Texas Drug Rehab Programs
Different Models of Treatment
Before one can look at the different modalities of treatment that are being offered, you need to understand that one's philosophy about addiction drives the types of treatment that is provided.
There are programs that believe that addiction is a disease and those that contend that it is a developed condition that has come about from repeated and habitual use that is oriented around changing one's feelings; usually to find a feeling of euphoria or relief from pain but sometimes to experience different "realities".
Driven by a desire to help others and/or to make a profit, most programs have not analyzed or challenged the ideas of addiction, but have merely accepted and copied the practices of others. This practice of coping other programs seems strange in a field with so many doing so poorly, in terms of recovering from their addiction, but the types of people that have been drawn to start treatment centers are usually those that have had an addiction problem of their own and have been to treatment or have had a loved one that has been treated for addiction.
There are certain requirements promulgated by each State's "Single State Agency" that must be met to be licensed to provide alcohol and drug treatment, however, these are broad, generic requirements and usually not specifics. Licensing requirements will more often be specific about the types of certified and/or licensed staff that must be employed rather than requiring a specific type of treatment action.
It isn't unusual to find licensing requirements that specify that a residential treatment program must have 12 hours of counseling provided each week in residence. The regulations will also specify what type of documentation is to be kept to substantiate that this requirement is met, but usually do not specify what type of counseling is to be delivered. Again, it may say that the counseling must be supervised or delivered by a certain type of licensed clinical professional, but it is very rare for the State to mandate individual counseling over group therapy or to not allow specific types of counseling that the program has decided is best to reach their goals.
I have seen programs where they had primal scream therapy and called it group therapy. Traditionally, group therapy is a model that has been codified and is done repeatedly under certain guidelines that don't very much, certainly don' t involve screaming in the woods, or regressing back to one's infancy, but this is an example of how varied and different treatment programs can be, one to another.
At least 80% of the thirty day programs follow the Hazelden model of treatment.
These programs have all copied the Hazelden model of 12-step treatment that was developed to provide a structured and confined environment where addicted individual, who could not sty sober without supervision, were able to learn the twelve steps and twelve traditions of the "Big Book" of AA. Because of the thirty-day restriction put on by third-party insurance companies, it was agreed that it would be most successful if their patients thoroughly understood the first three steps and at least read the traditions.
- We admitted we were powerless over alcohol …that our lives had become unmanageable.
- Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
- Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him.
It was found that asking someone to believe in these principals to a point that they feel that these steps have given them hope that they are committed to learning more and continuing their commitment to following a path of sobriety and being engaged with others to support that sobriety, took at least thirty days of indoctrination. This part of 12-step treatment is usually referred to as "step work", which includes workbooks that help a person understand the ramification of these three steps and lectures by others that are following this modality of recovery and can speak to their difficulties and rewards.
This type of treatment usually has time for the spiritual understanding and exploration, which usually involves clairification of what God means to a recovering addict and how structured religion may not be beneficial, but a belief that God is available to remove one's addiction and give them forgiveness for their past transgressions is vital to this "clinical" approach to treatment.
- Made a searching and fearless inventory of ourselves.
- Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Basically, these steps are asking the addict to look at every action in his life where he violated his moral code and to recall those times, pray about them, and tell someone else the exact nature of these "wrongs". It was found that people that are only thirty days removed from addictive use of drugs do not have the emotional stamina to do this type of thorough examination of themselves without causing them to overwhelmed by their shame which causes them to relapse on their drugs of choice and to turn their backs on this type of recovery.
It is generally recommended, in 12-step circles, that a person have a minimum of one year of clean time where he is going to 12-steps meetings regularly and where the individual has a "sponsor" who can help support them through this confessional. It was found that rushing this level for taking responsibility for one's past brought up many clinical issues that had been treated by alcohol and other drugs and the 12-step model of treatment didn't have the necessary clinical practices that could support someone during these memories.
It should be noted that the two men that developed the 12-step approach to recovery and wrote the Big Book or AA, emphatically state that it is not treatment and it should never be institutionalized into what it has become. They argue that their form of treatment is reserved for "one drunk, talking to another drunk in an effort to stay sober". The 12-step approach was designed to be a place where addicts and alcoholics could come together to communicate about anything, but benefit from human contact and communication, and follow a path that leads them to higher and higher levels of personal responsibility and dedication to a Higher Power, or God. Where human compassion and God's love could bring inspiration and comfort for those that are using alcohol and other drugs to ease their pain.
It might appear odd that a treatment modality is going against the advice of the people that developed the model, but there are good rationales for developing these institutionalized treatment facilities.
Addictions or Unwanted Emotional Feelings:
Those professionals that have been in the forefront of effective alcohol and drug rehab programs have contended for years that many programs that use "Mental Health" testing and diagnosis to determine that addicts have a "chemical imballance" and should, therefore, be placed on psychiatric medicaitons are now, finally, getting support from real science and the media.
This article is very important: The Depressing News About Antidepressants showing that Studies suggest that the popular drugs are no more effective than a placebo (sugar pills). In fact, they are worse. You are being pushed drugs by corporations... Don't let them continue!!!
http://www.newsweek.com/id/232781
Go to "The Truth About Drug Treatment" to find out more inside information about the treatment scene in America.
How has alcohol and drug addiction changed? Read about the obvious changes and add your own comments HERE.
Here are some of the programs that are available, but the real expertise will come when you call 888-781-7060 and speak to a Master's level counselor with over 30 years experience seeing the effects of these different drug and alcohol treatment programs:
12-Step Treatment Programs in Texas
These methods are better known as Alcoholics Anonymous, Cocaine Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. 12-Step approach to recovery was developed in 1934 by two Alcoholics who found a way to stay sober using these steps with others in support group meetings held locally. When alcohol and drug treatment became institutionalized and established in free-standing residential treatment settings as well as hosopital-based facilities, the 12-step approach to recovery was addopted as a clinical method. With insurance paying for treatment and the public needing care, these 12-step residential rehab programs copied one another and grew quickly in the 1970s and 80s. Charter Hospitals and the CARE Units were the two largest. Programs using this treatment modality are usually 21- 30 days in length and were termed short-term treatment. These alcohol and drug rehab centers are still the most prevalent form of residential treatment, even though they have proven to have a success rate of 5-8%.
With the continual relapses, the public has begun to believe that "treatment doesn't work". In response to these sentiments and pressure from Drug Courts, some of these centers have become long-term treatment facilities, 90 days or more. This response comes from the idea that you can't have success in 30 days, so a longer period of treatment is needed. What was rarely questioned was wether the 12-step rehab modality was the right clinical approach. Most of the state-funded programs use 12-step treatment modality because it is the easiest clinical regime to administer and requires the least amount of staff. There are many strengths to this approach. Clients have time away from their alcohol and drugs, they begin to start communicating with each other and start thinking about how to handle their lives without alcohol and other drugs. However, addiction is such a strong and compelling force that if you don't handle all aspects of addiction, it is very likely that the recovering addict or recovering alcoholic will relapse and need additional treatment.
It has been said that the 12-step approach to drug and alcohol treatment has given the public false ideas about addiction. With these programs being seen as the authorities in addiction, their justifications for their losses have begun to become "facts" about addiction. Since they haven't been very successful in producing long-term successes, the public believes the idea that they use as an excuse, that addiction is a chronic and progressive disease, meaning that it last forever and gets worse in time. Therefore, no one is ever cured, but only in a state of recovery.
Texas Drug Rehabs was involved in a research project that intervniewed recovering alcoholics and addicts who had graduated from a 12-step alcohol and drug rehab center and had between two and four years of "clean time". (It was difficult to find an adequate number of participants that had stayed totally clean from alcohol or drugs, including psychiatric drugs so we changed the research protocol to choosing those participants that had less that four relapses/year.)
These individuals had reclaimed their families, jobs, credit and social standing, but when they were assessed as to their general happiness in life, most were angry that they had to be victumized by this "disease" and were resentful of not being able to drink or be "normal".
However, we found that most of these issue disappeared when they engaged in some out-patient drug rehab in Texas as an adjunct to their support-group meetings. Alcoholics and addicts who are still physically toxic with the drugs or metabolites of their addiction have a much more difficult time not being preoccupied by their addiction and the disease aspects of a lifetime of addiction.
Programs using Behavioral Modification...
Behavior Modificaiton programs are not very prevalent presently, but in the 1980s they were marketing to alcoholics and addicts who had failed with other forms of treatment or those who couldn't afford to take off 30 days for treatment. These "rehab" programs relate to man as an animal or a stimulus-response machine. Programs using this philosophy of treatment include Therapeutic Communities (TCs) in Texas and programs using direct adversive stimulus to change behavior. Some of these programs will take alcoholics and give them Antibuse, which is a drug that makes one sick when they ingest alcohol, and put them in a barroom setting to be served alcohol and when they become sick, the "brain" is suppossed to connect this adverse stimulus with alcohol and cause the person to be revolted by the sight, smell or taste of alcohol. Since man is much more complex, thank God, then this model believes, these programs are not only unsuccessful, but cause a person to be more addicted then they were before. TC's use behavior modification in a active working environment with a person being adversely affected by his supervisors when he exhibits addict-type behaviors. There has been some use for this method with young teenagers who are on a warpath to destroy society. TC's re most prevalent in prisons and diversion sentencing programs.
Religion-Based Programs...
These program are usually a mix of the 12-step approach with spiritual guidance from different religious practices. The Christian Recovery Network in Texas has 12-step cyber cafes were recovering addicts can log on to their website and learn about recovery. The Buddhist Recovery website focuses on resources that can help illuminate the Buddhist path to freedom from alcoholism and addiction. Their website post articles, reviews books and links to chat rooms as well as list of meetings and organizatin that promote the Buddhist approach to recovery. Celebrate Recovery was stated by a church in Southern California about eight years ago to provide a strong Christain spriritual orientation to the 12-step approach to recovery. From this beginning, over 500 ministries across the nation have been developed. JACS (Jewish Alcoholics, Chemically Dependent Persons and Significant Others, is dedicated to assisting Jewish people in recovery by promotinog understanding of addiction as it relates to the Jewish community, providing resources and support to its members. Their website post meetings in the US, Canada, Mexico and Brazil. Reformers Unanimous International, is a Christ Center Addiction Program that is based in local church programs. It is headquartered under North Love Baptist Chruch in Rockford, Ill. and has 86 groups meeetins all of the the U.S. and Canada. Training programs are available to chruches to help them implement their own programs.
Drug Rehab Programs in Texas using Biophysical method...
Biophysical treatment methods get the residue of the drugs out of the body. Through research, it has been found that the human body will store a residue, called a metabolite of the drug, in the dormant fat tissue of the body for many years after drug use/abuse. When a person stops using drugs, this residue of the fat-soluble drugs begins to be released back into the blood stream which causes cravings, anxiety, and depression in the addict who may be trying desperately to stop the cravings and curtail his use.
When a person stops using drugs, this residue of the fat-soluble drugs begins to be released back into the blood stream which causes cravings, anxiety, and depression in the addict who may be trying desperately to curtail his use.
This can go on for literally years and is the major reason why many programs claim that addiction is a life-long disease. As these toxins are released back into the blood stream, it causes the struggling drug affected person to experience some of the original drug effect and causes depression and mental health problems that lead many to see advice from psychiatrist who will then prescribe a psychiatric medication, which leads to more toxins in the body to add to the emotional roller coaster that most recovering people experience daily. Almost every addict has been told: "Once and Addict, Always and Addict". It is more true to say that once you take drugs, your body is contaminated and you may be haunted by reoccurring cravings, even after you have stopped using.
As these toxins are released back into the blood stream, it causes the struggling drug affected person to experience some of the original drug effect and causes depression and mental health problems that lead many to see advice from psychiatrist who will then prescribe a psychiatric medication, which leads to more toxins in the body to add to the emotional roller coaster that most recovering people experience daily.
Drugs like heroin, oxycontin, cocaine, and meth are more powerful than the natural chemicals the brain produces to be happy, so these "flash-back" experiences overpower ones natural chemistry. The highest percentages of relapses occur within the first years, which corresponds with the fact that not only is the fat tissue releasing drugs back into the blood stream, but the endorphins and other "feel-good" neuro-hormones may take up to a year before this natural chemical balance is restored and most "recovering" addicts cannot take the anxiety and depression they are causing for any length of time without relapsing back to on their drug of choice or drug of availability.
The Biophysical method uses a purification technology in conjunction with vitamins and minerals to release these toxic residues stored in fat tissue, back into the blood stream where they are then forced out of the body, leaving the person free of this contamination and free of the cravings, anxiety or depression caused by the side effects of these drugs. This enables a return to a natural chemical balance, which is why these types of programs don't subscribe to the adige, "Once and Addict, Always and Addict". This type of drug rehabilitation center uses a social educational model to restore ethics and build life-skills to ensure their graduates are drug free and productive members of society. Biophysical Drug Rehab Programs using this clinical method are having a success rate of over 78%. This is why biophysical drug treatment centers are the most highly recommended and fastest growing form of treatment.
Drug and Alcohol Rehab Programs and their Outcomes
There are many factors that come into play when one is looking at what programs have the best outcomes. We have another page on that issue that addresses the changes in society that are hurting success in treatment. To read more about that concept, go to this page "Click HERE
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There isn't a standard length of residence, but rather there are accepted lengths of stay based on the length of the most prevalent programs in our society. In other words, there is a consensus because of number of days that the majority of programs are requiring, not because this time is predetermined to be ideal for alcohol and drug treatment. In fact, just the opposite is true.
Most professionals in this field will tell you to do as long a program as possible and you will be hard pressed to find someone with professional credentials and skills that will every state that a 30-day program is an ideal length of treatment. These professionals have seen that the best outcomes from graduates of the programs with the longest length of treatment. There is value in the length of stay, but that isn't to say that the best programs are the longest. There are two-year programs where it is questionable as to whether their graduates are better or worse than when they entered the program. (The same holds true for prison sentences.)
If a rehab program doesn't have a clinical protocol that ends addiction and supports ethical and productive living, then the longer the addict is away from his drugs of choice, the, of course, the better his chances are to stay alcohol and drug free. 5% of those persons that are addicted to alcohol and drug get well on their own without any time in rehab. It is the other 95% that need valuable clinical interventions.
So going back to the question above, a person needs to stay in treatment for as long as that program requires to reverse the effects of the alcohol and drug use/abuse and, after that, the length of time to create new, positive ideas and skills that will allow the person to establish a productive and successful lifestyle once they have graduated.
The biophysical programs are the most successful modality of treatment. These programs tell their prospective clients that they should count on at least three months in the program, but it isn't unusual to take five to six months, depending on the speed at which different individuals progress.
If you are entering a program other than a biophysical program, then you time in the program is probably limited by their description of services and your insurance company's restrictions, which is usually a maximum of 30-days. But that doesn't mean that 30-days is the magical length of stay for how long a person should stay in treatment.
It is very difficult to give a number of days to a treatment stay that is correct for everyone. Different people that are addicted to alcohol and other drugs have highly diverse amounts of damage that their addiction has done to them physically and emotionally. The length of stay should be directly related to the length it takes to repair those damaged parts of a persons body and life the damage that one has suffered will, to some extent, determine how much time it will take to recover from one's past.
Again, it depends on the clinical skills of the program, but if someone is really serious about overcoming one's addiction, it is a save rule of thumb to count on a minimum of six (6) months dedicated to residential and/or outpatient treatment.
