Renew

When your loved one is in residential alcohol or drug treatment, they’re spending time learning about addiciton as a disease, preparing for life after treatment. Meanwhile you are going to therapy, filling out the paperwork, and finishing the homework in preparation for them to arrive, but then they do. What happens next?

Renew Everyday magazine’s article, Recovery Comes Home, offers advice on how to receive your loved one after residential: encouraging open communication, believing recovery as a reality, and the importance of community. i360 also believes in the emphasis of community and the continual process of recovery in everyday life.

Whether utilizing our services with medication, individual therapy, group support, or daily support from Life Development or turning to resources such as Renew magazine, there is help available for you and your loved ones on a daily basis.

Question and Answer: One Drink?

We tend to get quite a few questions thrown our way and we’ve decided to start answering some of those through our blog.  Here’s one of the more common questions people early in recovery are asked by family and friends is this one – “Do you mind if I have a drink?  Will that bother you?”  And what almost everyone in early recovery says is – “No, it’s not a problem”.  Since this is a blog, we have to get to the issue at hand pretty quick, so here goes.  The question is stupid and the answer is a lie.  If you want more of the answer, you can keep reading.

First, the question.  I can’t tell you how many of the people that ask this question are the same people that only weeks or months earlier were threatening divorce, unemployment, homelessness, or other punishments – if the person didn’t quit drinking.  They have seen firsthand the wreckage of the clients alcohol abuse and have been puzzled by how challenging sobriety is.  So don’t ask the question.  Just skip the drink; and if you really can’t skip the drink – call me and I’ll do a free assessment to see if you’re alcohol dependent.  Being around alcohol can release an avalanche of feelings and thoughts that often lead to relapse.  We teach clients to be smart, not strong – it’s a good lesson for family and friends to keep in mind.

As for the answer?  People in recovery know how much they have imposed/hurt/inconvenienced their family and friends.  They don’t want to do that in sobriety. Unfortunately they miss a chance to get help from the people that care about them, they miss a chance to let others be part of the healing process, they miss a chance to remind close people that everyday is still a struggle.

And let me answer that other question you’re thinking – no, I’m not trying to remove alcohol from the world.  We tried that once and found out we were the problem, not alcohol.  You can’t control what goes on in a restaurant, but you can control what goes on at your table.  You can’t keep alcohol out of the world, but you can keep it out of your house.  Be smart not strong.

Professionals and Addiction

Pilots and physicians have excellent recovery programs that take advantage of what  research has proven makes effective treatment. This is not the case for many other professions:  lawyers, nurses, pharmacists, and dentists.

While addicted physicians and pilots do have some unique occupational traits, their programs have demonstrated that the application of research and treatment standards can lead to long-term positive outcomes. When looking for a drug and alcohol treatment program (even if you’re not an addicted lawyer or nurse), you should consider what has been successful in these programs:

1. provide consequences for termination of treatment or positive drug tests, which improves the outcome in addiction treatment.
2. frequent random drug testing (few outpatient programs include it at all, much less at the frequency it needs to be)
3. connection to abstinence-based 12-Step programs and fellowships
4. actively manage relapse by intensifying treatment and monitoring
5. sustained therapeutic contact over a long period of time improves outcomes (think months and years, not days and weeks)

If you’re interested in reading more, read “Setting the Standard for Recovery:  Physician’s Health Programs” DuPont and McLellan in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 2009.

It doesn’t matter where you’re looking for rehab services:  Dallas/Ft. Worth, Frisco, Plano, anywhere in the U.S., make sure your questions for treatment include the above points because sober living is possible.

Choosing an Alcohol and Drug Treatment Program

Decades of successful treatment and research has helped to clarify many hotly debated issues. It’s difficult to determine what’s most importance in an alcohol recovery program:  using 12-Step Programs (i.e. Alcoholics Anonymous), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Family Therapy, or other approaches to treatment. What we have come to realize is that all of those approaches make unique contributions in trying to overcome a drug or alcohol addiction. When it comes to overcoming something as terrible as addiction, we must look to utilize all the resources and tools available. Check out this great link on addiction treatment.

Relapse and Addiction Treatment

If you have an interest in alcohol and drug treatment or addictions and recovery, check out the July/August Psychology Today. It contains an article by Kathleen McGowan about the road to recovery. The article presents a helpful discussion of the challenges of sobriety and the dangers people face when they leave drug rehab programs or as they transition back to life or work. McGowan also addresses relapse, cravings and triggers, and ways for addicts and alcoholics to confront these challenges. It’s certainly a worthy read.

Rise in Older Americans Seeking Substance Abuse Treatment

“Between 1992 and 2008 the proportion of substance abuse treatment admissions involving older Americans (aged 50 and older) nearly doubled — from 6.6 percent of all admissions in 1992 to 12.2 percent in 2008,” according to a recent SAMHSA study. While three-fourths of the individuals had used prior to 25 years of age, one-fourth of individuals began use within the last five years prior to admission. Family members caring for aging parents often overlook the typical signs and symptoms of drug and alcohol abuse, not suspecting that it would begin in older age or that it would recur after long periods of abstinence.

Comorbidity, Dual Diagnosis

“It is often difficult to disentangle the overlapping symptoms of drug addiction and other mental illnesses, making diagnosis and treatment complex.  Correct diagnosis is critical to ensuring appropriate and effective treatment.  Ignorance of or failure to treat a comorbid disorder can jeopardize a patient’s chance of success,” states Nora Volkaw, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.  We see it all the time with our clients, drug or alcohol use to deal with emotional issues like depression or anxiety (some of the most common that are masked by alcohol or drug use).  Remove the alcohol or drugs and you have a serious disorder that effects millions of Americans.  The danger for people in recovery is that those symptoms now become triggers for relapse.  If you’re in the early stages of recovery and worried about depression or anxiety, go for an evaluation or treatment.  It could make the difference in a successful recovery.

For more information on comorbidity, check out this article.

Letter from the Director

Innovation 360 provides outpatient drug and alcohol treatment in a non-traditional setting. It is different from your typical drug rehab or alcohol treatment program in that we work to facilitate recovery in the midst of life. We have been treating addictions for almost 20 years now, and we incorporate all that we have learned from treatment as well as the most recent findings from well controlled studies. While our focus has been in Dallas and Fort Worth, we’ve had the chance to collaborate with addiction treatment providers across the U.S.