What makes my opinion about obsession relapse treatment prevention any more suggestive than those on workers at rehabilitation centres? I've been there. I am an alcohol abuser. I've been sober since July 10th, 1985.
That anniversary means more to me than my actual birthday. And I am happy with my 25 years of sobriety, but each time I prefer to think of that achievement, each time I tell vodka you are merely a part of my past, part of me feels miserable. Sad for the pals that went through rehabilitation with me and are now not here to share mutual joy and amazing relief for getting that devil of a monkey off our backs.
Yes, even today those stinking thoughts still hit me out of nowhere, and though I reject such thoughts, they're an involuntary occurrence that makes me think “where the hell did that thought come from?” After 25 years of sobriety, they occur, albeit less often, and I now know those thoughts will always crop up. It's simply the way that it is.
When I went thru rehab, twelve of us were going to graduate inside days of one another. We felt a common bond, a camaraderie that we all wanted to have continue past our stay at the rehab. Inside months, literally, ten of those graduates stopped talking with Debra and me. 2 had died, eight reverted to their old techniques. Soon after, Debra vanished, having kept her return to alcohol a secret. I was the sole remaining sober graduate. What made me the lucky graduate? What lead me to succeed when all my beloved rehab companions failed?
It wasn't the rehab center! My advisor said I’d receive a follow-up call in 6 months, again at my one year anniversary, then again after 2 years. She never called, no one from that center called. It caused me to feel like they did not care. They appeared only to be involved with in-house patients because this is where the money is. Heck, at least with a follow-up telephone call I might have been a statistic. And a positive statistic at that!
So what did I do differently than my companions after we were back in society, making an attempt to build a new life? I was the only one who utilized a light and sound instrument. An InnerQuest IQ-III actually. Bless the late Rob Robinson for having his products on the market! I resolutely believe having a light and sound mind machine at my immediate disposal for use when those ‘bad thoughts ‘ started infiltrating my mind, my thought processes, and my psychological and emotional disposition made all the difference in the world. I was the only one to employ a mind machine out of our graduating class of 12, and I am the only one still sober, still alive. I don't care how directors or therapists feel about that statement, because I know it, forcefully believe it as the one variable that helped me maintain my sobriety while my chums, who didn't have light and sound mind machines at their disposal- failed.
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It is time to put as much emphasis on staying clean/sober after graduation as it is for getting clean/sober while being an in-house patient. Light/sound mind machine technology has the sessions that will help to control addictive behaviours, to help establish the base for a positive psychological and emotional perspective, and for giving the recovering addict fast access for conquering that stinking thinking thought pattern that strikes at any point, anywhere. Put stronger stress on relapse prevention and you will see less failure rates among rehab graduates, which in its turn improves the credibility of rehabilitational programs.
Think about it: I was the only one to use light and sound after graduating and I'm the only one still sober. I used binaural beats for brainwave entrainment.
So you are probably asserting that's a single example. Phooey! I went through it, have you? What of all of the others I've met since my graduation who also experience addictive behaviors? Be it for sex obsession, cocaine, downers, meth, you say it. They've all brought to using light and sound mind machines because it personally helps them cope. So next time you are sitting in a staff meeting, deliberating how to boost your success rate and raise your funding, look no farther than Mindmachines.com. You'll find a very cheap and highly advantageous tool that will improve your program’s success rate, which in its turn will help when submitting bureaucracy for additional funding, and oh yes, basically give your graduates a fighting chance at staying clean and sober for possibly the remainder of their life.
Over time I have been concerned with one or two rehab centres as a consultant for getting neurofeedback and/or light and sound programs initiated (learning /. Relaxation). Essentially, I might show them what these mind machines look like and the way to use them , how they can be joined into their existing methods of treatment, and instructing them on the way to maximise the sessions for the advantage of their patients. Why I select to do that is to open the eyes of therapists and directors to the cost- effectiveness and benefits that mind machines offer. Especially when many rehabs are facing extreme cutbacks and even closure. But as importantly, I do this because as advantageous as the treatment patients receive while staying at a rehab center are, most rehabs tend to turn their patients loose after satisfying their time at the center, informing them good luck and to call if they feel reversals approaching. Should not graduates be given tools to take home with them for forestalling relapses from happening?
Once out, patients end up in a world that has not modified. Only they have changed. Granted the sole way an addict can really stop their addiction is to really need to quit, to modify their routine once back in society, and to refrain from visiting the places they frequented before checking into a rehabilitation. But it is so hard for an addict to try this without psychological and emotional support. Here is where I suspect most rehabs fail. They put so much emphasis on treatment while the patients are attending the rehabilitation, and reputedly have little time to maintain a record of what happens to their patients after they graduate.
I have seen too many people fall into their addictive behaviours because such mental and emotional support groups are not available in time of need. Is that a cop-out reason to fall back to old ways? Sure. Not being able to make new buddies who are clean and/or sober causes them to search out old mates that shared the same addiction? Yes, that too is a pretty lame excuse. But when the urge to go back to old strategies is robust, when that old addictive ‘friend ‘ is waving for their return, the addictive cycle rears it’s repugnant head. A significant percentage of ex-patients become new patients once more. With the cost of rehabilitative treatment being so astronomic, and the time necessary to remain at these facilities lasting from a couple of days to several weeks, even months, I'd think more rehabilitation centers would put a more robust emphasis on relapse prevention; meaning once an individual graduates, larger signification should be placed on aiding them re-integrate into society, re-integrate with themselves, and make available more tools for the graduate for instant function of conquering that ‘stinking thinking ‘ urge that can pop up at any time, for any reason. Those thoughts just occur out of the blue, and when they occur, it is an anxious and frightening experience for the newly clean/sober individual. They don't get these thoughts because they want to, they get these thoughts because addictions are waking bad dreams. Stinking thinking, in my judgment, falls short by describing just how awful these urges and thoughts can be.
It isn't my plan to upset the administrators of rehabs, but with many rehab advisors and specialists themselves once being hooked on ‘their favorite mate ‘, and often experiencing private relapses themselves, rehabs must awake to the increased need of having tools accessible for their graduates. Tools that will help overcome those unexpected urges quicker than calling a counselor and being told they're going to get right back to you after they finish their in-house group counseling session.
That is the potential of light and sound mind machines in relapse recovery. It is only one tool to help maintain a clean/sober life. It has worked for me, it has worked for the handfuls of folks I have met since beginning my personal recovery, and it can work for today’s addicts trying despairingly to quit the very addiction that's slaughtering them. It's time you give this modality serious thought , that is, if you are actually serious in helping your patients remain clean/sober.
Michael Landgraf is a EEG Neurofeedback and mind machine expert and has a long history of working in the domain of relapse prevention
