Drug Rehab Fees

If you are looking for a drug rehab or alcohol rehab, be sure to ask what is included in the fees. I know of people who were admitted to drug rehab programs in California, paid very substantial fees, and then were shocked to get a huge doctor bill after they discharged!

Many programs do not want you to know up front that a lot of their costs are not included in the price. They offer a price that you may think is all-inclusive but really it is not.

At Paradise Recovery, we give you an agreement that details exactly what is included in the price. Bills after discharge will not be "sprung" on you. All of the information is supplied ahead of time. With everything except the Akamai Track, the price includes the doctor visits, psychiatric evaluation and psychiatric follow-up costs.

It's just one more reason to choose Paradise Recovery.

Meditation and Recovery

On of the most difficult aspects of developing a program of long term sobriety is to develop a practice of meditation. Despite this meditation is integral to most addiction treatment and certainly to a meaningful 12-step program. The purpose of mediation is quite clear--the alcoholic/addict in early (and sustained recovery) has a tricky and ever active mind. The discipline of meditation (and it is a discipline)allows for the addict mind to be still, quiet, and contemplative. And it is this stillness that some relief can be obtained--perhaps some peace.

And what addict wants to know some sense of peace--isn't that what the galloping after a substance is all about?

Over the course of the last decades, a wide variety of meditation practices have become westernized and are readily available to those that seek. The most common method is to simply sit still and attend to one's breath. This form of mindfulness--focusing only on the air coming into one's lungs and then attending to each exhale is a simple method of centering one's attention, focusing one's mind, and increasing awareness of a simple bodily function.

If you're so inclined, try a few simple breaths right now. Go ahead, close your eyes and simply feel your breath. It's easy to start, but hard to sustain.

With practice, most can expand this practice to more than a few breaths, some can do it for minutes, even large portions of an hour.

At Paradise Recovery, we work to help the addict learn simple tools that can help them in recovery. Mindful breathing is simply one method of meditation we strive to impart to the newly sober. It's one way we try to help the undisciplined addict learn discipline

Watch here for further discussion of other methods.

What is Codependency? Addicted to the Addict!

Have you ever had a need to be needed? Barbara Streisand said it, "People who need people...are the luckiest people in the world!" Well, sometimes.

Codependency is a dysfunction where you become enmeshed, entangled, obsessed and in fact, addicted to the person who is struggling with alcohol, drug, sex or gambling addiction. You lose yourself in the other! The codependent will rescue, protect, defend the addict, even when their own physical, emotional, or spiritual well-being is compromised. Many people feel codependency is a passive dynamic, au contrare, the codependent often will gain power by controlling the addict and manipulating them by using "get backs", empty threats, or become "the victim".

Just as alcoholism and drug addiction is a condition that requires treatment, so is codependency. Drug rehabs across the country treat people with codependency. Sometimes an alcoholic or addict will also struggle with codependency, since they may have been raised in an addicted family system.

If you feel that "helping" your loved one who may be an alcoholic or an addict, appears to be defining WHO you are, then you should be seeking help. Look at your own resistance to seek treatment...that may be a sign that you are a codependent. Your intentions are honorable, you probably even earned a purple heart in the battles you've engaged in over the addiction, but it should end. Your battling with your loved one over their addiction is not helping, not helpful!

If you are a codependent you are not helping your loved one. Let me repeat...if you are a codependent you are not helping your loved one! Run, don't walk to a CODA (Codependent Anonymous) or an Alanon meeting immediately. You need direction to find yourself, define your boundaries and figure out how to attract and maintain ADULT, MUTUAL relationships with others.

If you have any further questions, please call our 24-Hour HelpLine at (866) 478-9898.

Recuperatio Primoris! (Recovery above all else!)

The Emotional Life of the Newly Sober

Individuals new to sobriety often find their early days in alcohol and addiction treatment centers marked by significant swings in experienced emotions. Early in rehab, the alcoholic/addict may be plagued by a variety of uncomfortable and challenging feelings that can overwhelm their ability to cope. This is certainly not surprising given that most folks in drug rehab are experiencing for the first time release from the anesthetizing effects of their drug of choice, be it alcohol, cocaine, heroin, or whatever.

Early in recovery, as the mind re-awakens, the newly sober may find themselves gripped with marked anxiety, a tremendous sense of fear--sometimes about the things that have occurred in the past, sometimes of the consequences of their use, sometimes of an uncertain future. And sometimes they experience marked fear for no identifiable reason. In many instances, underlying anxiety disorders, undiagnosed and self-medicated for years surface to trouble the alcoholic/addict.

For others, early sobriety can lead to the re-emergence of painful memories of trauma in childhood which can spill out in the form of deep and penetrating sadness, hostile and aggressive feelings of anger, or inordinate shame. And as is regularly discussed in alcoholics anonymous meetings and associated literature, newly sober alcoholic/addicts in the early stages of recovery are particularly prone to resentment--the sense of focussed and bitter anger based on perceived past slights or harms that can lead directly to relapse.

Not all emotions in the newly sober are negative. Frequently in the early days of alcohol and drug rehabilitation and treatment, the alcoholic/addict experiences tremendous feeling of joy. They often describe a "pink cloud' or feeling of prolonged euphoria that can serve to reinforce new found sobriety.

With time, continued treatment, a recovery based lifestyle and supportive environment, the alcoholic addict can develop those skills that allows him/her to modulate his/her emotions, to achieve a sense of balance to his/her internal affective life, and to find appropriate releases when emotions pass individual "critical levels". Even after years of chemical numbing, the alcoholic/addict can redevelop the capacity to feel.

Drug Rehabs that say Addiction is not a Disease

As a medical doctor, it bugs me when I read or hear about drug rehab programs that teach "addiction is not a disease".

Clearly, if you look at addiction through a scientific lens, there is no refuting that addiction IS a disease. First, what is the definition of "disease"? One definition is that a disease can be a hereditary condition that causes major illness or impairment. Let's compare addiction to heart disease. Have you ever gone into the doctor's office and filled out a new patient form? It will invariably ask if anyone in your family has had heart disease. Why do they ask that? Is your doctor just being nosey?? I don't think so. You are being asked that because heart disease is what's called a heritable condition. Your doctor needs to know that information because family history is a risk factor for developing heart disease. Does this mean that you will, for sure, develop heart disease just because some of your relatives had heart disease? No, of course not. But it creates a situation in which you are more predisposed to develop heart disease, especially if you have other risk factors (smoking, overweight, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc). The more risk factors you have, the more likely you are to develop the "disease".

Addiction is not all that much different from heart disease. It is also a disease that runs in families. It can be quite disabling. And, it requires treatment. If your mom, dad, brothers, sisters or grandparents suffered from addiction, you have a higher chance of developing addiction yourself. You are predisposed to developing addiction because of heredity. Some people may be more highly susceptible to the throws of addiction than others. Addiction may also be subject to risk factors such as repeated exposure to drugs or alcohol, childhood trauma, depression, anxiety, stress, etc.

So, now there is no question. Addiction is a heritable condition that causes major impairment or disability. Hence, it is a disease.

Now, I must say that there is some good that comes out of the mind-set of saying that addiction is not a disease. Well, let's say "half-good". The half that is good is that it forces you to look at underlying causes behind the addiction. That is to say, underlying core issues that have further predisposed you to develop the disease of addiction. Thus, in the treatment of addiction, one does not totally focus on the disease process. That is only half of the story. The other half focuses on the behind the scenes stuff that precipitated the addiction in the first place. Maybe it was repeated trauma in childhood or a major depressive illness. In any case, it is just as important to look at the reasons behind the addiction as the disease itself.

So now you can see, the viewpoints that addiction is a disease and it is caused by underlying issues can peacefully co-exist. Most importantly, they should be treated simultaneously. That is the focus of the cutting edge addiction studies currently. And guess what? The best success is seen when both the disease process and the core issues are treated concurrently.
Surprised? Not me!

John Neuhaus, M.D.
Paradise Recovery