Typically, we think about drug and alcohol rehab and imagine a thirty day stay in a residential treatment center, but with the continued research into drug treatment a new, innovative method has been adopted by the Canterbury Institute in New Jersey. This rehab center’s cutting edge approach to drug treatment focuses on short term outpatient methodologies to drug and alcohol rehab. Depending on the situation and severity of addiction, The Canterbury Institute aims to treat addiction on a short term basis, treating addiction with 3 consecutive days of medication and nutrient rich supplements on an outpatient basis. Medication is then taken home for a thirty day period and comprehensive follow-up implemented.
Can drug and alcohol addiction really be treated in as little as 3 days by an outpatient drug rehab? Based on what most of us have heard, seen, and been through in terms of drug treatment, we may be inclined to take a certain stance of disbelief in this methodology. However, when I think of outpatient drug treatment in general, there is no exact time period for treatment and many similar methods are utilized across the world in outpatient drug rehabs. Obviously, some cases require longer periods of time than 3 days, but it seems to me that for some cases of addiction, this is a very innovative and effective approach. Of course, like The Canterbury Institute, I understand that one treatment methodology is not the right approach to drug rehab in all people, but this is yet one more way caring individuals in the drug rehab field are working to find the right answer for those who need it. There is no doubt that there are many severe cases of addiction that are generally accompanied by co-occurring mental disorders and require more intensive inpatient drug rehab. However, for those individuals who find that outpatient drug treatment will work best for them, I feel the approach that The Canterbury Institute has taken to outpatient drug rehab is a breath of fresh air. As with any drug rehab, the idea is not to blow through it and fail to learn or heal in the process. The key to any drug rehab is caring professionals, comprehensive medical attention, and the desire to be healthy. The Canterbury Institute has 2 of the 3 elements. All that’s missing is the will and dedication of the next individual seeking recovery from drug and alcohol addiction.
New Jersey Drug Rehab in Only 3 Days
Age of Alcoholism
I’ve been hearing a lot of debate about lowering the legal drinking age to 18, and I can’t say I support that kind of move. Granted, underage alcohol consumption is a big problem, but I don’t see how lowering the legal drinking age would eliminate the underlying problems of underage drinking. Sure, it would make it legal for teenagers to drink, but that doesn’t do anything to solve the problems inherent with alcohol abuse. The issue of minors drinking alcohol isn’t so much the illegality of it, but moreso the responisiblity it carries. People over the legal drinking age have enough problems with alcohol and responsibilty which all tie into maturity and education. How in the world would a teenager be better equipped to deal with the heavy responsibility of alcohol consumption any better than those who are over the current legal drinking age?
Here’s the issue. As we grow up, we obtain certain responsibilities and rights with age, not necessarily maturity or ability to handle that responsibility. For example, how many of us see, on a regular basis, poeple behind the wheel who clearly shouldn’t be driving and ask the question “who the &%$# gave him a license?” At 16, in most states, we can get a license and drive. At 18, we can enroll in the miliarty and vote. Do all voters have a comprehensive, or even rudimentary knowledge of our governemnt and crutial issues on which we base our votes? I doubt it. Then, at 21, we get to drink alcohol (legally, at least). How many “just turned 21″ year olds have at least a decent undertsanding of the dangers of alcohol? For that matter, how many 25 year olds or 30 year olds have that knowledge?
I work in the addiction field and I see and hear about the numerous ways alcohol destroys lives every day. Furthermore, I used to be a bartender for several years and I’ve watched the 21 and 22 year olds come in and drink alcoholic beverage after alcoholic beverage (of the long island sort), trying to get as wasted as possible or classes are out for the semester so let’s get hammered. Going out with friends, drinking some alcohol and having fun is all good. Most of have done it and continue to do it in what I hope are responosible ways. However, the majority of youngsters I have seen in bars have this misconception that the more alcohol they drink, the better, thus the long islands (personally, I think they’re gross, but it’s a lot of alcohol in one drink so I guess that’s the appeal). I remember what it was like when I was 21 and finally got to start using my real ID, so I’m not knocking these kids. I understand. I’t’s exciting to be able to hang out in the clubs and drink alcohol with the “cool grown people”. I get it. The issue though, is that mentality is amazingly immature. It’s no one’s fault, it’s just part of a process called growing up. Drinking alcohol isn’t about fitting in or being like someone else. It’s a personal choice and with that choice comes a great deal of responisiblity, like being able to know when you’re in danger of alcohol poisoning. Let’s get that one clear off the bat. Alcohol poinsoning happens when you’re vomitting and end up passed out drunk from drinking alcohol. It’s not necessarily a trip to ER, although it ends up being just that for many. Granted, this considered to be a mild case of alcohol poisoning, but we all know what hangovers feel like and that’s the result.
It’s not enough for us to put kids through school and then give them free license to go have a free for alcohol binge just because it’s legal. Even at 21, kids aren’t educated on the dangers of alcohol abuse. I’d be willing to bet that less than 50% of kids know what it is that physically causes alcohol intoxication. Most probably think coffee is the antidote (since that’s what makes the characters in movies feel better), but newsflash - coffee further dehydrates the system, making alcohol intoxication worse. If there were programs and systems in place that actually educated kids on responsible alcohol consumption and the dangers of alcohol abuse, maybe that would further justify the potential of lowering the legal drinking age, but then we still have to be concerned with the mental capacity of teenagers to handle the responsibilty of alcohol. These kids have a mental disadvantage in comparison with adults. Our brains mature just as we do and at 18, I doubt the maturity is present and the brain is equipped to handle many things, including alcohol consumption. I don’t believe age should be the qualifier as to what we can and cannot do. It should go much deeper than that, in my opinion. We have to take a test to drive, we have to be qualified to hold a job, get an apartment, buy a car. But all we need to consume the most dangerous drug out there, is an ID that verifies our age. Alcohol is responsible for hundreds of thousands of fatal vehicular accidents, thousands of deaths due to acute alcohol poinsoning, and millions of shattered dreams caused by alcoholism. Taking all of that into mind, our current laws have absoltely no prerequisite to consume alcohol - only living for 21 years.
I propose a lot more be done about alcohol education for everyone, but especially youngsters. Those DUI classes so many of us are familiar with, should be required for kids before they can legally drink, not after they wrap their car around a pole because they excercised poor judgement in an alcoholic haze. Until we have provisions in place to ensure the safety of tomorrow’s drinkers, I think the current legal age for alcohol consumption is just fine. This still doesn’t change the fact that we need to do much, much more about drug and alcohol education in this country for all people, not just teenagers in danger of joining the grown up world too early.
Drug Rehab Centers Get A Bad Name
With the recent influx of celebrities entering drug rehab centers for a quick dryout session, to appease the public, or as the result of a “nudge from the judge”, drug rehab programs are getting a bad name. As the founder of a public benefit addiction treatment help organization, I’ll attempt to set the record straight. Drug rehab programs do work, just not if the individual attending treatment doesn’t want them to, and hence doesn’t make any attempt whatsoever to remain sober following treatment. Drug rehab programs offer guidance and rehabilitation, not a magic cure for addiction and alcoholism. Otherwise they’d be called “Addiction Cure Programs.” I know this because I went to rehab multiple times before ever managing to stay sober for any significant period of time after treatment. A little about my story is published on the about treatment centers page of www.treatment-centers.net. I had to go to treatment multiple times because when I first went, I didn’t go for myself - I didn’t go because I wanted to stop being an addict, stop doing the drugs I loved so much, or stop having fun and partying. I went because others wanted me to, and because my life had become so unmanageable I needed a “break”. I had no intention of staying off drugs and alcohol.
Many of the celebrities stepping through the revolving door of drug rehab centers lately are doing so at a very young age - Lindsay Lohan for one, apparently just turned 21. Is it really such a surprise that she went out drinking? Many young people drink alcohol for their “coming of age”. It only comes once, and is a milestone (whether or not those laws serve the public interest or public health is another question). When I was that age and going to drug rehab, I simply wasn’t ready to stop yet. An individual can go the the best drug rehab center in Malibu, learn all the tools for sobriety, and still not stay sober after leaving treatment. They have to want sobriety. They have to be sick and tired of being sick and tired of suffering the negative consequences of drug addiction.
Additionally, these people are rich. Drug addicts often stop abusing drugs when they can’t afford their drug of choice any more. With top celebrities, this never happens, which is unfortunate. I truly believe that if there was a provision in the law for judges to require that certain individuals under specific circumstances (multiple offenders, under a certain age, with income over a certain level) have to match their expenditures on drug rehab programs ($50,000-$100,000+ easily for a 30 day treatment stay at these Malibu rehab centers) with donations to publicly funded treatment centers, and a stipulation that if they re-offend, their money is placed in a trust of some sort with someone who audits all expenditures, we’d see these celebrities more interested in getting into recovery.
Also, recovery needs to be fun. With the prevailing feeling among these celebrities being that partying is the definition of fun, and is necessary to “fit in” and “be cool”, the outlook for recovery is slim. Recovery can be fun, but for these celebrities and public figures - Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Al Gore III, and Mel Gibson to name a few - they need to experience it first hand. They need to go to rehab centers that make recovery fun, and offer them something different than what they are used to in their everyday lives - When rehab is like a resort, it is like a reward for years of hard fought drug using and law breaking. I don’t have a personal masseuse and chef in my everyday life, but if I go to one of these Malibu drug treatment centers, or a place like Cirque Lodge in Utah where Lindsay Lohan currently is, I get that treatment. I don’t know about anyone else, but that sounds to me like a pretty nice place to be, easy to look at as a reward for drug use and illegal behavior. Perhaps these celebrities need to learn how to live like the rest of the world, and maybe then they’ll understand that they are subject to the same laws of behavior and propriety.
Drug rehab, alcohol rehabilitation and dual diagnosis treatment does work. Drug addiction treatment centers do teach the tools necessary for recovery from addiction and alcoholism. Even free, publicly funded programs do this, let alone $50,000 Malibu treatment centers. Detox programs handle the physical withdrawal part of the equation, and short-term and long-term addiction treatment centers teach the tools for recovery, delve into the underlying issues and causes of the substance abuse, and repair the psychological and emotional damage of the addiction. The rest is up to the individual, and they have to want it. It is often said that if an individual puts as much energy and investment into their treatment and recovery from addiction as they did into obtaining and using drugs, their sobriety is virtually insured. From first hand experience with drug rehabilitation, I know this to be true.
Xanax, Valium, & Marijuana. Oh My!
The latest news of public figures fallen to prescription drug abuse is Al Gore III, the youngest of the Gore kids. He was arrested for marijuana possession in 2003 while attending Harvard University, but on July 4, 2007, the Orange County Police pulled him over with a small amount of marijuana as well as a stash of benzodiazepines such as Xanax and Valium without a prescription.
No surprise there, as the number of people experimenting with and abusing prescription drugs is rising on a daily basis. It’s so sad to me that this epidemic is running wild in our society because these kinds of drugs are highly addictive and very dangerous. As it is with alcohol, benzodiazepines such as Xanax and Valium are life-threatening both in their abuse and during the detox process. I wonder if people have any idea of what they’re getting into when they decide to use these drugs without legitimate reasons.
What is alcohol rehabilitation?
Alcoholism is a form of addiction that takes thousands of lives every year. For many alcoholics, the addiction is not only lodged in the brain, but it produces a physical dependency which causes extremely uncomfortable and life-threatening symptoms when alcohol use is stopped abruptly. For this reason, most alcoholics cannot stop using on their own and need alcohol rehabilitation to recover from the disease. Usually alcohol rehabilitation involves the process of removing the alcohol from the body under medical supervision, referred to as detox. This usually takes place in a hospital setting where medical staff can monitor the alcoholic during the removal of the toxins from the alcohol in the system.
Once an alcoholic has gone through the process of detox, they can then begin rehabilitation. The rehabilitation process is one where the alcoholic will learn about what alcoholism is and understand that it is a treatable disease. In rehabilitation, alcoholics learn how to cope with life stressors and situations without turning to the bottle. They learn that they must change everything about their lives, including associates, social life, thought patterns, health, and surroundings. Alcohol rehabilitation is literally the retraining of the brain to habitually practice healthy, productive activities to help the alcoholic abstain from drinking.
In many cases of alcoholism, there are deeper underlying issues that the alcoholic must face. Sometimes, there has been physical or mental abuse during childhood. In other cases, the alcoholic may have co-occurring mental disorders adding to the severity of the alcoholism. These cases of alcoholism require dual diagnosis treatment. This form of alcohol rehabilitation employs all the same techniques as the process without co-occurring disorders, but adds the element of more intense therapy, sometimes coupled with medication for the disorder.
In every case of alcoholism, it is imperative to find help immediately. Even more important is the success of the program, which does not lie in the program itself. The success rate for alcoholics is completely dependent on the alcoholic and that person’s dedication to sobriety. The whole world can do everything to help an alcoholic, but that help is useless until the alcoholic wants to get help for themselves.
