Substance Addiction – Is A Rehab Clinic The Answer?

Addiction to substances can affect anybody I know this first hand. I myself know family members and close friends who have directly been affected by addiction to substances such as alcohol or drugs. Many people suffer for years without seeking or looking for help, often people are unaware they actually have a problem until it's too late. Treatment options for addiction vary worldwide and there is a huge difference in approach depending on where you go. The most common treatment with rehab clinics for addiction is a 12 step program which started out with the group Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). Other branch offs of Alcoholics Anonymous include narcotics anonymous (NA), cocaine anonymous (CA), sex addict’s anonymous (SLA), crystal meth anonymous (CMA)… You get the picture.

Rehab - The answer to your problems?

All the anonymous services listed above and others not listed work on the 12 step program. This program is based on total abstinence from the substance involved. The first step in all of these programmes is admitting your powerlessness over the substance or action involved, for many this first step is the biggest hurdle there will ever face and many end up resorting back to it time and time again battling addiction and being unable to continue life with total abstinence. One of the main issues of a programme based on total abstinence is the stigma attached to relapse and the essential loss of face in the community that you have built up during your recovery. I myself know after being in Alcoholics Anonymous for a few years and having various periods of sobriety that returning to a meeting after a relapse is very difficult and often harder than actually the relapse itself. I'm not bashing Alcoholics Anonymous or any of the above groups that just giving my point of view on the system I believe fails many people. I know Alcoholics Anonymous and the other groups have saved millions of lives. The reality is when you look at the figures from Alcoholics Anonymous or the other groups the success rate is normally described at best as around 4%.

My Alcohol Addiction, The NHS & Rehab Clinics

So through losing a good few years, friends and jobs through addiction to mainly alcohol but basically anything I can abuse I have searched relentlessly for a "cure". This search has led me down many paths. Substituting weed for alcohol, cocaine for speed..... the list goes on. None of these methods were too successful. I also read a few books on becoming a successful drinker or lowering your drinking with various strategies. None of these seemed to work!

Me

I bounced around the NHS (National Health Service) in the UK for a few years. I first went to see a doctor after throwing up blood from drinking up to 2 bottles of vodka a day while holding down a full time job. The Doctor advised me to stop eating spicy food, avoid tomatoes and stop drinking. Sound advice if unicorns were real. I returned to the same doctor a few weeks later with a serious gastric infection, surprisingly he did not link this to my drinking. Eventually after a few more drink related illnesses I was advised to keep a drink diary and meet with a member of the Alcohol action team once every 2 weeks. This again was a fruitless attempt to stop a deadly and progressive obsession with alcohol.

Over the space of the next few years I ended up with a list of drink related criminal offences including a banning order from every football ground in Europe, assault on a police officer and various other minor public order offences. Although when I was younger I suspected I may have had a drinking problem I always thought it was the result of circumstance and if I got a new car, house or girlfriend things would improve. Eventually after missing work a few to many Mondays in a row I decided to check into a rehab clinic in the UK. This was Affinity Lodge, a non CQC registered holistic programme that told me the science behind drinking, let me sit on a magic vibrating chair and ultimately gave me no idea how to remain abstinent from drinking. I relapsed within maybe a month of leaving this two week treatment and as far as I am aware everyone I met there also relapsed within a short period of time. I specifically remember being told that AA (alcoholics anonymous) was a cult at this “clinic”. Remarkably someone died while in care at this centre and it subsequently closed down shortly after.