Tag Archives: teen rehab

HOW 12 STEP ADDICTION TREATMENT DOES NOT WORK ACCORDING TO ‘INSIDE REHAB’

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This is wonderful to see a book written about the obvious failings of 12 step addiction treatment inside America’s rehab industry. Anne M. Fletcher also sites many solid evidenced based options and alternatives to the current archaic model of the majority of rehabs.

“Inside Rehab”: How it could work better, and why it doesn’t

A startling new investigation of addiction programs says 28 days and 12 steps add up to inadequate treatment

Sunday February 3, 2013

BY 

Maybe Amy Winehouse had a point: However flippant that sounds, many a reader will be thinking it (or something like it) after finishing Anne M. Fletcher’s “Inside Rehab.” Fletcher visited 15 addiction-treatment programs, from the high-end to the bare-bones, and interviewed staffers, researchers, experts and over a hundred clients and their families. She collected data from an impressively wide range of studies and surveys. Nearly 3 million Americans seek help for substance-use disorders in specialty facilities annually (not including the nearly 2.5 million who opt for self-help groups like Alcoholics Anonymous) and we spend $35 billion on treating these disorders, so it’s surprising how little most of us know about what goes on in rehab.

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Young People In AA Are Falling Through The Cracks

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Young People are being failed by AA in more ways than even this article outlines. In this Washington Post article author Chelsea speaks about the drug connections and party buddies she met at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Continue reading →

Teen Substance Abuse and Alcoholics Anonymous Meetings

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“A lot of kids don’t make it in AA ” according to Jack who runs Las Vegas AA because they are kids. Actually Alcoholics Anonymous fails teenagers in so many ways. AA actually does not have any meetings just for minors. Continue reading →

SEX OFFENDER ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS MEMBER JAILED FOR PREYING ON WOMEN IN AA

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AA Member and Pedophile Sean Calahan was sent to jail for preying on women in Alcoholics Anonymous. This man had been arrested in the past for sexually molesting a 12 year old boy.He was mandated to AA Meetings and sex offender counseling on a deferred sentenced. He also was found with multiple shotguns!

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Narcotics Anonymous Members That Killed 80 Year Old Should Not have Been On The Streets

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NA Members Alan Wood and Tonia Watson had been in and out of the judicial system for years. They had several parole violations and should not have been on the loose when they killed 80 year old Nancy Dailey.

They attended Narcotics Anonymous meetings together. But they continued to use drugs, Michigan Department of Corrections records show.

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Teens Are Not Life Long Addicts Researchers Says AA Is Not Effective For Youth

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Confirmation of the belief that there is no need to label our teens as addicts for life with a life long disease. It is refreshing to see more research to continue to confirm this. Alcoholics Anonymous is detrimental to teens and sends them a very negative message of powerlessness.They insist they conform to the pagan religion of Alcoholics Anonymous. It is unhealthy, and also Alcoholics Anonymous, including Narcotics Anonymous is a very dangerous place for teenagers as well.

The Judicial system is mandating violent criminals and sexual offenders in droves to AA/NA/CA, this includes Young Peoples Meetings. ICYPPA is for a younger crowd, but people go there into their 40’s. There are no safety regulations like Alateen has, which is a group for teens that are dealing with family with alcohol problems. Alateen is not designed for teens WITH alcohol problems.

Your 16 Year-Old Is Not An Addict For Life: Research Says
PRWeb – Mon, Mar 19, 2012

Teenage Drinking
Contrary to what most Americans in our society think, a teen who loses their way, possibly getting arrested for drinking under-age, or driving under the influence (DUI) is automatically labeled an alcoholic in need of alcohol rehab or treatment for life. Unlike traditional alcohol rehab programs, the Saint Jude Program begs to differ on labeling teens with a “disease” or “addiction.”

Amsterdam, NY (PRWEB) March 19, 2012
Saint Jude Retreats along with other researchers around the country have found Alcohol Anonymous (AA) to be more ineffective than helpful to young adults who have a substance use problem. AA is an alcohol treatment program that a convicted DUI offender normally must complete to regain their license. The courts use AA attendance to prove that the individual in question is no longer a danger to society or to themselves. However, research has determined that Alcohol Anonymous actually hinders a user’s sobriety after AA meeting attendance is completed and increases their chances of continuing substance use. How? By labeling a person with a false “disease” and or “addiction,” it creates a sense of hopelessness, and in a teenager this is detrimental to their personal growth and self-esteem.
Saint Jude Retreats is diligent about increasing awareness about conventional alcohol treatment centers to a parent whose young teen has fallen into some trouble with alcohol or drug use. In the United States, if a teen is convicted of drunk driving the first step they must undergo is an evaluation to determine their amount of alcohol they have consumed₁. According to state laws, drivers must then go through another evaluation to determine if their alcohol consumption is considered alcohol abuse or alcohol dependence₁. Then young adults are most likely enforced to enroll in an alcohol treatment center such as AA attendance or a long term treatment center.
Conventional drug and alcohol treatment centers focus on a negative-based approach to help someone overcome their substance use such as telling a client they are doomed for life, cannot become a normal part of society, are disease-stricken for their rest of their life and unfortunately much more₂. In stark contrast, for over 20 years, the St. Jude Program has taught teens how to turn their lives around and gain control of their actions and become responsible for the consequences of their choices.
Of course the Saint Jude Retreats does not in any way condone drunk driving, but they also do not label someone an addict or alcohol dependent who made one mistake in their life. Dr. Stanton Peele, an endorser of Saint Jude Retreats asserts that, “Many traditional treatment programs follow through with approaches that are really abusive altogether.” Peele adds, “can anyone really say that a 15 year-old (or 18, or 21, or 24-year-old) is an addict for life? If the young person questions such a designation, what happens next? They are assailed for their false beliefs, they are in denial. And all they are really saying is, ‘I have more belief in, and hope for myself, than what your program permits me to have’.” Co-founder and Chairman of St. Jude Retreats, Mark Scheeren adds, “The St. Jude Retreats have always believed in and supported the fact that the individuals can and do overcome substance use problems for good.”
About Saint Jude Retreats: Saint Jude Retreats (http://www.soberforever.net) is a drug and alcohol social education center headquartered in Amsterdam, New York. It is an effective alternative to alcohol rehab and drug treatment centers. Saint Jude Retreats has been helping people overcome alcohol and substance use through Cognitive Behavioral EducationSM (CBE) since opening its doors in 1992. CBE and the Saint Jude Retreats program are endorsed by alcohol and drug program internationally acclaimed professionals, such as Dr. Stanton Peele, PhD, Prof. Emeritus David Hanson, PhD; Prof. David Rudy, PhD; Dr. Joy Browne and the late Joseph Vacca, PhD, among others.

Melissa Kluska
Saint Jude Retreats
518-842-3052 122
Email Information

http://news.yahoo.com/16-old-not-addict-life-research-says-172817589.html

Young People Attending Alcoholics Anonymous Puff Piece

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They really sugar coat Alcoholics Anonymous in this puff piece about AA and young people. The article offers no possible options to AA other than the 12 step program. No mention of the fact that courts are mandating criminals in droves to these meetings without warning anyone. Typical media bias.

Young people turn to AA to break the grip of alcohol and drugs
BY ERIC ADLER
The Kansas City Star

 
• 69 percent of college graduates were current drinkers (at least one drink in the past 30 days) in 2010. That compares with 37 percent of adults with less than a high school education.
• Among full-time college students ages 18-22, 63 percent were current drinkers in 2010; 42 percent were binge drinkers; and 16 percent were heavy drinkers. Those numbers are higher than those for other adults ages 18-22 (non-college students and part-time college students): 52 percent were current drinkers, 36 percent were binge drinkers and 12 percent were heavy drinkers.
 
Names in this story
The Kansas City Star does not publish stories quoting anonymous sources unless there is a compelling reason to do so. Some of the subjects in this story were willing to use their full names, but because the guarantee of anonymity is such a bedrock part of Alcoholics Anonymous’ ethos, The Star agreed to abide by AA’s tradition of identifying individuals only by single, but actual, names.

LAWRENCE — Tall and lithe, 23-year-old Suzanne — once known to her University of Kansas sorority sisters as “Boozin’ Susan” — carries a load of folding chairs into a Sixth Street mini-mall storefront and arranges them in a circle.

Ten young people amble in and, over the next hour, tell why they’re here.

“Hi, I’m Claire, and I’m an alcoholic.” Age 23.

“Hi, I’m Matt, and I’m an alcoholic.” Age 25.

“Hi, I’m Jean, and I’m an alcoholic and an addict.” Age 17. She first got drunk on vodka when she was 8.

There is Stephanie, 20, and two seats away a 19-year-old addict fresh to sobriety. There are Mike and Will, both under 26.

Two sorority girls. A couple of athletes. Gen-Y’ers, children of affluence and of poverty. One young man’s abstemious parents never raised a bottle. Others barely remember mom or dad without a drink or drug in hand.

At a time when binge drinking remains at epidemic levels, and as tens of thousands of high school and college students begin packing for spring break destinations where alcohol flows freely, thousands of other young people nationwide will flow into meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous, having concluded that what they once thought was a rite of youth is an addiction.

Young people in their 20s and even late teens have been part of AA from some of its earliest years, not long after Bill Wilson founded the fellowship in 1935 on a 12-step approach.

At the core of AA is a shared belief that, powerless in the face of their addictions, alcoholics and other addicts work to remain sober one day at a time, lean on others for support and rely on what in AA parlance is one’s “H.P.,” or higher power, or God.

Because of AA’s ways — no dues, no fees, no formal membership rosters and only periodic surveys of attendees — it’s impossible to say exactly how many young people are attending the fellowship’s meetings.

What is clear, researchers say, is that although AA does not work for everyone, for young people who stick to its tenets, it can offer a lifeline in a culture where the pressure to drink is often overwhelming.

“Basically, young people benefit from going,” said Harvard University’s John Kelly, an addiction recovery researcher at the Massachusetts General Hospital who in 2008 published a study that followed 16-year-olds from a San Diego rehab clinic for eight years.

“The strongest predictor of recovery was attendance at AA,” Kelly said. “For every single meeting they attended, they gained an extra two days of abstinence.”

There is testament: Shirley, 58, of Kansas City entered 37 years ago at age 21 and has never relapsed. She knows others, at 40 and 50, who came in at age 18.

“It is absolutely doable,” she said. “The simple point of it is whether you no longer want to live that way. We all have to grow up. That’s part of life. In a way it’s an advantage (entering recovery early). I had to grow up anyway. I had help.”

Come September, the 54th annual International Conference of Young People in Alcoholics Anonymous is to be held in St. Louis. Some 3,000 young people are expected to attend.

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/03/03/3467414/young-people-turn-to-aa-to-break.html

Community Youth Center Hosting Narcotics Anonymous Meetings

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What in the world are these people thinking?! On top of hosting NA meetings at a youth center they plan on expanding to include ‘In addition to NA, the center next month will also begin hosting Reformers Unanimous meetings Friday nights. That faith-based program is geared toward people suffering from substance, gambling, sex and other addictions.’

They say the meetings do not overlap youth activities, yet the NA group is sponsoring an event for the minors. This is totally irresponsible by the youth center and Narcotics Anonymous.If you are a parent, I would not allow your child to go to this youth center! If you are concerned, complain to the youth center! Sex offenders and violent felons are mandated to Narcotics Anonymous meetings and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

LaGrange Community Youth Center hosting Narcotics Anonymous meetings, planning anti-drug day

Posted: Feb 21, 2012 9:14 AM EST
Updated: Feb 21, 2012 10:00 AM EST

By MARY POLETTI
Herald-Whig Staff Writer

LaGRANGE, Mo. — To tackle a mushrooming problem with drugs in the area, the LaGrange Community Youth Center is broadening its services.

The center will hold its annual anti-drug program Saturday afternoon. Since last summer, it also has played host to three meetings a week of Narcotics Anonymous.

The program, a recovery resource for abusers of drugs, alcohol and other substances, has grown since moving to the youth center in July after a fire at its original home, LaGrange’s First Baptist Church.

Wayne Gilliland, one of the chairmen of the NA meetings, said typically two or three people might have attended an evening meeting at the church. In the center, attendance has been averaging 10 or more, which he said is large for an NA meeting in the area.

Gilliland attributes that growth in part to the move. While he doesn’t believe the church was necessarily an intimidating setting for the meetings, he said a more neutral community space such as the youth center has proved more comfortable.

“They feel like they’re in a public place, unbiased,” said Gilliland, a former meth addict who has spoken publicly and at the youth center about its dangers. “There are no predetermined things they have to think when they walk in the door.”

The meetings are held at times when the center typically is closed to children — noon Mondays, and Monday and Friday nights.

snip

Gilliland is coordinating the anti-drug day, but others who “have walked the walk and talk the talk” will speak to children and their parents, Bronestine said.

“This type of stuff, this is where the kids will listen,” she said. “These guys, when they’re talking, the kids know that they know what they’re talking about. … There’s a happy ending to these guys’ stories, but these guys have also experienced (friends’ stories) who did not have happy endings.”

In addition to NA, the center next month will also begin hosting Reformers Unanimous meetings Friday nights. That faith-based program is geared toward people suffering from substance, gambling, sex and other addictions.

http://www.whig.com/story/16980628/lagrange-community-youth-center-hosting-narcotics-anonymous-meetings-planning-anti-drug-day

Drunk Alcoholics Anonymous Member Causes Serious Injury To 19 Year-Old In Crash

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The night Brian LaRose decided not to go to his Alcoholics Anonymous Meeting and get drunk instead, was a terrible decision. He seriously injured a young woman.

This article points out to those that think all AA members are sober individuals, and are no longer a threat to society is a myth, plain and simple. The reason teens or children should not be sent to co-mingle with adult alcoholics or drug abusers. Many are still using, thus still making these meetings not an appropriate venue for minors.

Also, AA was NOT working for this man. Maybe had he known of other alternatives to stop drinking, he might not of been driving highly intoxicated that night.

Drunk Driver

Drunk driver avoids prison for serious injury crash
By Kelly Wheeler and Fox 5 Staff
12:25 p.m. PST, February 17, 2012

SAN DIEGO — A driver whose blood-alcohol level was 4 1/2 times the legal limit when his vehicle slammed into the back of a car in Rancho Bernardo, seriously injuring a young woman, will not go to prison.

Instead, Brian LaRose was ordered to spend a year in a work furlough program where he will work during the day and return to jail at night.

LaRose, 39, pleaded guilty in November to DUI causing injury and admitted an allegation that he drove with a blood-alcohol level above 0.15 percent.

Deputy District Attorney Chandelle Konstanzer argued that LaRose should go to prison for five years, calling the defendant an “extreme danger” to society. LaRose was supposed to be at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting the night he caused the accident that left 19-year-old Heidi Wise with a brain injury and other serious injuries.

http://www.fox5sandiego.com/news/kswb-brian-larose-drunk-driver-avoid-prison-for-serious-injury-crash-20120217,0,7571643.story

ALATEEN SAFETY GUIDELINES G-34

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Alateen is a branch of Ala-non headquartered out of Virginia Beach VA. They have a safety guidelines brochure G-34 addressing the minors in their care. They speak many times about how each area should review their local laws and regulations in regard to teens, as they vary from state to state. Unfortunately it does not tell members what state agencies for them to contact to find out this information.

As many of you know Alateen and Ala-non are based on 12 step principles. Some how they have managed to put into place safety guidelines for Sponsors and teens for their program. They have implemented procedures that AA/NA Corporate offices state they cannot possibly do, because it would break traditions. This is what they hide behind to have no accountability. Yet Alateen follows the very same 12 step principles, and their safety precautions are mandatory. In fact if a group is not compying, they will remove them as a group pronto! Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous refuse to have any safety guidelines and are flying under the radar when it comes to protecting minors or other vulnerable members of society.

I assume Alateen has taken this step to satisfy Insurance Companies and themselves from liability. Yet we have AA and NA going into high schools, juvenile detentions centers, and have literature stating you are basically never too young to join the adults in AA/NA. Yet they follow zero safety guidelines. DCF seems to look the other way. Why is this obvious lack of accountability with minors being ignored?

Courts are mandating level 3 sexual predators, rapists, and other violent felons to Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous everyday through out this country. AA and NA are aware of minors being sexually assaulted by AA members, yet they have voted to do nothing about it. Except to solicit more minors to attend dangerous meetings.

Plus many women have been raped and others killed,stabbed and financially scammed by 12 step members they met at meetings. There needs to be safety measures put into place to protect people attending meetings.

Here is the start of Alateens G-34 phamphlet-

Alateens are members of the Al-Anon fellowship who have suffered because of the alcoholism of a loved one. They have come to Alateen seeking recovery. Before recovery can take place, an environment of trust and safety must exist. It is the responsibility of Al-Anon and Alateen as a whole to work together to maintain a healthy, loving, and supportive environment.

These guidelines offer procedures for insuring the safety of Alateen members, their Sponsors and Al-Anon/Alateen as a whole. All guidelines, including the Alateen Safety Guidelines, offer the shared experience of Al-Anon/Alateen members. Following these guidelines is not a substitute for knowing and obeying the law of your area as it relates to minors. Each state and province has its own way of regulating these issues, and it is important that each person involved with Alateen is aware of and follows local legal requirements.

Read the rest!

http://www.al-anon-ak.org/cms_uploads/G34.pdf

Mental Health Court Mandates Schizophrenics And Bipolar Suicidal Offenders To Alcoholics Anonymous Meetings

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This is confirmation of the growing number of Mental Health Courts and Drug Courts that are sending their seriously mentally ill, suicidal offenders to a Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meeting near you! Mandating the mentally ill patients to 12 step programs that dont like therapists and tell many participants not to take their meds. Wow,that sounds like a swell idea! Let’s not forget how proud AA/NA/CA is that they are forever non-professionals. AA likes to call their unique demographics that are made up of violent felons, sexual predators, serial rapists, murders and the seriously mentally ill ( many whom are suicidal), a wonderful place to encourage teenagers and younger minors to come join!

AA is famous for stating that the meetings are just a microcosm of society. Let me tell you-they are completely WRONG!!!!!! Actually AA meetings are a microcosm of AA/NA period, and the people who run them around the country. AA/NA meetings are a dangerous place for minors and other vulnerable people.

Limitations Of 12 Step Programs

12 Step programs designed for people whose problems are primarily substance abuse are generally not recommended for people who also have a mental illness. These programs tend to be confrontive and coercive and most people with severe mental illnesses are too fragile to benefit from them. Heavy confrontation, intense emotional jolting, and discouragement of the use of medications tend to be detrimental. These treatments may produce levels of stress that exacerbate symptoms or cause relapse.

An afternoon in the biweekly mental-health courtroom of Washington County Judge Marco Hernandez in Hillsboro. The scene in court includes, left to right, Jeff MacLean, deputy district attorney; Joe Simich, probation officer; Rebecca Blaney, public defender; and a client reporting to Judge Hernandez.

Washington County Oregon At the start of a recent Mental Health Court session, the 50-year-old judge tells the crowd he shredded his ankle his first time snowboarding. One of the defendants, diagnosed as a bipolar alcoholic, says falling is the best part and volunteers to teach the judge how to do it right.

Another time, a meth addict with a bipolar diagnosis says she is discouraged that her theft conviction keeps her from getting a decent job.

“I started out washing dishes and I was a janitor,” Hernandez barks, waving his arm as the defendants laugh. “I went all the way through college, and my first job was a maid! What’s up with that? A four-year degree and I’m a maid!”

Hernandez leads Mental Health Court as part inspirational speaker, part compassionate confessor, part stern uncle.

The banter puts the mentally ill defendants at ease. Hernandez shows he believes in them and trusts them. In turn, they don’t want to disappoint.

The rapport between judge and defendants, along with intense supervision and hard work by a team of court, corrections and mental health staff, has helped the special court navigate the ups and downs of its first year.

“So, what’s going on?” the judge asks a big man who has schizophrenia and a cocaine addiction. Earlier, Hernandez sent the man to jail on a probation violation.

“I’m doing the classes, I’m out of jail, I’m sleeping in the Coop every night,” the man says, referring to a Luke-Dorf Inc. group home for mentally ill substance abusers. “I’m going to classes. I’m observing the rules every night.”

Progress can be uneven
The Washington County team struggles to deal with the breakdowns that can haunt the mentally ill.

One woman died from a heroin overdose. Some participants attempt suicide, abuse alcohol or use illicit drugs. Some miss appointments and classes. Every session, the judge metes out jail time or community service to those who slip up.

“I’m not messing around,” Hernandez bluntly tells a man who left the Coop and was caught using drugs. “We had a deal. I’ve gone way out of my way to help you out on this, but you aren’t doing your part.”

Hernandez and Simich say they have learned to look at how far the participants have come, not how far they have to go.

One woman with a bipolar diagnosis used to be hospitalized several times a week, threatening suicide. Since she’s been coming to Mental Health Court — and since Hernandez sent her to jail for 90 days for using meth again –“we broke her of that and she did well for a while,” Simich says.

Heather Wiegele, 30, who was diagnosed as bipolar at age 13, was convicted of drunken driving and skipped out on her probation. She says she appreciates that Hernandez, who told her she had to comply or go to jail, is tough but fair. Clean and sober for 7-1/2 months, Wiegele asked Hernandez during court in February if she could move to Arizona to be closer to family. The judge conferred with the rest of the team and said she needed to get a job and finish the program here.

“When she came in last year, I thought she was going to die, she was literally shaking,” Hernandez explains later.

A couple of weeks after she professed she was ready to leave, Wiegele’s depression got the best of her. She drank, took 60 of her anti-anxiety pills and ended up in the hospital. Now she’s back in Mental Health Court and attending extra Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. She has a landscaping job and has moved into the Coop.

What kind of treatment would a defendant be ordered to complete?
Each defendant will have a treatment plan that addresses their unique needs and community safety. The treatment plan could include mental health treatment, medications, inpatient or outpatient chemical dependency treatment, Alcoholics Anonymous, domestic violence treatment, sex offender treatment or other specialized treatments as recommended.
What are the primary goals of Mental Health Court?
  1. Community safety
  2. Systems integration and service facilitation for our defendants
  3. Reducing the criminalization of persons with mental illness and other brain disorders
Hmmm, are they really caring about ‘community safety’ ?

http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2008/03/court_of_hope.html

Juvenile Justice Participants Mandated to Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and Cocaine Anonymous.

Does the Drug Treatment Court Program have special conditions? 

Yes. To finish the program, the minor must:

  • Go to drug counseling
  • Go to a court review every 2 weeks
  • Contact the community worker that supervises them every week
  • Go to school regularly
  • Have drug tests every week
  • Go to ‘12-step’ meetings at least twice a week. This can be Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous or Cocaine Anonymous.
  • Write in a journal 2 times a week
They are mandating juveniles to the same meetings as felons and sex offenders.

http://www.scscourt.org/self_help/juvenile/jjustice/special_courts.shtml

NA Booklet for Parents and Guardians of Young People

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This is a real piece of work. I guess it was just an oversight that they did not include what was told in the booklet for youths Where they encourage young people to talk about their sexual encounters and experiences.This is a shocking writing trying to water down the dangers in Florida NA and trying to put parents guard down to not worry about their children or teens attending meetings.This is a disgrace.

http://na.org/admin/include/spaw2/uploads/files/EN3127.pdf