Co-founder of The New Face of Recovery™ uses personal experience to challenge the idea that addiction is an incurable brain disease.
Clearwater, FL (PRWEB) December 31, 2009 — In the 1950’s alcoholism was voted on as being a disease by the American Medical Association (AMA) and has since been promoted as such, citing there are common characteristics with other diseases. Even today, the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAA) classifies alcoholism as a brain disease and claims it cannot be cured.
However, more than 50 years have passed and even with the most advanced clinical testing there is still no solid proof that addiction is an incurable disease. Brain scans can’t take a sober person who was once labeled as an alcoholic and tell that he has a disease, and there is no blood test to identify someone either. The same holds true with many other mental disorders.
“I was a classic alcoholic with major depression and social anxiety,” explains Lucas A Catton, CCDC, co-founder of the advocacy group The New Face of Recovery ™, “However, it’s been more than a decade since I have displayed any of those symptoms and I will personally give $1,000 to any doctor, psychiatrist, government official or pharmaceutical company that can prove that I have an incurable brain disease.”
Catton says what helped him beat his addiction was a non-traditional program that was long-term and drug-free, which is the type of programs his group supports now as being the most effective. The advocacy group points out that results should be what matters most in addiction recovery, looking at all areas of life including happiness at home, employment and productivity at work, activity in groups, churches and other social settings in addition to measuring sobriety.
The New Face of Recovery movement also says that the use of certain prescription drugs should be a part of this measurement, especially any mind-altering substances, as many of the drugs prescribed in today’s treatment centers still leave people dependent on drugs in their daily lives. In addition, drug and alcohol rehabs that tell their clients they have an incurable disease and give them replacement drugs typically have higher relapse rates.
More addiction treatment centers lately have been using the holistic buzzword and not following the disease theory of addiction, although there are several different types of rehabilitation methods even in the non-traditional category. To find out more information about successful drug rehab centers visit www.newfaceofrecovery.org.
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From: http://www.prweb.com/releases/addiction/recovery/prweb3391314.htm
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