Drug Addiction Treatment Blog

Hi! My name is Michael C and I am an Alcoholic! I was admitted into treatment at lakeview on May 1, 2006. I was discharged on June 6, 2006. For my friends out there who attended treatment with me, I was the long haired guy everyone referred to as “Rock Star”! My experience at lakeview taught me how to get and stay sober. I learned about the disease of alcoholism and also that I was not alone. Before I went into treatment I was very depressed and extremely suicidal. I had spent the most part of the last 25 yrs using alcohol and drugs. The first 15 years were wild and crazy and even sometimes fun. The last 10 yrs I used just to feel normal. the last 3 yrs I became depressed and suicidal, and the last year I became extremely suicidal. My Higher Power forced me to call Lakeview although I didn’t know it at the time. My Higher Power has a plan for me and I almost messed all of that up. When I went to Lakeview I learned to be Honest, Openminded, and Willing. My best thinking almost got me into the morgue. While I was at lakeview I decided, with the help of my Higher Power, to get this thing right the first time. Lakeview began helping me to fill my tool box with the right tools to get me back into and enjoying life. The day after I was discharged, I attended my first AA meeting in my home town in SE Texas. I have attended meetings every day since May 1, 2006 and I have learned that there is truth in the saying “Meeting Makers Make It”. I found an awesome home group with wonderful friends and my Higher Power even put my sponsor literally right in front of me. I have been through all twelve steps now and I have had a Psychic Change as well as a Spiritual Awakening. Life is getting better all the time. The promises in the Big Book are starting to come true and as the Big Book says I am utterly amazed. My life is centered around recovery and helping others, not just alcoholics and addicts. I have a wonderful fellowship of friends that genuinely care about my well being. I have gotten the respect of my family back through action not words. While i was at Lakeview it sometimes seemed like an eternity. In reality the time was faster than a blink. I am very grateful for Lakeview and what they have helped me to achieve so far. I am still considered a newcomer, but because of my Awakening, oldtimers find it hard to believe that I am a newcomer. Some people think that if all you do is recovery, then you need to get a life. I have a life in Alcoholics Anonymous and it is the best life I have ever known!

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Recently a topic of conversation centered on whether there is a difference between a drug rehab and an addiction treatment center. As surprised as people were at the question, it made all of us realize those individuals without knowledge of the addiction treatment business or who have not been in addiction treatment themselves, might be easily confused.

There really is no difference between the two as far as the terminology. When a person mentions drug rehab, they are really referring to a drug rehabilitation program, which is the same as an addiction treatment program, alcohol treatment program or chemical dependency program. All the above, are designed to treat drug addiction and alcoholism, with the only difference resting in the actual services provided, population treated and the philosophy of the program.

Differences in Addiction Treatment Services

While they all generally have residential treatment services in common, it does not mean that each has been licensed to provide detox (detoxification services), partial hospitalization or outpatient treatment. The type of services a drug rehab or addiction treatment center provides is strictly up to the owner and operator and each service must be licensed by the state where the center is located. It suffices to say that the greater the continuum of care, the more likely the center is to be able to meet the patient’s needs.

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A core concept evolving over the past decade is that drug addiction is a disease of the brain that develops over time as a result of abusing drugs and alcohol.

Some of the consequences that a person experiences is a virtually uncontrollable craving for drugs and alcohol, the seeking and use of drugs and alcohol that interferes with an individual’s functioning within the family and society. In most cases, an illness such as this usually requires inpatient chemical dependency treatment.

• we understand the brain functions through which drugs acutely modify mood, memory, perception, and emotional states.
• Using drugs habitually over time changes brain structure and function in ways that can persist long after the individual stops using them.
• Addiction is conceived through an array of neuro-adaptive changes and the lying down and strengthening of new memory connections in various circuits in the brain.

We do not yet understand all of the actual functions, but the research demonstrates that those long-lasting brain changes are responsible for the distortions of cognitive and emotional functioning that characterize addicts, particularly including the compulsion to use drugs that is the essence of addiction. It is as if drugs have high jacked the brain’s natural motivational control circuits, resulting in drug use becoming the sole, or at least the top, motivational priority for the individual.

This brain-based view of addiction has generated substantial controversy, particularly among people who seem able to think only in polarized ways.

• Many people erroneously still believe that biological and behavioral explanations are alternative or competing ways to understand phenomena.
Modern science has taught that it is much too simplistic to set biology in opposition to behavior or to pit willpower against brain chemistry.
• Addiction involves inseparable biological and behavioral components.
• Many people also erroneously still believe that drug addiction is simply a failure of will or of strength of character. Comprehensive research contradicts that position completely.

It is important to note, that the recognition that addiction is a brain disease does not mean that the addict is simply a hapless victim. Addiction begins with the voluntary behavior of using drugs and addicts must participate in and take some significant responsibility for their recovery. Thus, having this brain disease does not absolve the addict of responsibility for his or her behavior, but it does explain why an addict cannot simply stop using drugs using willpower alone.

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Throughout the United States there are many different philosophies that are embraced by addiction treatment programs to treat the addict and alcoholic Some addiction treatment providers believe that addicts and alcoholics are genetically predisposed others bio-chemically, in either case, this is a controversy that has been debated for years within the scientific, medical and chemical dependency communities. One “camp” believes in the disease of the brain, which embraces the notion that addiction greatly affects the thought and chemical process within each person.

Another “camp” argues that addiction is a dual problem consisting of a physical and mental dependency on chemicals, compounded by a pre-existing mental disorder. They would argue that the mental disorder needs to be treated first and is the primary cause of the addiction. A third line of thought clings to the belief that addiction or alcoholism leads to “chemical imbalances” in the neurological system.

With all of this information and research, the fact remains, that there is scientific evidence to support all of these concepts. Based on national averages, we have about a 20% full recovery rate. Recognizing that we still have a long way to go, it is clear that addicts and alcoholics tend to achieve long term sobriety with a combination of drug rehab / addiction treatment, coupled with attendance at a 12 step self help program

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