It has always amazed me that the addictions field acknowledges that chemical dependency (addictions) changes the brain chemistry, and yet we still treat the disease with talk therapy. Please understand – talk therapy does work. It has worked for me, to a certain extent. It has also worked for up to 20% of my treatment cohorts. Unfortunately, about 80% of people in talk therapy relapse. This is a problem. I don’t know of any industry that can boast of a 20% productivity rate and still call itself successful. So, if we know that there’s a chemical deficiency - or perhaps a chemical surplus - in the brain, how do we expect an addict to recover without pharmaceuticals? OK, so I think I’ve answered my own question. As a field, addictions treatment cannot encourage an active addict to go off of one drug, only to replace it with another. That would be like … well, switching addictions. I mean, isn’t that how our field views most pharmaceutical intervention treatments? So, I guess talk therapy is all we have …. No, wait a minute! We have the capacity to alter a person’s brain chemistry without addictive substances or pharmaceuticals. Treatment facilities like Bridging The Gaps in Winchester, VA administer amino acids and other supplements needed for the brain to naturally produce neurotransmitters (feel-good chemicals). This rebalancing of the brain, along with a healthy lifestyle of diet and exercise, lessens the cravings that so often lead addicts to relapse. Wow, we can talk it out AND rebalance brain chemistry without pharmaceuticals!
|
|---|
