Drug & Alcohol Intervention Help - We Get Them In to Treatment : NYC Intervention Specialists

Take three and call me in the morning. Three breaths that is. I invite you to do something different. Different action yields different results. I promise.

I spent an hour on WFAN this morning, the nation’s biggest AM radio station. I share it with you here: http://podcast.wfan.com/wfan/1821613.mp3

Onward,
Brad

I read the following in RecoveryToday online, and have edited for clarity to share here.

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On any given day in the United States, one million people are in treatment for alcoholism or drug addiction. It is not getting into treatment, however, that makes the difference. Instead, it is what a person gets out of treatment. The fact that many people do not find success in treatment on their first attempt is due in part to a lack of understanding about what makes effective treatment.

1. There is no treatment formula that will work for everyone.

Occasionally, people looking for treatment will come across other individuals who are already in recovery and who insist that the only path to recovery is whatever path the recovering individual has taken. This simply is not true. The ultimate success of each individual entering treatment depends on finding the right treatment setting and methods for the individual, and everyone’s needs are different.

2. Medically supervised withdrawal is only one step in addiction treatment; alone it will do little.

Frequently, it is necessary for addicts and alcoholics to go through a medically supervised withdrawal period before they can safely enter treatment. However, some people confuse this short 3 to 7 day period with treatment, which it is not. Some people cycle in and out of these withdrawal episodes convinced that they should be able to maintain abstinence afterwards, but never finding success. Seemingly tragic, this allows some addicts to continue in their addiction while giving the appearance that they are attempting to get healthy.

3. Length of treatment counts

The appropriate duration for an individual depends on his or her problems and needs. Research indicates that for most patients, significant improvement is reached at about 3 months. The research suggests that this may be residential, outpatient or a combination of both depending on the individual’s needs. After this initial period, additional treatment can produce further progress toward recovery.

4. Drug addiction is a multidimensional problem, and treatment needs to address all of an individual’s needs

Effective treatment must address the individual’s drug use, but also any associated medical, psychological, social, vocational, or legal problems.

5. Counseling (individual and/or group) is a critical part of effective addiction treatment.

Many alcoholics and addicts mistakenly believe that if they could just stop using for a week or two they could stop using forever. In reality, they need therapy. In therapy, addicts examine their motivation, build skills to resist drug use, replace drug-using activities with constructive and rewarding nondrug-using activities, and improve problem-solving abilities. Additionally, therapy helps individuals to rebuild and re-learn family and social living patterns.

6. Medications are an important part of treatment for many people. Medications such as suboxone, methadone and LAAM can all be effective in helping certain individuals stay away from illicit drugs. Some times frowned upon by some individuals in recovery the truth is that these medications allow millions of individuals to live normal, productive lives.

7. Drug testing during treatment is important.

Drugs are found everywhere, even in drug treatment. Whether treatment is offered on an outpatient, inpatient or in a jail drugs are available to individuals in treatment. This puts individuals in treatment at risk for reusing even while in treatment. It also means that every individual in treatment should be monitored for drug treatment on an ongoing basis. In this manner treatment, plans may be modified to increase the chance of ultimate success.

8. Alcoholics and addicts with mental health disorders should be treated for both at the same time.

An alcoholic or addict who also has a mental health disorder is said to have “co-occurring” disorders. In the past, the question has sometimes been should the person be treated for the mental health problem or the addiction first. People may be using drugs to deal with the mental health problem or they may have the mental health issue because of their drug use. The most effective way to deal with these two “co-occurring” disorders and deal with the addiction is to treat them at the same time.

9.Addiction Treatment works even for people who don’t choose it of their own free will.

It used to be believed that someone had to want to go into treatment before it could be effective. New research has shown that this is not the case. In fact, treatment is just as effective for individuals who are court ordered to do treatment as it is for people who figure out the need for it on their own. Families and employers can be just as effective at getting unwilling addicts into treatment. Stephen King, in his autobiography “On Writing,” tells about the intervention his wife and family performed on him. King did not want to go into treatment. He was seemingly happy doing coke and drinking mouthwash, but his wife Tabitha and his children were not happy with the situation and performed an intervention. Forced to choose between family and drugs, King made the right choice. Interventions are most successful when done correctly and with the help of a professional. For more information on interventions visit www.interventionresources.net

10. Don’t give up.

As with other chronic illnesses, relapses can occur during or after successful treatment episodes. Addicted individuals may need lengthy treatment and more than one time in treatment before they can enjoy long-term abstinence and full restoration to a drug free life. The period after treatment is just as important as being in treatment. Finding support and continuous work to stay drug free will be necessary. A slip or relapse is just an indicator that more work, and possibly more treatment, is necessary. Don’t give up.

I am flying on a plane now. Internet working. Amazing.

My Grandma Lamm – Leona Lamm to be precise – told me back in 2002 at her 100th birthday that she was most amazed by:

1) her family and friends and the love she shared + gave

2) the incredible jaw-dropping technological advances her eyes had seen

Leona was a school teacher in Nebraska before the big old depression gave everyone fits for a bit. She married Charles, a farmer, and they lived in wedded hard working bliss until the Great Depression hit and just like that the old family farm that had been passed down, was gone.

Not to be discouraged to pause, they kept moving. After all, they had four young boys and a lot of love. They were hungry sometimes, but they never starved.

Headed west on a train they stepped off in Boise, Idaho and settled just outside Boise in a Quaker community called Greenleaf. They lived in a tent for more than a year, put apple box wooden slats on the dirt “floor” to make it less about  sleeping on the ground.

Amazing.

No telephones, no wifi, no emailing while you fly right across the country just like that!

In tough times she was always resilient, and sweet really. She’d tell you she wasn’t always sweet, but I would. She was strong as an ox and pretty as a lady could be. She raised four boys just fine, and they all lived to tell about it their hide still on’em.

What I remember most about my Grandma Lamm was that she was kind and brimming with love. She made the best of tough times, and kept moving, knowing that an unkind word wouldn’t do anybody a bit of good, and that forward action would yield results. Maybe not always the best results, but soon that apple cart box floor gave way to an apartment and then their own home. Change back then was achingly slow sometimes, but make it through they did.

One minute at a time sometimes.

Here’s to Leona. A good woman, and fine lady, and the woman who shaped me as much as anybody, into the man I am today through her practice of resilience and love.

- Brad

Interesting article. Check this out!
Some will say, “a pill?! never!!!”
I’m not so sure. A small percentage of folks who express a desire to stop, will actually stay stopped through 12 Step. So here’s to medicine and thought and remaining teachable.
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CLICK CLICK:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102974699&sc=fb&cc=fp

The deal is this – it’s not metabolism or genes. It’s the food we put in our bodies that make them swell and hurt and grow beyond what they are intended. From the headlines today, the not-so-shocking claim that one in five preschoolers are obese.

We see them on the street, at the store, in our own home. It’s not the food – but it’s the food.

Huh!?

We confuse our wants with needs, then over time these become cravings answered as a matter of habit. We are dying to eat.

So here is the wake up call to every parent, caregiver, aunt, uncle, brother or sister – the answer starts with you. I call you to share and model how to eat, how to move, how to live in relationship with food rather than being enslaved by it.

You are the change you seek.

Talk it out and be in relation with one another instead of in relation to food. Listen for that tiny bell that signals FULL. Let your conversation expand; allow your love and care be a balm to living. A thing that fills you up on the inside that doesn’t expand your outside.

- Brad

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20% of U.S. preschoolers are obese

Researchers were surprised to see differences by race at so early an age.

Overall, more than half a million 4-year-olds are obese, the study suggests. Obesity is more common in Hispanic and black youngsters, too, but the disparity is most startling in American Indians, whose rate is almost double that of whites.

The lead author said that rate is worrisome among children so young, even in a population at higher risk for obesity because of other health problems and economic disadvantages.

“The magnitude of these differences was larger than we expected, and it is surprising to see differences by racial groups present so early in childhood,” said Sarah Anderson, an Ohio State University public health researcher. She conducted the research with Temple University’s Dr. Robert Whitaker.

Where in the world did I get this behavior? I swear it started young young, before I’d learned it from anyone. Don’t get me started on why. Why, why why!?

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A friend I’ve worked with for the past year asked me to jump in with him on a discussion of the origin of his addiction. He walked out of treatment after five days, and wonders still why his family is not “supporting him in his recovery” even though each time recovery pops up he turns the other way and runs.

He is sidetracked by the why and the where questions. Where did I get this? And why? 

From my experience the origin has to do with genetics, family of origin, and experience. One, two or a mixture of three in various states of undress. The question of why though is a distraction. I had to stop, and stay stopped, and then the question of why began to reveal itself. 

One way we look at this question is with the Family Map. It’s called the genogram, and shows in patterns, shapes, and dates the history and how it relates to the now. A tool in helping understand and get our heads around the problem in the effort to solve it.

The Fix. It’s not impossible, no matter how it feels right now.