Over the years I have been contacted hundreds of time
by people with addictions asking for help. I have not been of much help,
because I didn't know much about opioid addiction to pills and heroin.
But here is it, a long, 78-page
article on Huffington Post that explains why abstinence, or willpower-based
self-attempts, or those found in 12-step programs of abstinence, fail 90% of
the time, and cause tons of overdose deaths by addicts that are clean, but return to heroin at there former dose level,
a dose level they can no longer tolerate.
The new paradigm is medical assistance using opioid
partial agonist medication such as Suboxone, Naloxone, or Buprenorphine used
alone. the relapse rate of programs using medical assistance is only 10%
compared to 90% in programs based on abstinence, along with a very, very low
rate of overdose death.
For the last few months I have been doing some
research in this area, and found almost unanimous agreement about the success
of medically assisted recovery and without the need for painful withdrawal.
However, there is still much bias against medical assistance since recovery in
the U.S. has always been associated with faith based, 12-step, or
institutionalization of enforced abstinance, and the political clout backing
this $12 billion dollar industry.
PLEASE SHARE THIS POST FAR AND WIDE FOR ANY FRIENDS
YOU KNOW WHO MAY BE RESISTING TREATMENT, OR HAVE RELAPSED AFTER UNDERGOING THE
USUAL ABSTINENCE BASED RECOVERY PROGRAMS.
Dear Edji,
ReplyDeleteyes, I used suboxone to quit. It helped the sick, and also helped the need. I highly endorse it.
Yours,
Andrew
Dear Ed, I´m a a huge fan of A.A. I think A.A. and it´s 12 steps are true dharma and transformative. A.A. has saved me and I appreciate the wisdom in the rooms. The Big Book is great. I love the talks by Peter Marinelli (Peter M.) who has a very theistic touch. Also, Paul Hedderman is great, he sounds very much "non-dualist". Regards, Sven
ReplyDeleteI'd have mixed feelings about A.A. I'm fully aware of what it can accomplish, yet isn't a "side effect" the creation of just a new sort of dependency and the accompanying feeling that an addict cannot survive without it.
ReplyDeleteI don't know, maybe it comes down to being the lesser of two evils?
Mark
I agree with Sven regarding AA. The wisdom around the tables is from those that have walked a very similar path and survived. Tied in with personal counseling it helped me and many friends get through the first few years and helped open up a new life with strong and better friendships. I never felt survival depended on AA but it sure made life worth living. Its part of the spiritual path. steve
ReplyDeleteLike a sleepingpil. You eat it and sleap. We simply forget and not awaken by the pain of our souls. There is only one way out. Repentence and prayer. But that is a narrow way not very confinient for most of us. If sincere AA can point in that way but today many clinics operate in the name of AA but will not mention the name of God for Mammon give more interest. Matt. 7-13:14.
ReplyDelete