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