Can a Cure be Found in Alcohol Rehab?

Since the beginning of time, man has been looking for the secret cure, the magic bullet, the fountain of youth that will solve all of our health problems. The truth of the matter is; There is no cure for some of life?s passages such as aging, diabetic problems or even Alcoholism or Drug Addiction. They can be controlled, even the quality of life may be improved, but they can not be completely eliminated. The clich?s appear hot and heavy with sayings like ?One Day at a Time? and a ?Journey of a Thousand miles begins with just one step? and so it is with Alcohol Rehab and finding your way home.

There are so many claims, so many schemes and so many quick fixes that it becomes almost impossible to find an Alcohol Rehab program that really works. Even the United States Government got into the act and spent hundreds of Millions of Dollars to find the magic cure for Alcohol and Drug abuse. After Seven years, a few hundred million dollars later, the PROJECT MATCH STUDY was deemed a dismal failure. Everybody and I do mean everybody, lined up to discredit, find fault in it and basically deny everything from the legitimacy of the parents of the authors to downright fraud. The truth of the matter was simply they did not like the results. And the results were dismal.

They basically took the five top treatment protocols in existence today;

1) In Patient Residential Treatment,

2) Out Patient Alcohol and Drug Rehab

3) Hospitalization or Medical Model

4) Self Help groups like Alcohol Anonymous and

5) Behavioral Modification.

The results were basically the same for all Five groups and that was 43% stayed sober and clean one year from the date of entering into the program. The problem with this statistic was simple: Almost 6 in 10 would fail and the odds were in your favor that it would not succeed no matter what you did.

A funny thing happen however while everyone and their brother were circling the wagons and preparing to fight off the Calvary; Someone discovered by combining a combination of the protocols, that the success rate got better. At first, it was simply incorporating a 28 day in-residence alcohol rehab center with say follow up with AA meetings. The results jumped rather dramatically. In some cases, it climbed to as high as 73% while other studies showed an increase to higher than 75%. They were on to something. Add a couple of more ingredients such as educational protocol and behavioral modification and the numbers went into the Eighties. A non-profit by the name of Manor House Rehab went so far as to combine all known treatment protocols and used an extensive intake sheet to design an individual treatment and they hit over a 90% success rate for a temporary time frame until the results creeped back to ?normal? at about the 83-85% success rate. Not so bad.

The search for a perfect cure for Alcohol and Drug abuse had finally come to pass and success was at hand but only with a combination or a ?cocktail? of various programs combined to achieve success. It incorporated individual one on one counseling; It utilized group meetings, AA meetings and even a mentor program of one drunk or Addict helping another drunk find his way out of the darkness. They stole a few ideas from AA and included a higher power into their program, they copied Zen and Meditation from the East, basically went out and tried anything and everything that seemed to have a chance at success. The more they tried, the more successful their results were.

The manor house went on to published a pretty good article they entitled the ?cure? and it can be found at =>http://www.manorhouserehab.com/the_cure.htm

It sort of rambles on for about ten pages, but it makes the point quite well that a combination of many factors contribute to the success or failure of an Alcohol Rehab Program. Locating a facility on the beach may not be such a good idea because of triggers and cravings. To drink or do drugs is present simply because a beach party seems to be conducive to getting drunk or high or a contributing factor. The Manor House Rehab idea of an Ideal Alcohol Rehab center basically was on a desert Island, a thousand miles from nowhere without any booze or drugs anywhere to be found. Not a bad philosophy since Rehab is not a vacation, not Club Med, but Rehab and changing some of the habits that lead to getting stoned or drunk is the results intended, not a party. For the sake of full disclosure, I guess I should admit that I contributed heavily to the Manor House article, that I am a member of ?those other guys? with professional membership in NAADAC (National Association of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Counselors), graduate degree?s and about 25 years experience in grief counseling, addiction counseling and spiritual guidance. I decided not to present a professional paper for publication but to state my personal opinion as opposed to my professional opinion that basically, most Alcohol and Drug Rehab Centers got it all wrong. In a moment of weakness, I had to admit that the Medical Model of Alcohol Rehab pretty much screwed things up for awhile. I am please to announce that many of the better Alcohol Rehab centers are waking up to the combination approach that the Manor House and a few others put together.

If you need further information, take a look at the links page at: http://www.alcoholsupportprogram.com and the important links of some fifty sites that pretty much answer most questions that could be raised.

Bill Alexander is a professional Counselor and pioneered a combination approach to rehabilitation. He has published extensively in the field of Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation and lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.