AHS Views

I have been helping families and friends of drug users find treatment programs for many years. It can get very frustrating when the media portrays drug rehab as a quick fix that doesn’t work – it’s simply not true. Recently there’s been a wave of big name celebrities checking themselves into treatment programs and, just weeks later, the media reports a relapse. However, no details are given regarding what treatment program they entered, why it didn’t work, and so on – they’re simply looking for a reason to print something controversial about a celebrity. The thing that really bothers me about this is that people who really need help can get the idea that all drug rehab programs are the same, and that none of them work. Consequently, they won’t even bother to take the steps necessary to find a successful drug rehab program to get the help they need.

If a relapse occurs, there’s a reason for it. Perhaps many of these celebrities are going into a treatment program that doesn’t have a history of success. If that’s the case, relapse is almost inevitable. I’ve worked with and seen great results from many drug rehabs across the US, and I know for a fact that help is available for those who need it. If the right drug rehab program is chosen, there is a very high probability that the addiction will be overcome. I would be glad to help anyone locate a successful program near them. The idea that all treatment doesn’t work is just not true. Successful drug rehab does exist.

One of the fastest growing drug problems today is the abuse of prescription medications. Opiates in the oxycodone/hydrocodone families and benzodiazepines such as Xanex are especially popular, and are highly addictive. Many people are initially prescribed these medications for legitimate medical conditions and don’t see the warning signs of addiction before it’s too late. The fact that the doctor prescribed the drugs also delays recognizing that there is a problem since it adds legitimacy and justifies taking them. So, the situation goes on and on – and then I get the call from someone looking for a drug rehab program.

When the legitimate reason for taking the drugs has passed, and the initial doctor will no longer write the prescription, users start doctor shopping – looking for a doctor unscrupulous enough to write a medically-unnecessary script. Or sometimes they get the drugs online. Regardless of the source, make no mistake - these drugs are just as addictive as street drugs, and for the user to stop taking them, they need a successful drug rehab program.

I recently worked with a family whose son had been buying Xanex on the Internet. They were totally unaware of his problem but had become curious about the regular packages he’d been receiving in the mail. The parents pressed the issue, and he finally admitted he had a problem. His mother told me they had no idea what to do – not only was it a legal drug, she didn’t even know if there were drug rehab programs designed for his addiction. In fact, they didn’t even realized you could become addicted to prescription drugs.

Benzodiazepine withdrawal can be one of the most difficult, so we had to be sure the program we found for him would be able to really handle his situation instead of just putting him on substitute medications. We located a drug rehab that could address his addiction fully and offer the care he needed. Needless to say, they were very relieved to find a program so quickly and be able to help their son. If you know someone who abuses prescription drugs, find a successful drug rehab program and get them help before it’s too late.

Out-patient drug rehab programs are the least successful form of treatment. Over the past few years I have worked with many families who have tried various out-patient programs and the consensus is that they are short term fixes, but offer no real long-term results. The biggest problem seems to be that the addict is still very close to their home environment with easy access to drugs and drug friends. The amount of supervision required is not available like it is in an in-patient drug rehab program, and this burden often falls on the addict’s family members. Unfortunately, when the person then relapses this can cause the family to feel that they have failed to help and makes them less willing to try to help again when it’s most needed. For a change to actually occur, it seems that an inpatient drug rehab is required.

Most families I’ve worked with whose loved ones were unsuccessful with out-patient programs wanted to “try” that first, in the hopes that maybe the person wasn’t as bad off as the junkies they hear about in movies and TV. But it’s a big mistake to try to qualify the addiction based on stereotypes used solely for dramatic purposes. That’s not to say that addicts don’t get themselves into those situations and, in some cases, much worse than seen in the media, but the idea that there’s a quick fix for a problem that took a long time to develop is incorrect. Going a few nights a week to meet with other addicts from the same area does nothing but help the addict make more connections and possibly meet new people to get high with.

Couple that with the dismal success rates of most out-patient drug rehab programs and you get a pretty good idea why so many counselors in the addiction field push so hard for longer in-patient stays as the best route - it eliminates the around-the-clock pressure on the family to keep the person occupied and sober, and prevents cravings and potential relapse by removing the person from the environment where they’ve been taking the drugs. For this reason, I never recommend out-patient programs. If a person truly wants to be successful, in-patient drug rehab is the only viable solution.

I’ve worked with many treatment centers over the years, and have attended a few as well, some faith-based, some secular, and some that appear to be secular but are, in fact, religious - traditional 12 step-based programs, for example, promote themselves as secular, but most of the meetings I attended pushed a Christian viewpoint as the only acceptable higher power. While in drug rehab, a person can be very vulnerable, making it harder to resist any religion that is pushed and, while faith is important, those circumstances are probably not ideal for making that kind of decision. The programs I’ve worked with that don’t have a religious bias seem to get much higher success rates and, at the same time, are able to help more people since they don’t alienate anyone based on their religious beliefs. It would seem then that drug rehab programs that are not faith-based are a better option.

I think all drug rehab programs have a spiritual aspect to them, and that they should. Again, faith is important for most people. But it seems that a religion should be something a person comes to on their own rather than having it dictated to them as part of their treatment. Also, although many of the Christian-based drug rehabs advertise high success rates, their retention rates are not that great. One nation-wide program that runs an average of 8 to 12 months claims a high success rate but also has a very high number of drop-outs, which lowers the actually success rate significantly.

One of the best drug rehabs I’ve worked with is a longer term program that admits people of any religious background. When it comes to spirituality, the program simply has the clients take a look at what that means for them and what role it plays in their life. I found this very refreshing - there is no religious undertone because no specific religion is promoted. It creates an inclusive environment where a person can truly find out who they are which, to me, is the most important element of a successful drug rehab program.

God can play a big role in a person’s life, but when it comes to putting down the crack pipe, it’s the individual who has to do it. God may be able to offer direction, but He can’t take the pipe out of their hand. I think for a drug rehab to be successful a secular option is the best way to go.

I recently helped a woman whose son was addicted to heroin. He had been using cocaine since he was in high school and was now 26. He claimed to have attempted to quit on his own, but was never successful. His mother couldn’t convince him to get help, so she called me to find out what she could do to get him to agree to go into drug rehab.

We talked about interventions - what they are, how they work, and the importance of having a successful drug rehab lined up so that once the intervention was complete, he could get straight into treatment with no delays. I helped her select a program that would be able to handle his addiction once and for all, and then got her in touch with a professional interventionist. He put her at ease and she finally felt that her son was going to get the help he so desperately needed.

She hired the interventionist and the next day he flew to her home to help her son realize why treatment is so important and necessary to his recovery. She called me the next day to let me know that the interventionist was successful, and her son had agreed to go. It was set up for the interventionist to accompany her son to the facility and, in fact, they were already en route to the program I had helped her choose.

She was so thankful and couldn’t believe that after all her personal efforts in the past had failed, getting her to agree to go to drug rehab could be accomplished so quickly by a professional with an objective viewpoint. He is now getting the help he needs in a successful drug rehab program. All it took was a little help from a professional to get him there. If you’re having trouble convincing someone you love to get help, call me.

Researchers and scientists in the drug rehab field have been trying to focus most of their time and efforts into developing drugs to overcome addiction, but treating a chemical problem with more chemicals has never produced long-lasting, stable results in a drug rehab program.

One recent push is the use of extended-release injectable naltrexone for alcoholism. However, Naltrexone is an opiate blocker and no one really knows how, or if, it will work with alcohol. This guessing game – let’s try this and see if it works - is another reason why giving addicts replacement drugs doesn’t work for long-term recovery.

Other problems with Naltrexone include side effects such as nausea, vomiting, decreased appetite, drowsiness, fatigue, headache, dizziness, anxiety and, in some cases, suicidal thoughts and behavior. Also, the recommended dose of 380 mg., injected intra-muscularly, hasn’t been tested to find out what affect it will have on the liver – it could result in toxicity.

Who would want to subject themselves to that? Alcohol and drug rehab programs are supposed to detoxify, not introduce more toxins. A successful alcohol or drug rehab program works by finding alternative solutions to problems in life that caused the person to turn to drugs or alcohol in the first place, and thereby reducing the desire to drink.

The results of Naltrexone speak for themselves - a six-month study showed only limited reduction in the number of heavy drinking days, and little effect on abstinence. That doesn’t effective to me. Really successful alcohol and drug rehab programs fix the body, get the person in better shape physically, and address the underlying issues that got them there in the first place.

The number of people seeking drug rehab for abuse of prescription painkillers continues to escalate. In fact, there was a 9 percent increase between 2004 and 2005, to 64,120 rehab admissions. These statistics were provided by the annual Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) from the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, and includes nearly 2 million drug rehab admissions to facilities that report their characteristics.

Drugs abused by those seeking rehabilitation in this category included codeine, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, meperidine, morphine, opium, oxycodone, pentazocine, propoxyphene, tramadol, and other drugs with morphine-life effects. Popular brand names in these categories include Oxycontin, Vicodin, Lortab and Percocet, to name a few.

Officials had largely underestimated the destruction caused by these drugs, but recent observances have found that between 1995 and 2005 there has been an increase of over 300 percent in prescription drug rehab admissions regarding these painkillers.

A drug rehab court is given the responsibility to handle cases involving substance-abusing offenders through supervision, drug testing, drug rehab services and immediate sanctions and incentives. There are approximately 1,800 drug rehab courts in existence or being planned.

Drug rehab courts typically deal with non-violent drug offenders, with charges such as possession of an illegal substance. The design and structure of drug court programs are developed within each participating community to address specific needs. A drug rehab court allows the community to address multiple factors in each drug abusing case, not just the addiction itself. Through an extensive rehab, education, participation and monitoring period, additional issues such as unemployment and child support can be addressed.

Multiple studies have been conducted regarding the effectiveness of drug rehab court systems as a form of community sentencing, and the retention and overall success rates have been very favorable, especially when compared to the results of incarceration.

In addition to being socially successful, drug rehab courts are also very cost-effective to the community. Whereas incarcerating a drug-using offender may cost between $20,000 and $50,000 per person, per year, a comprehensive drug court system costs about one tenth of that, plus the cost of a drug rehab program.

A recent analysis was done in a section of New Jersey on the cost of dealing with non-violent drug-using offenders, and they found that for every dollar spent on drug rehab courts, ten dollars were saved from the correctional system.

It seems that the average drug treatment program is getting shorter and shorter. This is largely dictated by what insurance companies will pay, but a simple comparison of success rates and program lengths shows that the most successful drug rehab programs fall into the 90-180 day range.

I have worked with thousands of individuals and families over the years and I am always hearing about previous failed drug rehab attempts. In almost all of these cases, the programs lasted around 30 days. That isn’t even enough time to allow the body to repair itself and get the person feeling better, let alone address the reasons the person started taking drugs.

Addiction doesn’t happen overnight. For drug rehab to be effective, the program must allow enough time to fix the body and handle the issues that got the person there in the first place. It seems simple enough, yet many people look for the quick fix. Sometimes they don’t want to be away from home for that long, or they’re afraid they’ll lose their job - there’s wide variety of reasons. However, regardless of the treatment model used, success rates are almost always higher with longer term treatments. Some of the best advice I could ever give to those looking for help is to ensure that the drug rehab they select is 90 days or longer. Why risk having to do it again? Do it right the first time.

I have been hearing from quite a few people lately who have tried treatment programs that use substitute medications. The problem with them, quite frankly, is that they just don’t work. One family I counseled not long ago had a son who had been to three such programs trying to handle his heroin addiction. Each program prescribed a medication to supposedly handle the cravings - he’d tried methadone, suboxone and buprinorphine – and each time he was unsuccessful at staying clean. I suggested that this time around he find a drug rehab that uses a different approach.

The unfortunate truth is that many hospital-based drug rehab or treatment programs are very quick to put a person on these types of medications as a “solution” to the problem. Sadly, it’s basically trading one drug for another, which makes no sense and doesn’t lead to long term success. In fact, what most people don’t realize is that it can take far longer to fully withdraw from drugs like methadone than the street drugs they are supposed to replace, and the process can be far more painful. But finding a drug-free treatment approach can be very difficult.

Luckily for this young man, I was able to help his family find a successful drug rehab program that didn’t use substitute drugs. He enrolled about a month ago - the treatment is working and he couldn’t be happier. His family called me the other day to thank me again for helping them. Like many families in similar situations, they wished they could have found this drug rehab program sooner so he wouldn’t have had to go through all the failures with other treatment approaches, and the agony of continued addiction. They’re very happy that he’s finally enrolled in a program that will help him.

It’s clear to me that substitute medications hurt more than they help. Finding a successful drug rehab program that doesn’t use them is definitely the way to go.