Alcohol Addiction Treatment

Alcohol addiction treatment can vary quite a bit depending on where you go. There are plenty of treatment centers out there and they all offer a program of recovery for people to follow in order to stay clean and sober after they leave. While there are a variety of programs available, the vast majority of them are 12 step based programs (Alcoholics Anonymous).

You will find if you call around to local treatment centers in your area that 90 percent of them are going to be 12 step based programs. Most people will not be able to find an alternative within a reasonable distance, in fact. This is both a good thing and a bad thing.

It's good because the fellowship of AA has tons of meetings everywhere throughout the world and the level of support you can get from these meetings is tremendous. It's also good because the meetings are completely free and no one ever demands that you pay them a single penny in order to attend an AA meeting. The people that you meet there are genuine and the majority of them really want to help you.

On the other hand this lock-in to the 12 step program is bad because the success rate with it is quite low. It is difficult to get accurate data but regardless of who you ask the numbers are not good. AA themselves publish census data every ten years about their membership and this has stated that the success rates are quite low as well. There is nothing wrong with AA in this sense and it does still help a lot of people, but it is not necessarily a comprehensive recovery solution for everyone, as the numbers seem to be indicating.

So what is the ideal treatment? I have found it to be a combination of many things; an integrated approach if you will. Specifically, I believe that alcohol addiction can best be treated by using:

1) An holistic approach to growth - you have to push yourself to grow in many areas of your life (not just spiritually).

2) A focus on health and well being - you have to take care of yourself in recovery, and more than just your physical body.

3) Networking and support - you have to form connections with others in recovery who are on the same path as you are.

These are the primary strategies that produce meaningful recovery. These are not specific to any program and can actually be used regardless of what recovery program you are following. But any treatment that does not utilize these core strategies is bound to fail.