and freedom that comes from this life.

Finding Freedom in Steps Four and Five

“Having made our personal inventory, what shall we do about it? We have been trying to get a new attitude, a new relationship with our creator, and to discover the obstacles in our path. We have admitted certain defect; we have ascertained in a rough way what the trouble is; we have put our finger on the weak times in our personal inventory. Now these are about to be cast out. This requires action on our part, which, when completed, will mean that we have admitted to god, to ourselves, and to another human being, the exact nature of our defects. This brings us to the fifth step in the program of recovery mentioned in the preceding chapter. This is perhaps difficult- especially discussing our defects with another person. We think we have done well enough in admitting these things to ourselves”. – Pg.72 Into Action from the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous

Looking at the things we have done prior to receiving alcohol addiction help as well as sharing it with another person can be terrifying. Many of us have done things we are so ashamed of that we swear we will take them to the grave. With that being said the main hope is that by the time we get to this step there has been a good amount of time sober and we have done the work in a drug addiction detox, AA, or 30 day rehab program so that despite our fears we are able to walk through them, do this step, and come out the other side. Within the fourth and fifth step lies huge relief and freedom. It is these steps that allow us to overcome anything and be okay with who we are and what we have done in the past. These are the steps that show us not only how to forgive other but also how to forgive ourselves.

How To Get Rid Of Heroin

Getting a heroin addict through a detox is their first step on the way to a new, drug-free life. But amazingly, many forms of heroin addiction treatment sidestep this action completely. By giving a heroin addict a substitute, similar substance — or even in some areas, a pharmaceutical form of heroin — a heroin detox is avoided.

In the US, drug programs aim only to reduce the harm of heroin addiction by providing the addict with a chemically-similar drug that prevents withdrawal symptoms from kicking in. The problem is that the person remains chained to an addictive substance. Some formulations are compounded in a way intended to reduce or eliminate the euphoric effect of heroin. But since all of them have become themselves drugs of abuse, this fact tends to believe the theory that they do not provide a high.

Proponents of this substitution treatment argue that since these heroin addicts (now turned into synthetic opiate addicts) are no longer living illegal lifestyles and are not spreading disease by sharing needles and other risky behavior, that this harm reduction is a valid therapy. There is some truth there, because the harm of drug use is reduced.

For years, Above It All Treatment Center has enabled heroin addicts to detox and go through an entirely drug-free rehabilitation. Instead of substitute drugs like methadone, buprenorphine, Suboxone or other formulations, a heroin addict is eased through withdrawal using a combination of nutritional supplementation, gentle reorientation exercises and physical assists. As surprising as it might sounds, some of the severity of heroin detox yields to these simple and non-invasive techniques used at Above It All Treatment Center  drug rehabs.

Because most addicts starting a heroin detox are in poor physical condition, receiving immediate and ample nutritional supplementation alleviates some symptoms that are really based on nutritional deficiencies. Drugs and stressful lifestyles are known to deplete nutritional stores. Nutritional deficiencies can also cause the depression suffered by so many trying to recover from addiction.

Once the heroin detox is done and the person is ready to leave the withdrawal phase of recovery, the recovering addict faces the remainder of the program with a tolerable experience behind him. For some, this starts off the entire drug rehab process on a very positive note.

After the body breaks down drugs like heroin or cocaine and gets rids of the majority of the components, residues called metabolites are left behind, lodged in fatty tissues. These residues have been proven to be involved in the triggering of cravings, even years after a person stops taking drugs. The proof is that once a student on the Above It All Treatment Center program flushes out these residues, she not only can think more clearly, she also normally notices a reduction in drug cravings. Some people even say they are gone. There is no greater gift to a person who intends to leave an addicted lifestyle behind than the reduction or elimination of drug cravings. Without this, every day may be a battle to overcome the cravings and stay sober.

What Programs Do We Offer

Above It All Treatment Center provides a multidisciplinary approach to facilitate recovery from addiction and alcoholism. Comprehensive chemical dependency treatment services can offer a structured therapeutic environment that begins with the detoxification/withdrawal process and extends through aftercare planning following residential treatment.

Drug Treatment Program Methods

Therapeutic interventions include individual or group counseling and psychotherapy, and treatment services are usually provided by trained, certified professional therapists. Most therapeutic intervention programs rely on cognitive-based therapy which addresses irrational thinking and attempts to restructure thought processes.

Support groups are usually conducted by a member of a recovery group with the assistance of prepared materials by a national organization. The most well-known support groups are Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. Most support groups are modeled on the Twelve Steps of AA and rely on faith in a “higher power” to assist in achieving goals.

Drug and Alcohol Detoxification – Detox programs are treatment programs of planned withdrawal which may or may not include medication to assist in withdrawal. Length of detoxification depends on the substance ingested and the methods used for detoxification. Detoxification without other treatment has not been found to be effective in maintaining sobriety.

Treatment and Detoxification Protocols – OxyContin® is a powerful drug that contains a much larger amount of the active ingredient, oxycodone, than other prescription opiate pain relievers. While most people who take OxyContin as prescribed do not become addicted, those who abuse their pain medication or obtain it illegally may find themselves becoming rapidly dependent on, if not addicted to, the drug. Two types of treatment have been documented as effective for opioid addiction. One is a long-term, residential, therapeutic community type of treatment and the other is long-term, medication-assisted outpatient treatment. Clinical trials using medications to treat opioid addiction have generally included subjects addicted to diverted pharmaceutical opioids as well as to illicit heroin. Therefore, there is no medical reason to suppose that the patient addicted to diverted pharmaceutical opioids will be any less likely to benefit from medication-assisted treatment than the patient addicted to heroin. Some opioid-addicted patients with very good social supports may occasionally be able to benefit from antagonist maintenance with naltrexone. This treatment works best if the patient is highly motivated to participate in treatment and has been adequately detoxed from the opioid of abuse. Most opioid-addicted patients in outpatient therapy, however, will do best with medication that is either an agonist or a partial agonist. Methadone and levo alpha acetyl methadol (LAAM) are the two agonist medications currently approved for addiction treatment in this country. Presently there is no partial agonist approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in narcotic treatment, although buprenorphine holds great promise. The guidelines for treating OxyContin addiction or dependency are basically no different than the guidelines the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) uses for treating addiction or dependency to ANY opioid.

Getting Help When You Cannot Stop Drinking

“At a certain point in the drinking of every alcoholic, he passes into a state where the most powerful desire to stop drinking is of no avail. This tragic situation has already arrived in practically every case long before it is suspected. The fact is that most alcoholics, for some reason yet obscure, have lost the power of choice in drink. Our so-called will power becomes practically nonexistent. We are unable, at certain times, to bring into our consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and humiliation of even a week or a month ago. We are without defense against the first drink. The certain consequences that follow taking even a glass of beer do not crowd into the mind to deter us.” – Pg. 24 There Is A Solution, the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous

Many of us are completely beat down by this disease long before we realize we have a problem and need alcohol addiction help. At this point have lost our ability to control and enjoy our drinking and the days of social drinking and fun nights have become a distant memory. After years of drinking we are most likely at a place where we lost the choice to drink or not and are simply drinking because we have to. It has become our medicine and solution. Our only hope for a way out of this “tragic situation” is to go to a rehab that takes insurance, AA , or some other form of drug addiction detox. It is only after we get help and recover that we are able to do the work it takes to heal the wreckage we have caused in ours and others lives. If we are fortunate to get this far then we have a fighting chance at having an amazing life and reaping the benefits/blessings that a life in sobriety has to offer.

The Alcoholic Inability to Control Drinking

“Some drinkers have excuses with which they are satisfied part of the time. But in their hearts they really do not know why they do it. Once this malady has a real hold, they are a baffled lot. There is the obsession that somehow, someday, they will beat the game. But they often suspect they are down for the count. How true this is, few realize. In a vague way their families and friends sense that these drinkers are abnormal, but everybody hopefully awaits the day when the sufferer will rouse himself from his lethargy and assert his power of will. The tragic truth is that if the man be a real alcoholic, the happy day may not arrive. He has lost control.” – Pg.23 -24 There Is A Solution, the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous

The fact is that we as alcoholics do not know why we take that first drink, can’t stop, and need alcohol addiction help in order to get sober any more than the next person does. It feels at times like we are beating our heads against a brick wall by doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. We see the wreckage that is a direct result of our drinking yet we cannot seem to put the bottle down. Perhaps it’s the obsession that we can eventually drink normally combined with the phenomenon of craving that keeps us going. Our thoughts more than anything are a lethal combination that keeps us entangled in this disease and we have no hope of recovering until we go to a drug addiction detox, AA, or an affordable rehab. As it states in this excerpt from there is a solution “the happy day may not arrive”. Many of us do not make it but if you recognize that you might have a problem, and are willing to get help then you have a fighting chance at beating this disease and living happy, joyous, and free.

Alcoholism and the Mind

“We know that while the alcoholic keeps away from drink, as he may do for months or years, he reacts much like other men. We are equally positive that once he takes any alcohol whatever into his system, something happens, both in the bodily and mental sense, which makes it virtually impossible for him to stop. The experience of any alcoholic will abundantly confirm this. These observations would be academic and pointless if our friend never took the first drink, thereby starting the cycle in motion. Therefore, the main problem of the alcoholic centers in his mind, rather than in his body. If you ask him why he started on that last bender, the chances are he will offer you any one of a hundred alibis. Sometimes these excuses have certain plausibility, but none of them really makes sense in the light of the havoc alcoholics drinking bout creates.” – pg. 22-23 There Is A Solution from the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous

As it states in the big book alcoholism is a disease that centers in the mind and not in the body. If the phenomenon of craving, followed by the mental mindset that takes place were not present and it was purely a bodily problem then we could just stop drinking and would never need to go to a 30 day rehab program, AA, or  drug addiction detox because we would be able to control our drinking with willpower alone. This disease is not a matter of being weak willed but rather we suffer from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. Because of this we need to seek out alcohol addiction help in order to recover. If we do get help and do the work needed to stay sober we have a chance of clearing up the wreckage of our past, repairing broken relationships, and we can go onto live an amazing life full of joy, love, excitement, happiness, fun and freedom .

Self-Destructive Patterns of Alcoholism

“He may be one of the finest fellows in the world. Yet let him drink for a day, and he frequently becomes disgustingly, and even dangerously anti-social. He has a positive genius for getting tight at exactly the wrong moment, particularly when some important decision must be made or engagement kept. He is often perfectly sensible and well balanced concerning everything except liquor, but in that respect he is incredibly dishonest and selfish. He often possesses special abilities, skills, and aptitudes, and has a promising career ahead of him. He uses his gifts to build up a bright outlook for his family and himself. And then pulls the structure down on his head by a senseless series of sprees. He is the fellow who goes to bed so intoxicated he ought to sleep the clock around. Yet early next morning he searches madly for the bottle he misplaced the night before.” – Pg.21 – There Is A Solution from the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous

If any of this rings true for you then you might need alcohol addiction help. There are many services available ranging anywhere from drug addiction detox to AA, and 30 day rehab programs. This excerpt from there is a solution is a perfect description of the alcoholic’s life when they are wrapped up in the bondage of this disease as well as the destruction that is a result of it. We become extremely introverted, our world becomes very small, and we are left spiritually bankrupt. These alcoholic characteristics and patterns end up robbing us of everything good in our lives and we are left with no choice but to keep drinking, and give up or get sober. If we are lucky enough to get sober then we have the opportunity to turn it all around, start over, and get back to our true selves. We are finally able to be the loving, honest, responsible, happy, joyous, and free beings that we were meant to be.