Drug and Alcohol Rehab Blog

The New Face of Addiction Recovery

May 28, 2008 on 2:26 pm | In Uncategorized | No Comments

The 12-step program has been the oldest and most prevalent group in the country for many decades when it comes to treating drug and alcohol addiction.  The original purpose was for people to recover - not to stay “in recovery”. 

Throughout the years the ideas about drug rehabilitation and addiction recovery have been changed and warped into being life-long treatments of mental disorders with many newer made-up diseases piled on top of it and all of the new prescription drugs to treat these symptoms.  What has happened with all of these new treatments is that the problem of addiction and helping someone to completely recover has become more compound and in most cases worse, not better. 

Unfortunately millions of families over the years have been on the receiving end of this deceptive pit of hoplessness that has been perpetuated by the idea that addiction is an incurable brain disease and that people have to fight it and treat it for the rest of their lives.  However, after several failed treatment attempts (and many substitute drugs being erroneously prescribed) people are waking up and realizing that there are some simple truths to helping someone permanently recovery.

One of these truths is that addiction is not an incurable brain disease - there has never been a single study ever in history to prove that it is, yet the concept is continually forced upon even those of us who have successfully beaten addiction and are cured.  People are ultimately responsible for their own condition, but may need help regaining control.  Addiction isn’t a pre-determined or hopeless fate.

Another is that giving more drugs to addicts on any long-term basis will not help them become drug-free.  The simple concept is that someone still taking drugs is not free from them.  This includes the myriad of prescriptions for “dual diagnosis” and drug replacement therapy for opiate addicts as well as others.

The third is that very few people ever get permanently better in 28 or 30 days.  In most cases, it takes time to undo what has taken some years to create.  People aren’t magically better in a month.  This was an arbitrary timeline set up by insurance companies unwilling to pay for much more.

What we continue to see each and every week is that when addicts and their family members begin start to see these truths then they have hope.  They see that a drug and alcohol rehab that approaches addiction treatment with these fundamentals has a much higher success rate for permanent rehabilitation.  These basics are creating the new face of addiction recovery - those who have permanently recovered and move on with a happy, productive and drug-free life.

For more information or to get help for a loved one in need, contact us today by calling 1-877-421-9659 or visit www.drug-addiction-rehab.net. 

The False Hope of Antidepressants

May 1, 2008 on 3:50 pm | In Uncategorized | No Comments

Most of the calls that we get from family members of addicted people tell us that their loved one was put on an antidepressant at some point to try and treat the symptoms of their addiction.  Time and again we try and help educate people on the truth about these drugs and how the only way to truly become drug free is to go through a drug-free program in the end.

More and more information continues to surface about the dangerous long-term effects of antidepressants and related psychiatric drugs.  Below is a bit of recent information that was also made known through one of the most respected medical journals in the world. 

Dr. Erick Turner was a former paid speaker by the pharmaceutical industry who developed a conscience and turned on his pharmaceutical masters. He spoke out against the products he’d been promoting. In the January 2008 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, he published an article telling the truth about one class of drugs, SSRI antidepressants, such as Prozac and Paxil. In interviews, he has spoken even more broadly, stating that the lack of efficacy of SSRIs is the “dirty little secret” of the psychiatric world.

The hidden studies that he was able to uncover consisted of 74 clinical trials, with 51% showing results that were better than placebo and 49% with negative or mixed results. In other words, about half the trials, though they’d been produced for drug corporations and most likely were attempting to produce the desired results of showing benefits, did nothing of the sort.

Armed with the smoking gun proof of negative trials being hidden, Turner produced a paper, “Selective Publication of Antidepressant Trials and Its Influence on Apparent Efficacy” for the New England Journal of Medicine. This time, he wasn’t ignored.

Daniel Carlat, assistant professor of psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine, himself once on the dole with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, argues, “The fact that the negative trials can just be hidden away means that practicing doctors can get a very false notion of efficacy data for a drug. That’s the real crisis here.”

According to Mike Adams of Natural News, “The cat is now out of the bag regarding SSRIs. If they work, it’s only rarely. The known risks are extensive and appalling. Most, if not all, school shootings involved the use of SSRIs, or their next-generation offshoot, SNRIs. Suicide rates increase after starting them. Weight gain is often a problem, indicating a potential link to diabetes. Sleep disturbances and sexual dysfunction are fairly common. Many people have a great deal of difficulty withdrawing from these drugs. None of these problems were revealed during pre-approval clinical tests, but the fact that they’re common begs the question. How many trials showing these dangers were suppressed?”

If you or your loved one is trying to overcome and addiction and have been prescribed one of these drugs as a false hope of recovery, contact us to find safe ways of detoxing off these medications and getting into effective long-term drug and alcohol rehab programs.

Visit www.drug-addiction-rehab.net or call us at 1-877-421-9659.