Welcome to The Blandine House
Addiction and Residential Treatment…..It Works…….How it Works……..
This is an exciting time to be involved in the treatment of addiction. The “excitement” is derived from the accumulating science of addiction and recovery that is verifying that addiction is a brain disorder; “it” is located deep within the primitive structures of the brain and: the brain is capable of change; change is possible within a structured setting because the structure of the setting functions when the brain cannot yet “make decisions” that will promote health and well-being. (1)
Residential treatment has been acknowledged as a workable form of treatment given that most people remain clean and sober during the course of their stay in the structured setting. What the field of recovery and the science of addiction has yet to verify is that the length of stay in residential treatment is related to the long term successful outcome wherein the individual can sustain sobriety. (2)
Many counselors believe that increasing the length of stay will produce better outcomes (I understand this is anecdotal data) and yet are consumed with being able to justify to insurers or government and tribal funding agencies that even a 10 to 90 day stay in residence is preferable to attempting to maintain sobriety while in outpatient services. Albeit, outpatient services are appropriate for those in the very early stages of addiction. It is an age old axiom within the recovering community that the “longer one stays clean and sober the better the chances are of your remaining clean and sober longer.” Thus, a 3 to 9 month residential treatment experience for many chronic addicts and alcoholics would produce better “outcomes.” “Tincture of time” in which the chronic addict or alcoholic can practice and skill build the recovery skills that will support long term recovery would produce better “outcomes.”
(1) “The process of working the steps is intended to replace self-centeredness with selflessness, a spiritual attribute conducive to improving interpersonal relationships, encouraging altruism and empathy, and, most importantly reducing stress. Working the steps involves taking personal inventory of fears, resentments and character defects, all of which contribute to stress in the addict or alcoholic. Hijacking the Brain: How Drug and Alcohol Addiction Hijacks Our Brains The Science Behind Twelve-Step Recovery. Louis Teresi, MD, Harry Haroutunian, MD Author House 2011, p, 186
(2) “A significant body of research has documented an association between Twelve-Step self-help group participation and positive outcomes and has suggested mechanisms by which these positive outcomes are generated. In addition, millions of Americans have “voted with their feet” by participating in addiction related self-help groups, sometimes in the face of ambivalence by clinicians. Many improvements remain to be made in self-help group research, but at present the following represent reasonable conclusions based on the existing research: Longitudinal studies associate Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous participation with greater likelihood of abstinence, improved social functioning, and greater self-efficacy. Participation seems more helpful when members engage in other group activities in addiction to attending meetings; Twelve-Step groups significantly reduce health care utilization and costs, removing a significant burden from the health care system; Self-help groups are best viewed as a form of continuing care rather than as a substitute for acute treatment services; and, Randomized trials with coerced populations suggest that AA combined with professional treatment is superior to AA alone.”
P 188, Hijacking the Brain, How Drug and Alcohol Addiction Hijacks Our Brains; The Science Behind Twelve-Step Recovery. Louis Teresi, MD, Harry Haroutunian, MD AuthorHouse 2011
Residential treatment provides the safe, secure, reassuring, behavior correcting and guided/supportive decision making experiences that will allow the addict/alcoholic to deprogram from the addictive behavior and to acquire recovery oriented thoughts and behavior. The cost of residential treatment is, in essence, infinitesimal when compared to the costs of continued using.