Alcohol Addiction Guide

What is the ideal treatment for alcohol addiction?

There are a number of options out there for the recovering alcoholic but none of them are perfect, and none of them seem to work for everyone. In fact, most of them will fail for most people. So if you are serious about overcoming your alcohol addiction then you would do well to look at a couple of different strategies and decide what is the best fit for you.

Let’s take a look at some different recovery strategies and consider the pros and cons of each:

12 step programs

If you are exploring the possibility of getting sober then you will no doubt encounter the idea of attending Alcoholics Anonymous. If you pick a random treatment center or drug rehab there is about a 95 percent chance that you will be exposed to AA meetings if you attend there.

What does this mean for you? That AA and the 12 step model have essentially become the industry standard for treatment at this point. This is a double edged sword but you can take advantage of the situation if you know how to do it.

The reason it’s good is because there is a huge network of support out there at AA meetings – practically anywhere that you go. This can especially useful in early recovery when networking and support is so critical. The reason it’s not so good is because the success rates of 12 step recovery are very low, and there is also a tendency for people to get “stuck” in their own personal growth when working a 12 step program.

Now there are people who are working a dynamite program of recovery in AA and they are truly on a path of holistic growth but this is the exception rather than the rule. In fact, if you closely study the “winners” in AA then you will realize that they are supplementing their 12 step recovery with a holistic approach that goes beyond the boundaries of traditional recovery programs. This insight is a glimpse into the nature of successful recovery, showing that it goes beyond a mere spiritual solution.

Individual counseling can be useful but it is insufficient in early recovery

There are some who suffer from alcohol addiction that would prefer to avoid the crowds of AA and 12 step meetings. Perhaps they suffer from anxiety or simply decide that AA is not for them. In some cases these people might consider individual counseling or one-on-one therapy sessions.

Now I’m not saying that this cannot work as a recovery strategy, but at best it is a very small attack in a very big war. As your primary solution, counseling would be most insufficient in early recovery because that is when you really need the support and help of an entire network of peers.

The task in early recovery is not just to get enough support to stay sober but also that you must relearn how to live a sober life. This is too much for one person to handle and therefore you need peer support from a wide range of people. In recovery, all of our recovering peers become our teachers and we are constantly soaking up new information about how to live a sober life. Depending on a single therapist or counselor in this case is a mistake.

Remember the principle of overwhelming force and apply it to this idea and see if it works (it doesn’t). Overwhelming force means that you need to go way above and beyond what you think is necessary in order to overcome alcohol addiction. Simply trying to patch up the problem with half measures will not cut it. Examples of overwhelming force in recovery would be things such as:

1) Living in long term treatment for a year

2) Attending 90 meetings (or more) in 90 days

3) Leaving a long term but toxic relationship and starting over

Any recovery strategy that does not employ the idea of overwhelming force is likely to fail. This is because nearly everyone underestimates what it will take in order to stay clean and sober. So if you are considering your own recovery program then make sure you consider how powerful it is. If you honestly think that it will “just barely keep you sober” then there is no way you are going to make it. You have to go above and beyond (especially in early recovery) and crush your addiction with a strong program.

Medication and drug therapy is a complimentary strategy

There is a trend over the last few decades within the medical community to push for a pharmaceutical solution to the problem of addiction. There are anti craving drugs such as Campral and also medications to help people stay off of painkillers and opiates. In addition, there are currently several more pills in the works to help treat cocaine and meth addiction too.

Are these medications a magic bullet? Of course not. And that is the critical distinction to keep in mind if you attempt to supplement your recovery with these types of meds – that they are far from being a cure.

On the other hand, some people and their unique situation in recovery seem to call for medication, and yet no one pushes them towards this as a solution because of their own stance on drug therapy. For some people, drug therapy might be that extra bit of help that they need in order to make recovery work for them. It can be a vital part of a recovery strategy.

So it makes sense to seek out a doctor and get medical advice, preferably from a doctor who has experience in treating addictions. Doing so can be a vital part of your recovery strategy.

Spiritual solutions ignore the holistic approach and can turn some potential alcoholics away

As mentioned early, most traditional recovery programs focus on a spiritual solution and this is not the ideal recovery strategy. The reason for this is because our addiction was much more than just a spiritual malady–it affected us physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, and so on. Therefore the ideal recovery strategy needs to go beyond a spiritual solution and address all of these elements.

For example, physical health is a huge part of recovery that many of us have a tendency to overlook. I am amazed at the number of people I know in recovery who have got into trouble and eventually relapsed due to ailing health problems that seemingly “crept up on them.” It seems like as soon as a person’s health starts to go, it opens the door for relapse in many different ways–either through prescribed medication or simply due to depression.

A holistic approach to recovery treats this problem and addresses the overall health of the recovering alcoholic. This helps to guard us against relapse because many times relapse creeps into our life from an unexpected area, such as with relationship issues. If we are focusing on improving our relationships and maintaining emotional balance then our recovery will be that much stronger.

Some newcomers intuitively sense this when entering a traditional recovery program but find it difficult to put into words. The idea is sort of like “They are telling me the solution is spiritual….but addiction is clearly not just a spiritual problem. It is more complex than that. So shouldn’t the solution address these other areas of addiction?”

Holistic growth fights complacency and offers true recovery

So the best long term recovery solution is the push for holistic growth. Addiction is a multi-faceted problem so the solution must be multi-faceted as well. Thus holistic growth is the key to long term success.

Complacency is the real enemy in long term sobriety. Ask anyone in AA who has relapsed after several years sober and they will tell you that they got complacent. They will probably also tell you that they quit going to meetings and attribute the relapse to that even though that is incorrect. We actually relapse long before we pick up the drink or the drug, so those who quit going to meetings (who depend on meetings for their sobriety) have essentially already relapsed.

In other words, the lack of meetings did not cause a relapse….the relapse caused a lack of meetings. Anyone who is that dependent on daily meetings that they can relapse due to missing them is not working a good program of recovery. In long term recovery, meetings should be an added bonus; a way to give back. They should not become the pillar of your sobriety. If they do then you are depriving yourself of a life of creative potential. If drug and alcohol rehabilitation pushes you to dependency on meetings then something is wrong.

The key to this creative potential is to push yourself to grow holistically. This means that you seek growth outside the boundaries of traditional recovery.

The best treatment for alcohol addiction is the one that works for you. What I’ve shared above are the typical patterns of success that I have seen in myself and others around me in recovery. Holistic growth has been at least as important as the networking element of recovery, and probably more so.