Georgia Rehab Blog

Cocaine addiction is a national problem. Billions of dollars have been spent on research to treat addiction to this terrible drug. So what’s another million. Right? I’m referring to a 1.4 million dollar grant our Government made to a Professor of Psychology at Texas A&M who plans to study the effects of cocaine on the brains of rats. I assume the purpose of the 5 year long study will be to develop better methods of treating cocaine addiction in humans.

Currently, drug rehab in Georgia programs for cocaine addiction yield poor results. Fewer than 1 in 5 addicts treated at a conventional drug rehab facility permanently kick their habits.

At first then, it would appear that further study is warranted. So why do I disagree with the grant? For one, as I mentioned we’ve already spent billions of dollars to study this problem, much of which has gone to the psychiatric community. Why continue to throw good money after bad, if we have little to show for our investment?

If you take your car to a mechanic to be repaired but still continue to have the same problem after he’s worked on it, do you take it back to him? If so, how many times?  Unless he fixes your problem, eventually, you’ll say enough is enough. Right?

Why do we continue then to go back to the psychiatric profession for solutions to human suffering? 

I’m also annoyed because the grant on its face assumes that no workable therapy exists to handle cocaine addiction. Which is false. Nearly 8 in 10 addicts kick their habits after being treated at a Narconon drug rehab center, one of the programs we refer our Clients to. If you know someone who’s hooked on cocaine, you don’t need to wait 5 years for a solution. Help is at hand. I wish you success.

Fritz Alders

Managing Partner, Georgia Alliance 

If the future is not guaranteed to us, why not just live for the moment?  Why not just do what makes us feel good? After all, tomorrow may never come.

That’s how a drug addict thinks. Those are the words he lives by, words which inevitably excuse his destructive behavior.

Michael Jackson had everything to live for…three beautiful kids, a legion of adoring fans and a legend which now is just a legacy. Yet, for the sake of the moment, he threw away his future.

But why? The answer, I believe, is that it was easier to live for the moment, a reality he could alter with drugs than to live for the future, a reality shaped by the entirety of his life and which had little by little been destroyed by drugs. Of course, in the end living for the moment caused him to live in one final moment forever.

Many people knew Micheal had a problem. But none took enough responsibility to help him handle his addiction and get his life back.In the tragic loss of Michael Jackson, the lesson is clear…there’s no time like the present to ensure that tomorrow may in fact come. With effective drug rehab in Georgia  the future is yours and it’s bright.

Fritz Alders,

Managing Partner, Georgia Alliance

I read a wonderful success story today written by a young addict. With the help of one of the programs we refer people to, she has beaten her drug problem for good.

In her essay, she described addiction as like being at war with herself. Drugs laid siege to her body and mind and won battle after battle until she learned how to fight back.

A war within oneself is an apt analogy. Like an enemy, addiction leads an unrelenting assault against the body as it saps the mind of the resolve to fight. As the battle rages, self control is one of the main casualties. And with the loss of control, comes the near resignation to a permanent surrender.

When an addict first takes drugs, he thinks he can control his habit. What a lie. Through an insidious mechanism of giving him pleasure or for the moment taking away his pain,  the chemicals convince him that drugs are all right. That he needs them.

But they are like an enemy cell intent on betraying him and besting him from within. Sooner or later he realizes his mistake. But it’s too late. By then, they’ve got more than a foothold into his body. They’ve erected a prison and enslaved his mind.

To successfully rehabilitate the drug addict, a drug rehab in Georgia program must eradicate the physical and psychological reasons underlying addiction.

Drug residues which accumulate in the tissues cause cravings and are the source of continuing physical addiction. As the addict succumbs to cravings for more and more drugs, he loses control.

To beat addiction for good, a program must help the addict conquer his cravings for good. This can be done by removing all drugs residue from the body with a deep cleansing detox. Once physical addiction is handled, the user can fight back and tackle the psychological reasons for his continued drug use.

The next step is to arm the addict with effective tools to handle his life. With such help, he will regain his ability to confront his problems and thereby control his life. It was the loss of control that caused him to lose his battle against drug addiction to begin with.

In her essay, the young woman described her addiction as like being at war with herself. She doesn’t have to fight anymore. She’s won. I congratulate her for regaining control of her life.

Fritz Alders

Managing Partner, Georgia Alliance

An old Client of mine confessed that she has a drug problem. Her son’s an addict. How can I convince him to enter drug rehab in Georgia?, she pleaded. He’s worried that if he stops using drugs, he won’t be able to handle the pain.”

An ironic question, I thought. From what I gather, he’s suffering terribly from his drug addiction as it is. He can’t think clearly, can’t hold a job, and in general can’t handle his life. How could it be any worse for him being sober?

“Why leave the decision up to him I asked?” Well, he has to want to get better, doesn’t he? It’s his life after all. Shouldn’t it be his decision?”  

No. I don’t think it should. You see, in the later stages of addiction, the addict has been thoroughly drained of his ability to think clearly and he has become more and more dependent on hi family for support. As much as when he or she was a child.

So then why leave the decision about rehab up to an addict? He doesn’t have the wherewithal to make a good decision anyway. And since he’s shirked his responsibility and burdened his family with his problems, they should have more say in how to handle him.

So this is where a little tough love goes a long way. An approach using a combination of  ”it’s my way or the highway” with a big dose of love and care for his well being can help an addict make the right choice to get the drug rehab he needs.

Fritz Alders,

Managing Partner, Georgia Alliance

No matter our actual political affiliations, at heart many Americans are Libertarians. They prefer freedom over fiat; self determination over dogmatism.

But I’ll take issue with Libertarians at least on one point: Drug use is not a victimless crime. At a minimum, both the user and his family are victims. They suffer physically, emotionally and financially.

And just because the user had a choice doesn’t make him less the victim. A fundamental rule exists in product liability law that a manufacturer is liable from an injury resulting from a product defect if the user was not aware of the defect. If you climb a ladder and it breaks, the manufacturer is liable if he didn’t post proper notice of weight limitations or  if you didn’t sign a waiver.

An illicit drug and many prescription drugs as well, are inherently defective. They damage body and mind. But though it’s well known that drugs can kill, I still believe the user should be considered unaware of their dangers and so to be a victim.

You see, unlike a rickety ladder, the inherent defects of drugs are cleverly hidden by a pleasurable high or temporary relief from pain. But if the tradeoff is addiction, I think it’s safe to say that users don’t fully know or at least understand the inherent risk that comes with drug use. Who would sell his body and soul to the devil if he knew he’d burn in hell eternally?

Taking drugs victimizes more than the user and his family. Just yesterday, 12 federal agents killed in Mexico by the La Familia drug cartel. With so much money to be made selling drugs, the pushers, whether they be drug cartels or drug companies, are not likely to give up their lucrative business without a fight. And that poses another defect in the argument that drug use is a victimless crime and why we continue to oppose the legalization of drugs or the use of them in drug rehab in Georgia programs.

Fritz Alders

Managing Partner, Georgia Alliance

“Relapse is enemy number 1,” so read a recent headline in a  Jakart newspaper. The article that followed told a typical story of two heroin addicts. They began with cigarettes, crossed the line with marijuana and then crashed through the gates of hell with meth. Now they’re heroin junkies, forever damned,  it seems.

They’re tired of being addicts, they lamented. But no matter the threat of jail or the times spent in rehab, neither has been able to beat addiction for good. For them relapse is as much the enemy as their addiction.

With each failed drug rehab, relapse weakens the addict. It saps his physical strength and saps him emotionally as well.

It takes more than committment and resolve to beat addiction and prevent relapse. It takes an effective drug rehab program. One that takes the addict off drugs for good. One that cleanses drug residues from his system for good. And one that helps him confront his problems and handle his life for good.

The fight against relapse is won in the addict’s body and mind. Fortify both, and addiction is gone for good and relapse with it. If you need help finding effective drug rehab in Georgia, please call us. I wish you much success.

Fritz Alders

Managing Partner, Georgia Alliance

With so many things in life, there’s just no substitute for the real thing. But it’s not so with drugs. You see, the active ingredients in drugs mimic many chemicals our bodies produce naturally. The more drugs a person takes, whether they be illegal substances or prescribed by a doctor,  the less his body produces naturally. This leads to drug dependency, in other words a greater or lesser degree of addiction. 

With most drug rehab in Georgia programs, doctors prescribe drugs as part of the treatment. This leads to a physical dependency on drugs.  Basically, the addict is taken off his drug of choice and then “addicted” to another or other drugs.

If not for their potentially nasty and dangerous side effects, this would not be a problem. But it is.  And why? Because drugs make you dependent. The more you take, the more they take over.

 In a recent study cited at UPI.com, doctors in Denmark found that 40% of healthy  individuals who had never been bothered by heartburn or acid reflux before developed these conditions after using and then stopping use of proton pump inhibitors, acid blocking medications. These are commonly prescribed and  considered amongst the safest drugs on the market.

Yet despite their relative safety, they still cause harmful effects in the body.  If  “safe” medications can cause dependency and harm, imagine the dangers of treating an addict with more powerful medications. It’s not a pretty picture.

The best rehab in georgia ends drug dependency. Don’t settle on a program that prescribes drugs except for the initial withdrawal phase.

Fritz Alders

Managing Partner, Georgia Alliance

In my blog, I often rail about the dangers of prescription drugs used in treating  addiction. And for good reason. Isn’t the goal with drug rehab in Georgia to handle drug dependency? How is that accomplished if we just switch the addict from one drug to another?

It’s not enough to take an addict off his illegal drug of choice only to make him dependent on a powerful prescription drug, no matter how legal it is. 

Most traditional rehab centers do just that…they take the addict off off illegal drugs and put him on legal but dangerous medications in a misguided effort to handle his addiction. So he’s not addicted to one drug, but he’s dependent on others? This doesn’t compute. For drug rehab to be effective and complete, the addict must be permanently quit drugs. Can you imagine an alcoholic being cured by substituting beer for hard liquor? Of course not.

In many ways, legal drugs are like illicit drugs. Both create mental and physical dependencies. Beyond dependency lies the inherent dangers of taking drugs. Years ago I fell ill with hepatitis. I went to a liver specialist for treatment. Over the next few weeks, I visited him four times. Twice during my sessions, he was called out for emergencies. Patients of his had overdosed on one of the well known pain killers that’s been in the news recently and were in liver failure. Their livers failed!!

If a commonly used drug that you can buy over the counter can wreak so much havoc on the body, imagine what harm prescription drugs do. You can’t depend on drugs to anything but hurt you in the long run. Which is why I will continue to advise my Clients to see a drug free rehab program. Drugs always end up hurting in the long run. (PLease note…even with drug free rehab, it’s often necessary to wean an addict off using drugs during the first phase of treatment.

Fritz Alders

Managing Partner, Georgia Alliance

“Take 2 pills and call me in the morning.” Oh, if it were only that easy to get rid of a health problem. Yet with the mother of all health problems, addiction, many drug rehab in Georgia programs take just this approach.

Psychiatrists at the typical pharmaceutically oriented rehab programs approach their patients from the limited perspective of the body. They believe that drug addiction stems from a chemical inbalance in the brain and prescribe a host of prescription drugs to deal with it. But no proof of such an imbalance exists. And even if it did, it would take more than pills or methadone or some other drug to cure his addiction.

The effective way to deal with drug addiction is with an organic approach.  Such an approach addresses addiction from multiple perspectives: through body, mind and soul.

An organic approach to drug rehab beats popping pills hands down. One program we refer many of our Clients to cures four times more patients than comparable pharmaceutically oriented programs. Four times more.

So tell your doctor to set down his  pen and prescription pad. Tell him instead that you’re going to  put your son or daughter or friend or self in to the hands of a program that takes an organic approach. That treats the whole person.

If drugs are your problem, drugs alone are not your answer.

Fritz Alders

Managing Partner, Georgia Alliance

Some win. Some don’t. In the latter camp, count Micheal Jackson, a man of incomparable talent but, as well, a man of incomparable flaws. Whether his flaws led to drug use or drug use to flaws, one may never know for sure.  But none would argue that drugs have a powerful sway over one’s body, mind and soul once they take hold of an addict.

Take Patrick Kennedy, House Representative from Rhode Island and Ted Kennedy’s son. He’s just finished his second stint with drug rehab. Now if a man of his ability and his wealth can’t make it out right side up the first time through rehab, you know full well the power of drug addiction. Fortunately for him, it appears for now that he’s won his battle. Some win. Some don’t.

To make it into the winner’s column, my best advice  is to fully appreciate the difficulties that drug addiction poses, the dangers of underestimating its hold or the consequences if left untreated and the urgent need to find effective rehab.

You can find effective drug rehab in Georgia with the help of a professional. But time waits for no man. Get on it.

Fritz Alders,

Managing Partner, Georgia Alliance

“I totally surrendered to my powerlessness over the illness,” Kennedy told us. “The fact [is], I can’t do it by myself and need a higher power to help me. I get on my knees every morning and pray for that help.”

Kennedy, who turns 42 next week, underwent a 28-day program at Father Martin’s Ashley addiction treatment center in Havre de Grace, Md., about an hour-and-a-half outside of the District. It was his second time undergoing a drug and alcohol addiction treatment program.