02/16/2021
Whenever I read anything about addiction treatment, there's always an ax to grind, definitely criticisms to be addressed, and typically the owner/operators of various treatment centers are criminalized for their "dark, dastardly deeds" against the poor, suffering addicts and alcoholics who have been taken advantage of, robbed, misinformed and cheated.
Granted, there are those crooks who take advantage of the insurance companies, families, and addicts themselves but there is never enough said about the owners and operators who give their lives to create healing environments to serve this cohort, knowing that most will not get well but there are a few, always one or two who allow us to save them offering them a new beginning to an old ending.
They are the miracles in the truest sense of the word. And these few keep people like me as a treatment professional involved, caring, helping, speaking to, encouraging, teaching, educating, holding our hope, healing and the possibility of a completely new life. I see those miracles often, often enough that I have spent my entire career helping alcoholics and addicts get well. The benefits outweigh the disadvantages, the bad press, the false accusations, trumped up allegations of crime, etc.
Truthfully, by the time someone actually becomes a bonafide alcoholic or addict, they have already given up on themselves. Yes, it is a medical condition, as now research has shown that the brain fails to activate the stop mechanism as our neurons move from the pleasure center of the brain through to the frontal lobe. Yes, that's the physiological science in a thumbnail sketch. But, there is so much more.
The researchers, doctors, medical staff, journalists, reporters all fail to understand it is so much more. They don't understand the phenomenon of craving or the role it plays in undermining the best medical care the world can provide. When or if a craving hits, for the addict/alcoholic it's typically game over. They go right back out. They themselves are victims of themselves, they are not victims of society, nor victims of a sleazy industry trying to bilk the world of insurance reimbursement, nor victims of any other untoward circumstance in their lives.
How to describe the phenomenon of craving? It is much like an itch that needs to be scratched but you can't reach it, so you do whatever you need to do to scratch the itch. I myself have been known to remove my shoe when I have an itch on the bottom of my foot. I can't think about anything else except scratching the itch. And the relief comes when my shoe and sock is off and I scratch the itch. Relief! Maybe a poor example but an effective one the difference being that I haven't committed any criminal acts in removing my shoe and scratching the itch, not usually.
Afterwards I may look around and see if I have embarrassed myself somewhat in the same way, once an addict has relapsed or gone out, or gone on a run, they can begin to assess the damage they have done to themselves, to their families, their children, the legal system, their bosses, their health, their finances, their reputation, and the list goes on.
The deep shame, sense of failure, embarrassment, self-hatred, etc. are paralyzing effects and cause most relapsers to give up even deeper, seeking the next drug or drink, and staying numbed out, a reality easier to accept than the one they have damaged.
The researchers, doctors, medical staff, journalists, reporters don't understand the mental obsessions that can't be overcome with the right medical care, an anti-anxiety pill or buprenorphine, an op**te agonist that is commonly known as Seboxone or Setutex or as alluded to in the article, MAT, medically assisted treatment. Though in all fairness, MAT is been wonderful in helping many chronic relapsers and lifelong addicts/alcoholics gain some needed clean time under their belt so as to become able to create a new lifestyle, one that doesn't include drugs or alcohol, and most of the time, does include attendance and commitment to a good 12 step program for lasting, durable, proven results. Used in conjunction with each other, results can be promising.
Conversely, the only way to get well is for the addict/alcoholic to begin to take responsibility for their own actions and to allow the consequences they are suffering to be used as and for the needed energy to change their entire lifestyle, behavior, mindset, spirituality, openness, arrogance, etc. That's the way it works if someone wants to get well. And, I may add, coupled with the excellent medical care now available, if an addict/alcoholic wants to get well, they have a good chance. But, there is one more element.
Are they ready? What does ready mean? Regardless if an addict/alcoholic is at the luxury spa treatment center, or the one on skid row that offers new life, or a new business endeavor just opened by an amateur entrepreanaur who thinks they could really make a difference, much depends on the addict/alcoholic's experience of being ready to recover. If they want to get well, they can. Just like Dorothy. The whole time, she just had to click her heels and state, "There is no place like home." Most addicts are on their own journey or spiritual path, seeking their original 'home', their place of safety, belonging, peace, contentment, acceptance, well-being. They don't understand themselves but they do understand their sorrow, pain, suffering, and separation.
Those of us who unconditionally love and accept these people, this cohort of society that has become ill, outcast, absurd, rejected, odd, and most of the time, mentally ill, poor, deceived, and angry, we are there to help them, always, because we know that being loved, accepted, and brought into a healthy recovery community can make all the difference in the world. And this is what we do, what we live and how we make a difference in this sordid world.
Many drug rehab programs use aggressive sales techniques, price-gouge patients and provide substandard care. The system often pushes people struggling with addiction into debt, but not recovery.
