Choosing Among the Many Alternatives for Addiction Recovery

When a family seeks a recovery program for a loved one, the variety of treatment programs they face will probably be baffling to them. Should they find a methadone program or one that provides buprenorphine? An in-patient program or out-patient? Group counseling or individual counseling? The first time a family wades into all these choices, it is normally quite confusing. Unless someone in the family has been through rehab or has worked in this field, the family may just choose the program that’s the most affordable or the easiest to get into right away.

It can happen that a person who really does want sobriety ends up in a program that differs philosophically from his own beliefs. He (or she) can have a hard time in this program. For example:

• Some people are not willing to admit that they will always be addicts or that they will always be powerless over their own addictions.
• There are people who don’t want to receive more drugs as treatment for their past addictive behavior, such as methadone as a maintenance drug, Xanax (for anxiety), Lexapro or Prozac (for depression), acamprosate (for alcoholism).
• The use of hallucinogens in an attempt to break a person’s addiction may not sit well with some people.
• There are programs that use brutal boot-camp atmospheres to break a person’s spirit down so they become more “receptive” to treatment.
• There are even programs that use electric shock to make the idea of drinking or using drugs repellant to the individual.

For many families and individuals wanting treatment, these regimens will leave much to be desired. The problem can be detecting the real nature of a program before you arrive and start treatment.

Researching Your Options

Even though a family and an individual wanting treatment are under great stress in the days leading up to choosing a rehab, it does pay to slow down just a little when you are researching your choices. If you can find someone who has been through this process already, they can familiarize you with their experiences (which might still be limited).

When reading brochures or websites, does the program look for a “dual diagnosis” or a “co-existing condition”? You may want to ask the staff what secondary conditions might be looked for and what drugs would be administered for the most common ones found. Be very direct in asking about the inclination of the medical staff of the program to administer drugs during treatment. Find out if this can be omitted if it is requested by the person in treatment.

Ask about group meetings and how they are run. Are the members of the group permitted to criticize each other or tell other members what is wrong with them or what they should think or do. These group members are not professionals and what they say could be severely colored by their own problems or experiences.

If the program incorporates the Twelve Step methodology of AA or Narcotics Anonymous, familiarize yourself with this system by visiting www.aa.org and make sure it fits with the belief system of the person going through treatment.

Find out if the program offers life skills training for the individual. Most people who have been addicted for several years will have lost substantial life skills. Those who started heavy drug or alcohol use in their teens may never have developed social or life skills. There needs to be a system to teach or re-teach these skills so that a person understands how to competently manage a sober life in the future.

For tens of thousands of addicts and their families, the Narconon program has provided a desirable alternative to conventional or Twelve Step programs or ones that use drugs as treatment. A healthy detoxification step that uses time in a sauna, exercise and generous nutrition to sweep away old stored drug toxins brightens a person’s viewpoint and often helps with cravings. Thorough life skills training puts the finishing touches on a person’s ability to maintain sobriety. Our program is often referred to as a “holistic” program as it considers the harm that has been done to the whole person and focuses on restoring abilities that have been lost.

Learn more about the Narconon program here.