Outpatient Detox is an Inexpensive Alternative to residential and acute residential detox facilities. Outpatient detox provides high quality services including a medically supervised detox as well as supportive counseling and comprehensive case management.  Because outpatient detox is an inexpensive alternative to other programs, it allows individuals to remain at home and continuing working and functioning on a social level while  moving toward drug abstinence. Group therapy coupled with outpatient detox allows the client to begin processing basic stumbling blocks to recovery such as denial and dishonesty.

If you’ve been in or around substance abuse treatment, you know Buster. Buster is the person or voice given to the disease of addiction.  Buster can be loud and obnoxious or soft and subtle.  Buster is a master at self-deception and feels most at home when we feel like a victim. Buster likes it when we adopt a selfish attitude and want what we want when we want it.  Sometimes Buster calls a meeting in our minds and we’re not even invited.  For those of us who have been touched by addiction, we know "Buster".  As strange as it seems we enjoy listening too and talking to Buster because he tells us exactly what we need to hear in order to continue our addiction one more day.

There is a strong upsurge is the number of people seeking relief from addiction to sleep aids and sleeping pills. While many of the sleep aids on the market claim to be non-addictive, clients come in for treatment because they find that not only can they not sleep without using a sleep aid but their tolerance increases over time. In addition these clients also experience withdrawal symptoms when they stop using them.  Sleeping pill dependency is extremely difficult to end.  Symptoms of withdrawal from drugs like Ambien®, Ambien CR® , Sonata® and Lunesta® can also be life threatening.   While sleep disorders are not particularly common, depression and anxiety, common mood disorders have been found to be causal in either preventing or sustaining sleep.

Guilt is a state of mind that informs us when we do something against our value system. Addicts in early recovery struggle with a great deal of guilt because addiction leads to behavior that often has negative consequences and goes against conscience. Guilt should not be confused with shame which informs us that we are bad people just because we exist. Experiencing guilt on a daily basis will eventually lead to self-medication, a respite from the feelings of guilt. Once self-medication (relapse) occurs it becomes much more likely that additional more frequent relapses will occur.

It used to be that your health insurance would cover your stint in drug rehab.  Nowadays, insurance companies are covering very little.  Most treatment centers report that "self pay" patients far exceed those covered by insurance.  The insurance companies that do cover patients are are not willing to pay any where near the same coverage as in the past.  This is now resulting in treatment centers having to cut costs (and services).  This is hurting the recovery business and worse yet the patients who need quality substance abuse services.  Quality affordable treatment is now out of the reach of many. 

Where is the field of substance abuse treatment headed? Bill W. described alcoholism as a “spiritual malady” with a spiritual cure. The 12 Steps of recovery are nothing less than a spiritual approach to a spiritual malady. Bill W. tells us that the problem of the alcoholic is “lack of power”. Lack of power is the spiritual malady that needs to be addressed. Sure, other components are helpful but the bedrock of treatment is still the 12 Steps.

Retox® We gave birth to Retox®.   We refined the process of Retox®. We continue to hone the process of Retox®. Retox® is co-occurring treatment modalities of medical detox and combined with group treatment. It permits immediate work to begin on the process of denial while the emotional pain and consequences are still fresh. Arguments have been made stating it’s not possible to begin treatment while someone is still under the influence of mood altering drugs. While that may be true, an argument can also be made that under carefully supervised medical detox, some clarity of thinking has occurred allowing for at least a fair appraisal of some motivation to change.

Addiction to a psychoactive substance takes a toll on the body using up vast resources of essential vitamins. Nutritional therapy is the assessment of the bodies needs based on the drug used and the history of the patient. Nutritional therapy begins the process of healing the body so the spiritual malady can be fully addressed. As the body repairs itself through nutritional therapy more energy can be devoted to the “isms” of the disease.