Other Programs

Since the 1930's the twelve step Alcoholics Anonymous program has been around and has a pretty significant success rate.  Alcoholics Anonymous participants draw strength from a higher power, realizing that they are powerless over their addiction. They are a group self help program that support each other by meeting and assigning accountability partners. But there are other alternatives to the traditional twelve step program since it may not be right for everyone. There are religious recovery programs that are offered through churches and Christian facilities, and then there are those for the nonreligious.  We will examine a couple other options so that you can best determine what suits your individual needs.

Offered for the inpatient and outpatient are rehabilitatioin centers and group homes across America, some of which do not embrace the twelve step program. The alternative to the twelve step program is Rational Recovery which uses a self-empowering approach to create practical solutions for your well-being. Rational Recovery teaches and believes that alcoholism is not a disease but can be cured from within through your own self discipline and support from family and friends. There are also therapy based recovery programs that just involve a one on one substance abuse counselor.

The Holistic approach is not necessarily another alternative to the twelve step program because most facilities that us this approach follow up in their aftercare with a continual, ongoing traditioinal program.  However, they believe it is important to restore the chemical balance in the individuals body in order to stop the craving for alcohol or the substance.  Once balance has been achieved, they offer a maintenance program to keep the body in sync to help eliminate the need to drink or abuse.

There are many recovery programs available today to meet an individual need.  whether your preferance is a faith based, nontraditional program, or a twelve step traditional program, there is a recovery program that is right for you.  If you or someone you love is alcohol dependent, please seek help today!

Rational Recovery is a little different from the traditional recovery program. It entails the use of your own will power to overcome your addictions. Founded by Jack and Lois Trimpey in 1985, a network of recovery groups based upon the idea that addiction is a psychological hang-up which can be overcome through group discussions of psychology. In the beginning they linked strongly with the addiction treatment industry by recruiting hundreds of professional counselors to oversee local groups.

The network spread into a thousand cities, and participants in recovery joined together in the evenings, away from their families, socializing with other local substance abusers in a quest for sobriety based upon emotional comfort, inner peace, self-understanding and the far-off hope of eventually resuming a moderate degree of self-intoxication.
 
Finally it became obvious that nothing had really changed, that Rational Recovery groups based upon psychology were simply a different flavor of a “spiritual” doctrine created long ago by and for addicted people. Group facilitators even boasted of causing “humanist conversions,” meaning the agenda reached far beyond defeating addiction into evangelistic atheism. The RR groups had merely substituted humanistic psychology for religion, and perpetuated the addict-centered approach we now call recoveryism.

Rational Recovery today is family centered.  Using the Addictive Voice Recognition Technique and is based upon universal family values, and the addicted family member gets only the support which his own family sees fit to provide. Often this means no support, which is fine, because in this recovery program, they believe the addicts are not disease victims but traitors to their families who must earn respect through prolonged abstinence.

AVRT-based recovery is not tough love, because it’s tough to love an addicted person. We know that behind their craziness, however, addicted people are family people who can shoulder the burden of abstinence and grow strong from doing so. This self recovery program is against the traditional twelve step program such as Alcoholics Anonymous and believes that the individual should be strong enough to abstain from alcohol on their own, with or without support from others and or that of a higher power. Statistics show a success rate of approximately 5% in this program.