Treatment Programs

Addiction Outpatient Treatment Program

Addiction to alcohol, drugs, and other substances or activities is a long-term chronic disease, not a result of weakness or a lack of willpower. Addiction has a course that can be predicted; has known symptoms; and is influenced by genes, life situations, and brain activity.

Abusive use of a substance changes the brain, and it often takes months of complete abstinence for the brain to be restored back to normal. Equally, the addictive process alters one’s thinking, creating distorted logic and emotional reasoning, which also takes time to address and stabilize. Therapists, doctors, and others who say they work with addiction, but are not certified, trained, and experienced in this specialized area, often contribute to a worsening of the addictive process and increased frustration for the addicts and their families. The New Leaf Center therapists have more than 40 years of combined experience working with addicts and the addict’s family.

In The Addictive Personality, Craig Nakken writes:

ADDICTION AS A PROCESS: There have been, over the years, many different ways of describing addiction. To cite a few examples, addiction has been described as a moral weakness, a lack of willpower, an inability to face the world, a physical sickness, and a spiritual illness. If you are a family member or a friend of a practicing addict, you may have more colorful ways of describing what addiction is. Nearly all descriptions have elements of truth about the nature of addiction.

 

Addiction must be viewed as a process that is progressive. Addiction must be seen as an illness that undergoes continuous development from a definite, though often unclear, beginning toward an end point.

 

Although there are many kinds of addictions, no matter what the addiction is, every addict engages in a relationship with an object or event in order to produce a desired mood change.

• The alcoholic experiences a mood change having drinks at the neighborhood saloon.
• The food addict experiences a mood change bingeing or starving.
• The addictive gambler experiences a mood change placing bets on football games and then watching the action on television.
• The shoplifter experiences a mood change stealing clothing from a department store.
• The sex addict experiences a mood change browsing in a pornographic bookstore.
• The addictive spender experiences a mood change going on a shopping spree.
• The workaholic experiences a mood change staying at work to accomplish another task even though he or she is needed at home.

 

Although all of the objects or events are different in many ways, they have in common the fact that they produce desired mood changes in the addicts who engage in them. Addiction is a pathological love and trust relationship with an object or event.

 

To be pathological is to deviate from a healthy or normal condition. In an addiction, the addict departs from the normal and socially acceptable function of the object and sets up a pathological or abnormal relationship. The food, gambling, or drugs take on a new function: the addict develops a relationship with an object, hoping to get his or her needs met. This is the insanity of addiction, for people normally get emotional and intimacy needs met through intimate connections with other people, themselves, their community, and with a spiritual power greater than themselves. It is through a balanced combination of these relationships that people get healthy emotional nurturance.

In Facing the Shadow Workbook, Patrick Carnes, Ph.D., writes:

Addiction is an illness of escape. Its goal is to obliterate, medicate, or ignore reality. It is an alternative to letting oneself feel hurt, betrayal, worry, and — most painful of all — loneliness.

The hardest challenge for some addicts is acknowledging that they have a problem. Addiction cripples the core ability to know what is real — our most essential skill — because addicts weave a string of rationalizations and delusions that make it impossible to cope with details like jobs or families.

Addiction often begins simply; reality becomes too much to bear, so we try to escape through drugs, alcohol, or sex. Escaping reality for even the briefest time brings some relief. But when escaping becomes habitual, we have a mental health illness known as addiction. If mental health can be defined, as M. Scott Peck says, as a commitment to reality no matter what the cost, addiction can be defined as its most direct opposite: evading reality no matter the cost — though it may even bring death.

The goal of the Addiction Treatment Program at New Leaf Center is to help clients establish a strong recovery system that supports physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being, and leads to more positive, fulfilling relationships with their friends, families, and significant others.

The Addiction Treatment Program helps clients understand addiction and to identify their addictive behaviors. For all addictions, it is necessary to address distorted, irrational thinking and break down denial systems in order to recognize the need for change. Clients are guided through the process of making lifestyle changes that will help them begin making healthier behavioral choices.

Addiction Treatment at New Leaf Center begins with an evaluation to identify the appropriate level of care. If inpatient treatment is indicated, the therapist will provide the client with referral resources, based on knowledge of and experience with the programs suggested. If outpatient treatment is recommended, specific treatment plans are formulated to address physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual problem areas. Individual and group counseling sessions, as well as participation in 12-step programs are included in treatment plans. Through therapeutic assignments, therapists help clients understand how they have been affected by the disease of addiction, as well as how it has impacted others in their lives. The length of the outpatient addiction treatment program varies, depending on each client’s needs.

Spouses, Partners, Family Members, Friends

Everyone involved in an addictive system is affected by it, and will benefit from learning more about addiction and the progression of the disease. Spouses, significant others, family members, and friends are encouraged to participate in their own individual and/or group counseling to address how addiction has affected their lives and behaviors. Couples and family sessions are also helpful to address specific relationship problems. The New Leaf Center provides all of these highly specialized services.

Addiction has a strong negative influence on our self-esteem, ability to trust, self-confidence, and lifestyle choices. Breaking the cycle is challenging and a lot of work. The recovery process puts us on a road to personal, emotional, and spiritual hope and freedom. The New Leaf Center has been providing knowledgeable, caring outpatient addiction treatment to men and women since 1990.