Category Archives: Treatment

Pills & Science Can’t Help Addicts

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     “We doctors have realized for a long time that some form of moral psychology was of urgent importance to alcoholics, but its application presented difficulties beyond our conception. With our ultra-modern standards, our scientific approach to everything, we are perhaps not well equipped to apply the powers of good that lie outside our synthetic knowledge.” -Alcoholics Anonymous, The Doctor’s Opinion, xxvii

     Translation: You cannot fix an alcoholic or an addict without fixing him morally and spiritually. Pills and science cannot change addicts, turn them into better people, make them act right, or give them what they truly need to effect lasting recovery. Does taking a pill give you meaning and purpose? Do taking a pill give you principles and morals? Do taking a pill give you God? Nope. There is utterly no hope for alcoholics and drug addicts to get better if mainstream treatment methods and attitudes continue pumping medication as the solution.

     Believe it or not, there are doctors out there who specifically treat drug addicts. I know of one. In fact, he asked me to work for him at one point, running groups in Brookline to supplement his program of methadone, suboxone, seroquel, clonodine and God knows what else. His mission is to prescribe for drug addicts. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t get sober to become a puppet or a guinea pig. Let’s just have a look at that phrase again:

     Prescribe for drug addicts.

     Huh???

     Addicts or alcoholics who go to one of these guys or to some pain clinic have either a) run out of money but are still trying to get high or b) are trying to appear to their families or spouses that they are working on themselves but are getting high at the same time, which isn’t possible. You can’t work on yourself in any way, shape or form while jammed on some elaborate cocktail of mind-altering drugs. Try writing a thorough, honest and insightful inventory after re-wiring your brain with methadone, suboxone or some insane psychotropic. Better yet, try praying or meditating. That should be fun.

     Why do you think the DSM was created?
   
     Psychiatry has, of course, been co-opted by the pharmaceutical industry and the government. It seems like they want every man, woman and especially child in America to be medicated to the hilt. I personally don’t believe it ends with the pharmaceutical industry and speculate the agenda is deeper and perhaps more devious. It’s the same with our educational system as well as our monetary system. Needless to say, healthy economies don’t run on massive debt bubbles. Healthy economies run on savings and production, not debt, taxes and consumption.

     We passively agree and believe what we see and hear on TV, but the truth is that we are being medicated, manipulated, dumbed down and fleeced economically. Yes, I know that is off-topic, but it is so important to our future that we begin to wake up to the de facto banana republic that we are blindly endorsing. We owe it to our children and our grandchildren to change course. Mark my words, a storm is coming…

God, please keep me close to You today…

Illusions of Psychiatry (Article)
Doping Kids with Ritalin (Article)
Ritalin Use for ADHD Children Soars Fourfold (Article)
Raising the Ritalin Generation (Article)
Unhinged – The Trouble with Psychiatry (Book)
Anatomy of an Epidemic (Book)
Deliberate Dumbing Down of America (Site & Link to PDF)

Addiction & Advertising

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     The sad truth is that conventional treatment programs and philosophies have sprung out of marketing and advertising (and government intervention, of course). The last thing they want you to hear is that all you need to get better is another alcoholic and a Big Book. Their message is, “YOU WON’T EVER TRULY BE OKAY.” All you can hope for is to keep your symptoms at bay. And they pump the same negative, false message with every illness, disease and mental disorder. Hmm, golly gee, I wonder why? Maybe it’s because if people became recovered for life by taking the (free) Steps with another alcoholic, there is no demand for prescription drug cocktails and overpriced, 55-minute therapy sessions.

     The last thing most treatment centers, methadone clinics, doctors, therapists and pharmaceutical companies want you to do is to fully recover. That would put them out of business. If we believe that we will always be sick, struggling and “in recovery”, then we will need a lifetime of detox stays, treatment stays, therapy visits, pills and other clinical interventions. That’s how these scumbags stay in business. You can’t turn on the television without seeing some shameless actor peddling a dangerous new drug or the snake oil salesman on CNN (Controlled News Network) peddling his alcoholism and addiction cure book, along with the $67,000 charge to jump in a hot tub with a bunch of entitled children from Hollywood. If people are sick, there is always a profit to be made. But if people get better, the cash stops flowing. 
     Today, this notion has infected even well-intentioned treatment specialists and programs. The mainstream belief that addicts and alcoholics will never fully recover originated in the sinful dens of marketers and advertisers. All we can do is keep our symptoms at bay, right? All we can do is write down our triggers and forever avoid people, places and things that make us want to use, right? And then when we relapse, we can come running back into the loving arms of detox, pills, methadone (pure evil), therapy, and cushy treatment programs with a day spa for all of the needy, whiny babies coming through the doors. 
     By the way, this is just what addicts and alcoholics want to hear… that they can’t really get better. Great, we now have a lifelong excuse to drink and use drugs.

     Well, gee, since I can’t ever truly recover, I might as well relapse. I mean… life is pretty tough for me right now!
     Question: Why are we giving the most manipulative, selfish, dishonest group of people an excuse? Why are we giving the easy-street drug addict an easy time? Drug addicts should be roasted and humbled beyond belief, and then built back together one spiritual brick at a time. 

Treatment

Posted on by under Helping Addicts/Alcoholics

     I had another topic for tonight but felt as though I should follow up on how to help the alcoholic or addict in your life.

     So if for some reason you have been able to get through the delusional head of an alcoholic or drug addict and they finally come crawling for help, then first things first.

     Get them to detox.

     Nobody can even begin to heal, grow and change without a clear head. Many hospitals have detox programs that can be accessed through their Emergency Rooms. Walk in and tell the intake nurse that you’re an addict and need help. It’s as simple as that. If the addict tests for cocaine only, the hospital may reject him or her based on the fact that there is no immediate danger from cocaine withdrawal. In that case, I hate to say it, but go get them drunk and then walk back in. This way they’ll test positively for alcohol. Alcohol and benzodiazepines (Xanax, Valium, Ativan, Klonopin, etc.) are the only two classes of drugs that can be lethal to withdrawal from. This is why they won’t turn you away if you test positively for alcohol.

     It’s very important for parents or spouses to understand that detox is NOT treatment. Don’t let the addict or alcoholic fool you, as they will often have a change of heart once they get the drugs out of their system and start to feel better. Suddenly, they want to leave the hospital as they declare that all is well in their world. They convincingly assert how they have never been better and have a new lease on life. They will tell you how motivated they are to stay sober and make positive changes.

     Trust me, it’s all bullshit.

     If they think detox is all they need, you might as well watch them walk out of the hospital door and follow them to the bar or the dealer’s apartment… because that’s where they’ll end up sooner or later.

     After detox, it gets a little tricky. Why? Because I’m not aware of too many treatment centers that take addicts and alcoholics through a rigorous Twelve Step program, that is to say a place that takes the Twelve Step program of spiritual action directly out of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. The instructions are in there, but have to be interpreted by someone who has taken Steps personally. Doctors, therapists, social workers and pills of any kind are pretty much useless. Aside from such rare programs, the other option is for the addict to be put in touch with a recovered alcoholic or addict who can take them through the Step process individually.

     A warning. There are a slew of treatment methods out there, including individual and group therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, role play, triggers (which don’t exist) and relapse prevention, pills such as anti-depressants, mood stabilizers, methadone or suboxone. I have tried just about every conventional method that exists in the world today and FAILED every time. The only thing that worked for me was to thoroughly and fearlessly take STEPS right out of the Big Book – the AA text book, if you will.

     Originally, AA had nothing to do with meetings. It was simply a program of rigorous action capable of expelling the various poisons within in order to achieve sanity and establish a relationship with God. Today, this process will get watered down at every opportunity. People are always looking for easier, softer ways. If you can find any that honestly work, let me know…

God, help those who still suffer find their way to the Steps and to You…