All Female Rehab Not Effective!

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I was doing some research for my dissertation recently and came across an interesting study from Minnesota’s large drug treatment outcome study conducted in early 2000.  According to a research study in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, “Women in special women’s programs were significantly less likely to complete treatment than women in general population programs.”  Even after controlling for all other variables that might have produced this shocking statistic, researchers found that women in female only programs have a significantly lower treatment completion rate compared to those females in gender mixed programs.

Why this is so shocking to the treatment industry is because it goes against the general opinion of treatment professionals and common sense.  For a long time, people assumed that women should be in women only drug rehabs, but this large outcome study says otherwise.  Apparently it is proven that women DO NOT do better in women only drug treatment programs.  Despite this evidence, treatment facilities continue to promote women only programs over gender mixed programs.  It is possible that professionals have not heard about these new statistics. Many treatment professionals hold on to old ideas about what works and what doesn’t in addiction treatment.  Furthermore, many treatment professionals do not stay current in their education, choosing to rest on their laurels, so to speak.  It is important that treatment professionals know this new information. 

Effective Drug and Alcohol Treatment in Orange County, California

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Effective drug and alcohol treatment in Orange County, California is easy to find. Just throw a stone in any direction in Orange County and you will hit a drug rehab. Many of the addiction treatment facilities in Orange County are effective in treating drug and alcohol addiction. Some may offer more services than others, so it is important to ask the admissions person you are talking to about ancillary charges, because many drug rehabs in Orange County, and drug rehabs in the United States for that matter, will charge extra for things like one-on-one therapy,medication assessments, etc… So, while a drug rehab may quote you a low cost for treatment, once the person arrives the bills start arriving for ancillary charges from the treatment center.

At NTS we do our best to keep ancillary charges to a minimum. We will be upfront with you about any other ancillary charges that may occur while you or your loved one is in our addiction treatment center.

The Importance of Structure in Drug and Alcohol Treatment

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One of the most important parts of drug and alcohol treatment is structure. Once upon a time people used to be able to simply go to AA meetings or NA meetings, get a sponsor, and get sober from drugs and alcohol. In the beginning, treatment was seen as not entirely necessary by people in Alcoholics Anonymous. The primary question people in AA asked was, “Why pay for treatment when AA is free?” As time went by the answer to this question became obvious to most people in AA. Treatment provides structure for the alcoholic and addict. This is especially important for young people suffering from drug and alcohol addiction. When I say “young” people, I mean people from the ages of 17 to 29 years old. In the past, when AA was developed, there was not as much of a sociological problem with the young adults of America as there is today. Today the TWIXTERS are entering the work force later, graduating from college later, and getting married later. Simply put, the adults of the 30′s, 40′s, 50′s, and even 60′s were not experiencing the dilemma that many young adults are experiencing in this day and age. Young adults are lost today. They are frightened of the future. They don’t know what they want to be or who they want to be so they live the lives of people they see on t.v. When young adults begin to drift off into the abyss of adulthood between the ages of 18 and 29 years old, they are drawn to drugs and alcohol to cope with the feelings they are having. The Structure offerred in drug and alcohol treatment allows these TWIXTERS to get a foothold in life and helps bring them back down to earth. The daily routing of drug and alcohol treatment provides TWIXTERS with something to do, because most of them are do not have careers and most have not completed their college educations. This is different then it was in the past. People went to college, got careers, got married, had kids, all by the time they were 24 years old. Now that age has increased and there is a large gap between 18 and 29 years old where young adults feel lost and without purpose. So one of the main objectives in drug and alcohol treatment is not only to help a young adult get sober, but to help them develop a life worth living and more importantly, worth getting sober for. NTS Staff

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9 CHARACTERISTICS OF A WOMAN IN RECOVERY
1. She has a basic self-regard (esteem), even while wanting to change parts of herself, which she nurtures and expands.
A woman can sit with herself through uncomfortable stages of change with an internalized belief she is improving; a woman’s ability to walk through discomfort with out engaging in unhealthy behavior or relapse.

2. She tries to accept others as they are without trying to change them to meet her needs.
A woman’s intolerance of others is a direct reflection of how well she is tolerating and accepting herself. Intolerance stems from anger, self-pity, resentment and fear. Acceptance and tolerance are two attributes gained through remaining abstinent, working a consistent program of recovery, and completing the 12 Steps of Recovery.

3. She is in touch with her feelings and attitudes about life, including her sexuality.
When a woman has found that she no longer fears intimacy, others, and herself then she has discovered freedom. Freedom from a past of guilt and shame leaves her available to others and God without self-centeredness

4. She tries to validate her self as much as possible, rather than searching for a relationship to give her a sense of self-worth. She does not need to be needed in order to feel worthy.
True self-esteem means that a person has enough self-confidence to not need the approval of others. If she places her importance in this world on another’s view of herself than there is always room for it to be taken from her.

5. She is willing to be known at a deeply personal level, but she also does not expose herself to the exploitation of those who are not interested in her well-being. She is open with appropriate people.
Everyday both men and women take personal risks with significan others, peers, friends, and family. There are two kinds of risks: empty risks and healthy risks. Empty risks are also known as temporary band-aids, which make it impossible to harvest healthy relationships. An empty risk is making yourself vulnerable to a peer who will ridicule, judge and demean you for your truth.
Healthy risks are rewarded by purpose, meaning, and supportive interpersonal relationships. A healthy risk is sharing private information with a loved one or peer who will respect, encourage, and support you through a learning experience.

6. She asks herself, “Is this relationship good for me? Does it enable me to grow into all that I am capable of being?”
There is a misunderstanding that a healthy relationship consists of “you, me, and we.” This is untrue. The “we” in that statement suggests enmeshments, which is detrimental to recovery. A healthy relationship consists of 3 aspects: “Me, You, and Me and You”. The “You and Me” aspect of the relationship is where two partners share their goals, hopes, and dreams and support each other in carrying those aspirations through.

7. When a relationship becomes destructive, she is able to let go of it. She has a circle of friends from whom she can receive support.
Detachment is a woman taking an honest look at her current and unhealthy relationship and having the ability to let go of the commitment with the intention of caring for her own well being. Remaining in a destructive relationship despite a broken threshold of pain, fear, and betrayal does not produce self-worth or a healthy relationship.

8. She knows that a relationship, in order to work, must be between partners who share and support each other in values, interests, and goals and who each have the ability to be intimate.

9. She values her own serenity above all else. All the struggle, drama, and chaos of the past have lost their appeal. She is protective of herself, her health, and well-being.
WARNING: If you can relate to anything included in number nine you are on your way to living with serenity, peace of mind, and emotional sobriety.

Interventions

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Interventions for drug and alcohol problems are planned therapeutic interventions with trained interventionists. There are a few different methods that people use to do an intervention. Most of them are similar in the sense that they involve confronting the person on their drinking and drug using behavior. The most common method is the Johnson method. Most interventionists will use the Johnson method for interventions. The Johnson intervention method is usually the most effective in getting a person into treatment. The television show Intervention provides a good example of what an intervention is like. Another newer Intervention method is called the ARISE model of intervention. The ARISE method (A Relational Intervention Sequence for Engagement) is designed to help motivate the person into treatment. Either method can be effective in getting the drug addict or alcoholic into treatment. Just remember that the goal of an intervention is to get a person into addiction or alcohol treatment. Make sure that if and when you hire an interventionist that he or she is trained in doing interventions. NTS has a network of experienced interventionists to help you through the process. If your loved one has a problem with drugs or alcohol and intervention is usually the best and safest way to go. It is better to get advice from a trained interventionist or from one of NTS’s trained addiction treatment specialists before trying to talk to your loved one on your own. So please call us if you need any help with an intervention. If you need an interventionist or need help with an intervention please feel free to call us at 1-866-247-6520 and we will contact an interventionist for you in your area that can help you.

Motivation Enhancement Therapy and the NTS Academy – How It Works.

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Motivational Interviewing is a client-centered type of therapy designed to enhance motivation to change by resolving and exploring ambivalence.  The approach was originally developed by Dr. William Miller and Dr. Stephen Rollnick.  Motivational Interviewing, sometimes called Motivational Enhancement Therapy, is based on four principles:

1. Empathy.  Empathy guides the clinician and the client relationship, helping the clinician understand where the client is coming from. 
2. Developing Discrepancies.  This prong of the four principles is based on creating a discrepancy between how the client wants their life to be and how what they are currently doing, for example using drugs and drinking, will negatively effect their plans for the future and what they want. 
3. Resistance Rolling.  This refers to the attitude of the clinician.  Historically, in addiction treatment, and psychotherapy in general, resistance has been thought of a pathologically driven behavior/attitude.  In Motivational Interviewing, the clinician is taught to Role with the  Resistance of the client.  For example, instead of punishing a client for not wanting to change, the clinician simply accepts that resistance to change is a natural occurrence, especially in addiction treatment.  Resistance Rolling, or R&R as I call it, helps prevent both clients and clinicians from becoming frustrated with the lack of change as a result of resistance and the resistant behaviors of the clients themselves.  
4.  Supportive Self-Efficacy. Clinicians using Motivational Enhancement Therapy, or Motivational Interviewing Techniques, will focus on the client’s right to change when they want to and encourage clients that they can change when they desire to do so.  Simply put, the choice is left to the client and the client’s Free Will to either choose to change, or choose not to change, is in the client’s hands.  
At NTS, we utilize the Motivational Interviewing approach and have taken it a step further in the NTS Academy.  Using a combination of Educational and Career Goal Counseling, College Classes, and Activities, the client in the NTS Academy is able to see while they are in treatment, how being sober and changing their lifestyle contributes to their future goals.  They also are able to see how their occupational and educational goals have been thwarted and discouraged by alcohol and drugs over the years.  The proof is their Grades at the end of the semester.  After completing an entire semester in the NTS Academy, the client’s can physically, and not just hypothetically, see the discrepancy between their grades when they were using drugs and drinking, and what their grades look like when they are sober.  We have found this to be a most useful tool in creating motivation to change.  The entire NTS Academy is based on the Motivational Enhancement Approach.  Clients are allowed to change when they are ready, given the autonomy and responsibility of going to College Classes on a real College Campus while in treatment, and throughout the NTS Academy’s program, clients goals are developed so that they have something to look forward to and something to loose.  From the moment clients enter the NTS Academy, the focus is on developing occupational and educational goals related to what they want to do and what they want.  Then, as a result of them having a goal (hope) where there may have not been one before, clients are shown specifically how they can reach that goal, which keeps the GOAL from becoming a DREAM. When the Goal is realized and a clear path to that goal can be seen, the client is then shown throughout the semester in the NTS Academy how their past behavior is not conducive to them accomplishing their Goals. 

12 Steps

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After years and years of the doctors and psychotherapists trying to cure alcoholism and addiction and failing, the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous were born. The famous psychologist Dr. Carl Jung, after numerous attempts to cure alcoholics of their alcoholism, determined that alcoholism is essentially a spiritual thirst which requires a spiritual solution. After years of clinical psychologist training, I have come to believe in the therapeutic benefits of the 12 Steps more than ever. The recovery process has become America’s cultural version of an initiation right into womanhood and manhood. The 12 Steps are a purging process where a person learns to abolish the False Self and discover the True Self. It spiritual essence of the 12 Steps is based on a unique paradox. For Example: The person (in Step One) admits powerlessness to gain power. In the next two steps, a person gains hope that there is solution to their problem. The next six steps are designed to carefully and systematically take responsibility for their alcoholism and/or addiction. The person rebuilds relationships and learns how to create new healthy relationships. In Steps 4 through 9, a person thoroughly examines the sum of their life choices up until that point and confronts longstanding issues from their past. It is the most therapeutic experience I have ever known, studied, or observed in my 11 years of education and recovery. The remaining three steps (Steps 1o, 11, and 12) are designed to help the alcoholic and/or addict maintain their recovery on a daily basis for the rest of their lives. It is the best therapy for addiction and alcoholism ever developed.