Why would anyone choose a 12 step program for treating alcoholims?

A friend of mine is a reformed alcoholic. Bill has been sober for 10 years now. He would tell you that he’s not reformed but rather a recovering alcoholic. In his view, no one’s ever cured. This is more than a quibble. Whether alcoholism is a chronic disease with no cure or a condition which can be permanently alleviated is a question answered differently by different programs. And it is a question you need to have answered for you before choosing a program to treat alcoholism for you or a loved one.

As any reformed addict will tell you, quitting is far easier than staying sober. Bill quit drinking a number of times, but relapsed in each case until he did a 12 step program.

Naturally, my friend is a big advocate of the 12 step approach. When I asked him about the relapse rate among graduates of his program, I expected the number to be relatively small. After all, Bill is a regular guy blessed I assumed with no more self discipline and resolve than the next guy.
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But I must have been wrong. You see, Bill told me that few permanently quit drinking after going through a 12 step program. Just 5% make it to long term sobriety. Most relapse and once again become alcoholics.

With a relapse rate of 95%, why would anyone pick a 12 step program to treat their drinking problem? Two explanations come to mind:

First, most people have no idea of the high relapse rate of such programs and even if they do, they don’t have an effective alternative; and
Second, most people have come to believe that alcoholism is a chronic disease. As such, they have low expectations.

Having helped many alcoholics find effect treatment for their condition, I can attest that alcoholism is not a chronic disease. One can recover permanently. One program we regularly refer our Clients to boasts a long term sobriety rate of 70%. Twelve fold the rate of success of my friend’s 12 step program.

I know of no case where ignorance is bliss, even less so when it comes to treating alcoholism or finding effective drug rehab in Georgia.

Fritz Alders

You Won't Find the Answer to Cocaine Addiction by Studying a Rat

Cocaine addiction is a national problem. Billions of dollars have been spent on research to treat addiction to this terrible drug. So what’s another million. Right? I’m referring to a 1.4 million dollar grant our Government made to a Professor of Psychology at Texas A&M who plans to study the effects of cocaine on the brains of rats. I assume the purpose of the 5 year long study will be to develop better methods of treating cocaine addiction in humans.

Currently, drug rehab in Georgia programs for cocaine addiction yield poor results. Fewer than 1 in 5 addicts treated at a conventional drug rehab facility permanently kick their habits.

At first then, it would appear that further study is warranted. So why do I disagree with the grant? For one, as I mentioned we’ve already spent billions of dollars to study this problem, much of which has gone to the psychiatric community. Why continue to throw good money after bad, if we have little to show for our investment?

If you take your car to a mechanic to be repaired but still continue to have the same problem after he’s worked on it, do you take it back to him? If so, how many times? Unless he fixes your problem, eventually, you’ll say enough is enough. Right?

Why do we continue then to go back to the psychiatric profession for solutions to human suffering?

I’m also annoyed because the grant on its face assumes that no workable therapy exists to handle cocaine addiction. Which is false. Nearly 8 in 10 addicts kick their habits after being treated at a Narconon drug rehab center.

Fritz Alders

what MJ Taught Us about Drug Addiction

If the future be not guaranteed, why not live for the moment? Why not do what makes us feel good? For in the end, tomorrow may never come. True?

Those are the words a drug addict lives by, words which invariably excuse his dangerous behavior.

Michael Jackson had everything to live for... a lovely family, a legion of adoring fans and a legend which now is just a legacy. Yet, he gave it all up for the sake of a moment.

But why? I believe for an addict it can be easier to live for the moment, a reality which can be shaped by drugs than to live for the future, a reality shaped by the entirety of one's life, which had been destroyed by drugs over time. Of course, in the end living for the moment caused him to live in one final moment forever.

Many people knew Micheal had a problem. But none took enough responsibility to help him handle his addiction and get his life back.In the tragic loss of Michael Jackson, the lesson is clear...there's no time like the present to ensure that tomorrow may in fact come. With effective drug rehab in Georgia the future is yours and it's bright.



Fritz Alders

How to Beat Drug Addiction for Good

I read a beautiful story today written by a young addict. She described her addiction as being like at war. Drugs laid sieged to her body and mind and beat her battle after battle until she discovered that she could fight back.

A war within oneself is an appropriate analogy. Like an enemy, addiction attacks the body as it weakens the mind's resolve to fight back. As the battle rages on, self control is the primary casualty. And with the loss of control, a permanent surrender seems the only option.

When an addict first takes drugs, he feels he can control his habit. It's a lie. By giving him pleasure or for the moment taking away his pain, the chemicals convince him that drugs are his ally.

But like an enemy cell, they soon betray from within. Once he realizes his mistake, it's often too late to do anything about it. By then, the drugs have more than a foothold in his body. They’ve built a prison and enslaved his mind and soul.

To successfully beat addiction, a program must eradicate the physical and psychological sources which cause addiction.

Drug residues accumulate in the tissues and cause cravings. They are the cause of continuing physical addiction. As the addict fails to fight back against his cravings, he loses control.

To beat addiction for good, a program must help the addict conquer his cravings for good. This can be done by removing all drugs residue from the body with a deep cleansing detox. Once physical addiction is handled, the user can fight back and tackle the psychological reasons for his continued drug use.

The next thing to do is equip the addict with effective tools to help him handle his life. With such help, he can regain his ability to face his problems and control his life. It was this loss of control which caused him to lose the fight against drug addiction in the first place.

In her essay, the young addict described her plight as like being at war with herself. With the help of a drug rehab in Georgia program, she no longer has to fight. She’s won. Good for her.



Fritz Alders

How to Get an Addict into Drug Rehab

A friend of mine admitted she's got a drug problem. Her son’s an addict. How can I get him into drug rehab in Georgia? she asked me. He’s thinks that if he gives up his pills, the pain will be too much.”

Crazy I thought. From what I can tell, he’s not doing so well as it is. He can’t think clearly, can’t hold a job, and in general can’t handle his life. How could things get any worse for him once he's sober?

“Why ask him to make the decision I asked?” He's got to want to get better, doesn’t he? It’s his life, after all. Shouldn’t he make the choice?”

No, I told her. He shouldn't because he can't. Drugs make you stupid. We all know that. The more he uses, the more the addict becomes unable to think clearly. And the less clearly he can think, the more dependent he becomes on his family.

So then why leave the decision about rehab up to an addict? He doesn’t have the ability to make a good decision anyway. And since he’s shirked his responsibility and burdened his family with his problems, they should have more say in how to handle him.

So this is where a little tough love goes a long way. An approach using a combination of "it's my way or the highway" with a big dose of love and care for his well being can help an addict make the right choice to get the drug rehab he needs.



Fritz Alders

Drug Use is Not a Victimless Crime

No matter their political affiliation, most Americans are Libertarian at heart. They prefer freedom over fiat; and self determinism over dogmatism.

But I and many others disagree with Libertarians on at least one key argument of theirs: Drug use is not a victimless crime. You see, the user and his family alike are victims. They suffer in many, many ways. They suffer physically. They suffer financially. And they suffer emotionally.

And I don't think it matters, as they would argue, that because the user had a choice and chose to use, he is not therefore a victim. A fundamental principle in product liability law posits that a manufacturer is liable for damages resulting from a product defect, as long as the user was not aware of the defect. If you climb a ladder and it breaks, for example, the manufacturer is liable if he didn’t notify you of weight limitations or if you didn’t waive your rights in some other fashion.

Most drugs, but particularly illicit drugs, are inherently defective. But despite this seemingly widespread knowledge that drugs can harm or even kill, it's not a contradiction to avow that a user is unaware of their dangers and thus remains a victim.

You see, unlike a rickety ladder, the inherent defects of drugs are cleverly hidden by a pleasurable high or temporary relief from pain. But if the tradeoff is addiction, I think it's safe to say that users don't fully know or at least understand the inherent risk that comes with drug use. Who would sell his body and soul to the devil if he knew he'd burn in hell eternally?

Taking drugs victimizes more than the user and his family. Just yesterday, 12 federal agents killed in Mexico by the La Familia drug cartel. With so much money to be made selling drugs, the pushers, whether they be drug cartels or drug companies, are not likely to give up their lucrative business without a fight. And that poses another defect in the argument that drug use is a victimless crime and why Ie continue to oppose the legalization of drugs or the use of them in drug rehab in Georgia programs.


Fritz Alders

How to Beat Rehab Relapse for Good

"Relapse is the enemy," so read a headline in a recent newspaper. The article that followed detailed the lives of two heroin addicts. In their early teens, they smoked cigarettes. In their late teens, marijuana. By the time they became legal adults they were hooked on illegal substances like crystal metha. Now they're heroin junkies, forever damned to a living hell.

They're weary of their addiction. But no matter the number of trips to rehab, neither has been able to beat their addiction. For them relapse is now the enemy, as much as is their heroin addiction.

You see, with each failed attempt at rehab, relapse weakens the addict. It saps his physical strength and his mental fight.

It takes more than resolve to beat addiction and prevent relapse. It takes an effective drug rehab program. One that gets him off drugs; one that cleanses the last vestiges of drugs from his body; and one that helps him confront his problems and handle life for good.

The fight against relapse is won in his body and mind. Strengthen both, and addiction is gone for good. And relapse with it. There is effective drug rehab in Georgia, and with it real hope to prevent relapse and beat addiction for good.

Fritz Alders

Drug Dependency Can Happen with Virtually All Drugs

With so many things in life, there's just no substitute for the real McCoy. But that's not the case with drugs. Active ingredients that make up drugs mimic many chemicals our bodies make naturally. The more a person takes, whether they be illegal drugs or drugs prescribed by their doctor, the less the body produces on its own,naturally. This can lead to drug dependency, basically addiction.

With most drug rehab in Georgia programs, doctors prescribe drugs as part of their treatment protocol. This leads to additional physical dependency. In effect,an addict is taken off his drug of choice and then "addicted" to another drug or drugs.

Now if there weren't the potential for dangerous side effects, no worries. But this is almost never the case. Why? Because drugs cause dependency. The more you take, the more they take over.

In a recent study mentioned at UPI.com, doctors from Denmark discovered that 40% of healthy persons previously unaffected by heartburn or acid reflux developed these conditions after using acid blocking medications, which are commonly prescribed and considered amongst the safest medications on the market.

Yet despite their relative safety, they yet cause harmful effects in one's body. If "safe" medications create dependency and harm, imagine the dangers of treating an addict with more powerful drugs. It's not a pretty picture.

The best rehab in georgia ends drug dependency. Don't settle on a program that prescribes drugs except for the initial withdrawal phase.

Fritz Alders

Drug free rehab...because all drugs hurt.

I often decry the use of prescription medications for treating addiction. And here's why. They're drugs plain and simple with many of the same traits and consequences to the addict as illegal drugs offer.The goal of
drug rehab in Georgia should be to free an addict from drugs, not make him dependent forever. How can that be accomplished if you just replace the addict's drug of choice with the doctors' prescription?

It's not enough to have an addict quit illegal drugs only to make him dependent on a powerful prescription medications, no matter how legal.

The typical rehab center does just that...they take the addict off off illegal drugs and put him on legal but dangerous medications. Which is a misguided effort. No doubt. For drug rehab to work, the addict must permanently quit drugs.

In many ways, legal drugs are similar to illicit drugs. Both create mental and physical dependencies. Beyond such dependency lies the inherent risk of using any drug. I was treated once for hepatitis by a liver specialist. Over a period of a four appointments, he was called out to handle two emergencies. His patients had overdosed on one of the well known pain killers. Their livers were in failure!

If a commonly used, otc drug can do so much harm, imagine what harm prescription drugs do. If you know someone who's addicted to drugs, help them find a drug free rehab program. (PLease note...even with drug free rehab, it's often necessary to wean an addict off using drugs during the withdrawal phase.

Fritz Alders

The best approach to drug rehab in Georgia

"Take 2 pills and call me in the morning." Well if it were only that easy to deal with a health problem!! But it's not. Yet with the biggest of all health problems, addiction, many drug rehab in Georgia programs take this approach.

Doctors at the typical pharmaceutically based rehab treatment centers approach their patients from a one dimensional view: a physical one. They feel that drug addiction comes from a chemical inbalance in the brain and prescribe an array of prescription medicines to deal with the issue. But no proof of such an imbalance exists. And even if it did, it would take more than pills or methadone or some other drug to cure his addiction.

The best way to deal with drug addiction is with an organic approach. Such an approach addresses addiction from multiple perspectives: through body, mind and soul.

An organic approach to drug rehab beats popping pills hands down. The top organic programs cure four times more patients than comparable pharmaceutically oriented programs. Four times more.

So tell your doctor to set down his pen and prescription pad. Tell him instead that you're going to put your son or daughter or friend or self in to the hands of a program that takes an organic approach. That treats the whole person.

If drugs are your problem, drugs alone are not your answer.

Fritz Alders

Good rehab, like a good life, is drug free.

Getting an addict off drugs is trying. Why then make it harder by giving him legal, but addictive drugs once he's been taken off illegal substances? Yet that's exactly what many drug rehab in Georgia programs do. They prescribed powerful, mind altering psychiatric and other prescription drugs in therapy.

Now I’m not referring to drugs used in withdrawal. Often addicts will need medication to ease the nasty symptoms associated with this phase. I'm speaking about anti depressants, anti anxiety and other medications.

Prescribing addictive drugs to a drug addict reinforces his self destructive belief that he has to have drugs to confront and live life. Drugs create a physical and psychological dependence, and carry with them harmful side effects, as well.

Maybe these side effects by themselves wouldn't pose much of a problem for an addict, as long as he was free of his illegal substance addiction. But rehab progams that use drugs as part of therapy have very low success rates.

This then raises the dangerous possibility that an addict will be more addicted to drugs soon after leaving rehab. Good rehab, like a good life is drug free.


Fritz Alders

The highest cost of rehab

If paying more for drug rehab in Georgia was the key to successful treatment,Redmond Oneal, Farrah Fawcett's son, wouldn't be working on his 4th rehab.

If truth be told, most rehab doesn't work. You can blame the drugs. Many programs do. But some programs achieve extraordinary success rates, as much as 3 to 5 times the average. The difference? The approach.

One common point is that the most effective drug rehab programs don't use drugs except during detox.

Incidentally, these programs are generally cheaper. The highest price of drug addiction rehab then is the opportunity cost of a failed therapy. Let the beautiful people pay up if they don't have the sense to choose a program based on its rate of success. For the rest of us, the right thing to do when checking out a drug rehab program is just ask how they do.

Fritz Alders

How to get off the merry go round of drug addiction

Two sides exist in the fight for drug rehab in Georgia. One promotes using drugs to handle drug addiction; the other disagrees. The better argument can be ascribed to whoever gets the better results. And with that there is no debate. Drug free rehab wins hands down.

Drugs are sometimes needed in the first phase of a treatment programs, the withdrawal phase. But once an addict has cleaned up, the fight should turn to getting rid of drug residues stored in the body. If this isn't done, the addicts will suffer extreme drug cravings. The addict's inability to withstand the onslaught of drug cravings is what keeps the cycle of addiction alive.

The physiological changes which occur with drug use explain why further drugging is not the best answer. You see, to an extent the body reduces manufacturing certain natural chemical essential to living as it can get synthetic substitues from drugs. The longer a person uses drugs, the less his body produces on its own. After a while, the body perceives that it needs the drug to function and demands the drug, through physical cravings. Drug cravings become so severe that the addict will do almost anything (in many cases, abandoning all previous moral teachings) to get more of the drug.

Addicts will find themselves doing things they would never have thought of doing, all in an effort to satisfy their cravings. Lying, stealing, cheating, anything is fair game to get the drugs needed to slake his cravings.

From this nightmarish scenario you can see that it's best to get an addict off drugs for good as soon as possible. Substituting a legal prescription drug for an illegal narcotic does not solve the chemical dependency. And while such dependency might be more socially accepted, it's still not handle an addict's dependency on drugs for life.

Fritz Alders

How'd you like your baby to be hooked on methadone?

"The effect of Methadone on babies is not fully understood. But for expectant women who can't get clean without it, it might be their best hope." So begins an article in the Baltimore Sun. I didn't go any further. I was outraged.

It's outrageous for pregnant women to be prescribed a powerfully addictive drug , particularly if the effects are not fully known. Gray areas exist in life, but nobody with with half a brain could justify giving narcotics to a mother to be.

Particularly outrageous is the idea that nothing can be done about heroin addiction beyond trading one bad drug for another. Studines show that Methadone treatment is ineffective. To treat a pregnant woman with a drug where the costs could be high and the benefits are most assuredly low is just nuts.

Effective drug free programs can exit to treatg heroin addiction. They should be used as the first choice with a pregnant woman. Enough questions exist about drug rehab in Georgia as it is without adding any ones that have obvious answers to them.

Fritz Alders

Driving Under the Influence of Drugs...Ok in Arizona

Is it fair for a State to suspend the driver's license of someone caught driving under the influence of alcohol? If you're like most people, you answered "yes" without hesitation. Thousands of people are killed each year to drunk drivers. Suspension seems a mild punishment for such reckless and dangerous behavior.

With this in mind, it's inconsistent and wrong minded for a State to punish a drunk driver and yet allow a person to drive under the influence of a narcotic. But that's currently the law in Arizona. Methadone, widely prescribed by State run or psychiatric based drug rehab programs to treat heroin addiction, is exempt from the DUI statute.

This exemption is being challenged by a new bill now in the state senate. The bill was prompted by a crash in 2007 where a driver, high on methadone and other drugs, swerved into oncoming traffic and struck a car carrying five high school cheerleaders.


A drug free approach to heroin addiction is available, but Methadone, itself a powerfully addictive substance, is typically used in state run drug rehab programs. The pharmaceutical lobby has tremendous clout in the legislature and no doubt has influenced their decision. As long as safer, more effective treatment options exist, a drug free approach should immediately replace methadone programs. This is how I would approach the issue when it comes to drug rehab in Georgia of any state for that matter.

Fritz Alders

Choosing the right program is critical to the success of drug rehab

According to the Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment, a report issued by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, "recovery from drug addiction is a long term process and frequently requires multiple episodes of treatment." The authors compare addiction to chronic illnesses such as diabetes and indicate that up to 60% of addicts relapse after treatment.

With such a high rate of relapse among addicts, choosing the right program for their treatment is critical. After describing one method of treating heroin addiction, the authors write: "However, individual treatment outcomes depend on the extent and nature of the patient's problem, the appropriateness of treatment and related services used to address those problems and the quality of the interaction between the patient and his or her treatment provider."

As you can see, when treating addiction, the program you choose determines the outcome you can expect. But how do you find the right program? You don't. Leave that decision up to a professional service. In my mind that's the best way to get effective drug rehab in Georgia.


Fritz Alders

Drug rehab in Georgia is possible

The worst time to make a decision is when you don't know what to do. Like when you're dealing with an out of control drug problem.

In a crisis you need professional counsel, such as a drug rehab referral service offers...to answer your questions about drug rehab in Georgia and help find effective treatment for a loved one saddled with addiction.

Help is possible, but not as easy to find as you might think. Plenty of drug treatment programs exist, but most are not worth the high price tag, often $30,000 or more. Fewer than 1 in 7 patients will permanently beat their addiction. Successful programs can be found, but much more easily with the help of a professional drug rehab referral service.


Fritz Alders

Why expensive drug rehab is such a failure

There's no shortage of costly drug rehab in Georgia, just a shortage of results. Nearly 6 in 7 patients will fail their rehab despite being attended to by a posse of "professionals" from medical doctors to psychiatrists. In fact, higher priced programs often produce the poorest results.

Top drawer, luxury priced institutions staffed by highly trained and highly paid medical personnel and bad is the best they can do? What explains this conundrum? The answer involves both perception and perspective. Doctors perceive that addiction is an illness. They're taught that most bad conditions are caused by pathogens. From their perspective then the best treatment practice is evident. Pharmaceutical intervention.

But if taking drugs lead to the problem, can taking them be the cure? Hardly. In fact, it's not just counter-intuitive. It's just plain wrong. An addict needs to quit, detox and rehab without assaulting his body and mind with more chemicals.

Expensive programs are costly because of high priced medical personnel. But their biggest cost is one of lost opportunity. Based on a disease model, their programs are failures. The lost opportunity is an unbearable cost for the addict and his loved ones.

Fritz Alders

Drug rehab in Georgia is possible

Something can be done about drug addiction, though if you looked only at results
posted by the most expensive drug rehab centers, you might not agree. The top drug rehab in Georgia programs save as few as 1 in 7 their patients from the devastating wave of drug use. The rest relapse, once again sucked in by the undertow of addiction.

But there are too many good outcomes to deny the possibility of recovery. Last night I read 7 patient testimonials from Narconon Georgia. Each writer raved about the program and assured the reader that he or she would remain drug free. With each paragraph I read, I witnessed the return of hope and possibility.

The key to recovery is choosing an effective program. And the key to that is finding out how successful a Center has been before entering their program.

Fritz Alders

Fool's Gold...Finding the right drug rehab in Georgia

For a person who is or who knows someone with a drug problem, getting effective help is a real problem. There are plenty of places which promise recovery, the mother lode. But like fool's gold, most are not worth a damn.

Few patients get well using drug rehab in Georgia. Nearly 6 in 7 will continue to abuse drugs or alcohol after
finishing treatment. Cost is no index of success either. With drug rehab in Georgia, you don't necessarily get what you pay for.

A few programs do live up to their promise. Help is possible, just hard to find. I suggest you call a professional drug rehab referral service. Find out who they recommend, and then interview each program. The one question you must ask each one is what percentage of their patients are permanently cured of their addiction. If they hedge or are unsure, you might follow up by asking how many of their current patients have been treated there before.

Fritz Alders

An opinion about drug rehab that's worth reading?

People are generally not afraid to tell you what they think, and what to do, when you've got a problem.

So imagine someone you know, someone you love is abusing drugs or alcohol. The opinions will rain down upon you thicker than hail. And if that's where you are my friend, God bless you. To find something helpful among all the help being offered can be as hard as finding a pair of glasses you set down in an unfamiliar spot.

If you're looking for drug rehab in Georgia, you need someone to help you find help. An outside observer, not some slick talking sales rep from a drug treatment center hawking his services like a steroid head selling fitness club memberships.

You see, there are more bad choices than good ones. Most drug rehab programs are ineffective. Patients stand a 1 in 7 chance of kicking their addiction for good, even after being treated at the most expensive drug treatment centers.

Price in fact is not a good index of success. With drug rehab you don't necessarily get what you pay for. One of the least expensive programs we refer people to is also the most effective, with 3 to 5 times the success rate of other rehab centers.

You won't hear about it from friends or from commercials produced by award winning ad agencies that flood the airwaves and drive families like lemmings into useless programs. You'll only hear about it from a professional referral service whose sole interest is you, your family and most of all your loved one who might now be held captive to drug addiction, but who we know can be helped.

Yes, this is an opinion. But one from an expert with a single purpose. To help you find help.

Fritz Alders

Drug rehab in Georgia

Drug addiction is a cruel sea. It buffets the addict who attempts to tack and change course for salvation. And it is not made easier to navigate when the sailor is drugged whether by his hand or the hand of a doctor.

Drugging addicts as part of their treatment is common practice at psychiatric rehab centers. This is crazy. Fewer than 1 in 7 are permanently handled by such centers. Once released, still weighed down with residues from illegal drugs and addled by drugs prescribed at the clinic, and yet given few if any skills to ply the stormy seas of life, the addict is easily outmatched. He flounders and often drowns in the same miserable waters.

There is hope for even the sorriest mariner. Effective drug rehab in Georgia exists, but it is hard to find. And if you're looking for it, I suggest you use a proven drug referral hotline. I wish you much success.

Fritz Alders

Drug rehab in Georgia

For the friends or family of an addict, their lives shredded like once important documents, hope is a powerful sedative.

I come in peace bearing a message of comfort; if you know someone who is addicted to drugs or alcohol and needs rehab in Georgia, there is hope. But the mirror image exists too. There is despair for those who've tried and failed with rehab. And that includes many. many poor souls.

Drug rehab in Georgia is burdened with too much dead weight, too many drug treatment centers with ineffective programs that damn their patients to the seventh level of hell.

Fewer than 1 in 7 who seek help at the well established, well marketed psychiatric centers get well. There is but despair for the rest. Hope lives in a few smaller centers, ones that treat the addict not as diseased or disabled, but as a person responsible and able to handle his condition for good, if given the right program, a deep cleansing detox followed by extensive training on how to confront and master his life.

Fritz Alders

What meth did to my bookkeeper

The first time I met Janet (not her real name), I was struck by her simple, innocent look and beauty. Years of an ugly addiction to meth later sucked the life out of her and stole her beauty. The drug turned her into a beast. She became ill tempered and unhappy, erratic and uncontrollable, her smile replaced by a constant look of agitation.

I heard her boyfriend beat her after coming down from a meth high. He's in jail now, his whole body rotting not just as his teeth did in the early stages of his addiction. This is a sad story; they could have beat the addiction. There is effective drug rehab in Georgia. But they didn't know where to look. This is another reason I work in the drug referral industry.

Fritz Alders

Drug Rehab in Georgia

Though you wouldn't know it by looking at the promotional pieces and t.v. spots which depict happy, smiling people, obviously with no problem in the world, drug rehab in Georgia is ineffective, remarkably ineffective.

I heard once that fewer than 1 in 7 addicts remain drug free after going to rehab. It was such a low figure that frankly, I thought it untrue, an exaggeration in reverse. I changed my mind, after speaking last year to a Scottish woman whose daughter was hooked on heroin, her life in a shambles.

Bonnie called me for a referral to a drug treatment center; I helped her niece find one a couple of years ago. Her niece not only beat her addiction, she flourished. Bonnie wanted the same for her troubled child.

I asked her if she had called anyone yet and if so, what results she had been promised. No explicit assurances were made, but both Centers advised her that about 10% of their patients permanently quit taking drugs. I was stunned. Georgia's drug treatment centers appear to offer little rehab, remarkably little rehab. All the more reason that one use a professional referral service to identify the best place for drug addiction treatment.

Fritz Alders

Finding a Good Rehab Program--Why You Just Can't Get No Satisfaction

With so many drug rehab centers around, it may seem that finding help for an addict is like choosing the right dish at a Chinese restaurant. Maybe a little confusing--there are so many choices to consider. Maybe a little stressful--you don't know quite where to begin. But ultimately easy. No matter what you choose, in the end you'll be satisfied.

Selecting the right drug rehab center though is not the same as choosing from a menu. There are many places to serve you, but few who will serve you well. Most centers fail to satisfy, with fewer than 1 in 7 patients beating their addiction permanently.

With a bad meal, the fault often lies with the ingredients. A chef cannot work his magic if the vegetables are wilted and the meat rotten. Similarly, if a drug rehab center gets poor results, it may be less the fault of the personnel, than the program they use.

Most drug rehab in Georgia is based on the disease model of addiction. The user is ill. This simplistic diagnosis inevitably leads to a uniform handling: treat the user with drugs.

It's counter-intuitive to give drugs to a drug addict to cure him of his drug addiction and is, as well, counterproductive. The poor results speak for themselves.
Yet despite costly programs and lowly results, most drug rehab centers thrive. There are two possible explanations. Unschooled in drug treatment methods and their relative rates of success and desperate for help, people look at what is just the superficial veneer: the glossy marketing posters, the flower filled grounds, the imposing buildings, the doctors and nurses, maybe even the written summary of the program.If a Center looks good on the outside, and good on the inside, it looks good, period.

There's also little competition; most drug rehab centers treat patients with the same unworkable methods and achieve the same mediocre results.

Lost in the maze of choices, swayed by alluring marketing, drawn into pricey centers people in need often miss the successful programs delivered by a very few centers.
In choosing rehab, one must look beyond the superficial and ask the hard question: if I choose your Center, what's the chance my son or daughter will abuse drugs again?

Without a good answer to that question, don't expect any satisfaction.

Fritz Alders

The wrong way to rehabilitate a drug addict

Most drug rehab programs treat addiction as a disease and their patients as ill. The therapy reflects this premise with powerful psychiatric drugs given to replace the addict's drug of choice.

Psychiatric drugs have well known side effects, many harmful or potentially damaging. Yet there is scant evidence that these drugs cure the "disease" or prevent further outbreaks (think relapses) if the disease has been temporarily arrested during the course of therapy. Of a hundred patients treated at a typical drug rehab center, nearly eighty five will abuse drugs again.

There are two possible explanations. The drugs are ineffective or the disease model is incorrect. Either way, if someone you know needs drug rehab in Georgia, you should steer clear of the psychiatric programs which treat the addict as if he's ill. They're expensive and largely ineffective. At best, they impress upon an addict that there's something wrong with him and that drugs are the answer, an idea that is the root of his troubles.

Fritz Alders

An old friend with a new life

Looking at the complicated programs and the high cost of drug rehab in Georgia drug rehab in Georgia, you would think it a successful industry. And you would be correct, assuming you guaged success in terms of profitability.

But if you measure success by the workability of the programs developed to treat drug addiction, rehab does not rehabilitate and is in fact a failure.

Even after treatment, fewer than 1 in 7 addicts permanently quits using drugs. In upcoming postings, I'll explain why I think drug rehab so often fails.

Fritz Alders

Drug Rehab in Georgia

This is my first blog on the subject of drug rehab in Georgia, but not my first brush with this subject. A few years ago, just before Christmas, a young staff member of mine (I'll call her Cindy)walked into my office with her sister. It was late and she was crying.



I thought she must have been in a fight with someone in the building. You known, been told off or invalidated. I was not prepared for what she told me. "Cindy has a problem with Cocaine" her sister blurted out. Cindy's eyes welled up and she sobbed. She looked down and to the my left unable to have her eyes meet mine. She was ashamed.


But she was also fearful. She had an addiction and there seemed to be nothing she could do about it. She had checked into drug rehab in Georgia. It was not good. Treatment centers were costly and their programs ineffective.

In the end, she went to Brazil to a Narconon Center. Their unique biophysical program handled her drug problem for good.

I was bothered by Cindy's experience. Which is why I've started this blog. My purpose is to expose the drug rehab industry in Georgia for what it is. Stay tuned for news!

Fritz Alders