Recovered from Addiction

News of Leslie Carter’s untimely death at the age of 25 this week was followed up with reports of the cause of death being a combination of prescription drugs. According to E! Online, “The report was taken by officials who first responded to the 911 call, and per the document, the three prescription bottles found nearby were Olanzapine, used to treat schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, the muscle relaxant Cyclobenzaprine, and the anxiety medication Xanax.”

Leslie was the sister of singers Nick and Aaron Carter died of an apparent drug overdose, and had appeared on a reality show with them as well as some success in her own singing career. This marks yet another celebrity death caused by prescription drugs, which is just a small portion of the tens of thousands of prescription drug-related deaths each year in the United States.

This is one tragic example of why we are such huge advocates for finding drug-free alternatives to treat everyday symptoms. Even unsuspecting prescriptions, especially when mixed, can be highly toxic in addition to many negative side effects. It is a theme you’ll find in the documentary film “Curing Addiction” as well. In my opinion, doctors and pharmacists need to have some accountability for the surge in prescription drug-related deaths, as they share some responsibility in the epidemic. Just because it is a medication or treatment for an unwanted condition, doesn’t necessarily make it safe. We encourage people to explore multiple options when seeking to treat symptoms or conditions by speaking to more than one qualified health professional to see there are non-drug alternatives.

Our thoughts are with the Carter family, especially her infant daughter, as well as all families who have lost loved ones from drug overdose of any kind.

A new study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry looked at more than 600 people seeking outpatient treatment for dependence on prescription opiates. It had two phases. The first phase was to give patients Suboxone (buprenorphine plus naloxone) for 2 weeks and then taper it off over another 2 weeks, in which only 6.6% of participants were reported to have successful outcomes. The rest moved on to the second phase, which meant a 12-week Suboxone maintenance followed by a four-week taper. During this 12 weeks, just under half of the participants were considered as having success (staying away from other opiates while taking Suboxone). Then, within the eight weeks following the taper, just 8/6% were considered successful.

The study claims that traditional counseling methods had essentially no effect on the outcomes of the patients. The study authors then concluded that they believed it is better to keep people on Suboxone for longer-term maintenance.

Wow.

Here is what I see in the study that apparently the authors didn’t. One is that even the first phase of the trial appears to be too long. The interjection of four weeks worth of use prolongs the dependency. I have seen more success when there is a much shorter period of use, such as three to five days, mixed with more intense counseling or therapy.

Another thing is that the study considers that half of the people are successful during the 12-week phase two usage, but fails to point out that 100% of them are still using opioids (of some type) at that time. Is that success? This is a huge reason why in my book and film I am a strong advocate for actually having a set criteria for what success in any form of addiction treatment actually means. What should the parameters be?

The next point is that the patients are only given “standard medical management” (SMM) whether they had any traditional type of counseling or not. Just the simple introduction of specified nutritional supplements would go way above SMM in terms of the overall success. People do better in any type of treatment setting or method when they feel better, and specialized vitamins, minerals and amino acids along with a healthier diet and some exercise go a long way to improving sleeping patterns, energy levels, mood and overall health.

The last point I want to take up is what their definition of counseling is. I can absolutely see how it would be unsuccessful for someone to still be taking or just having withdrawn from Suboxone and not feeling much better have no greater success when their counselors are telling them they have an incurable disease, that they need to take it one day at a time and that relapse is a part of the recovery process. Who wouldn’t go use again? Only the very strong-willed and determined.

This study shows that there is an effort to undermine effective treatments by continuing to push maintenance drugs and tout them as being successful. It also shows me that the mainstream medical community has very little knowledge on how to actually help someone permanently recover for substance abuse. For some insight, check out “Cuing Addiction“.

Since “Curing Addiction” covers several topics regarding substance abuse and the treatment system, it is provides a fresh approach to old and worn out drug-free workplace program videos that have been used in the past. While most of these videos are boring and out-of-date, they still charge institutional prices of $250 to $400 or more per DVD. To counter that, and help make a wider, more positive impact, we are offering the film for certified drug-free workplace employee education at only $199. Click here to purchase your copy.

All businesses that are seeking to become or maintain their status as a certified drug-free workplace are required to have a minimum of one hour of employee education each year. This film presents information that has not previously been available in a format like this, and can easily be viewed together during lunch or at different periods any time throughout the year.

Most employers and employees are unaware of the fact that there are alternative methods of addressing substance abuse that often have better results than their more traditional counterparts. Providing this information to employees helps to educate them in case the need arises to assist someone they know in finding help, as well as giving them a different perspective than other forms of workplace drug education.

“Curing Addiction” director and producer Lucas Catton is also a very imformative speaker. Discounts on speaking appearances are available for any college, business or other organization who purchases an institutional copy of the film. There are a variety of different presentations that he can tailor to your group covering topics discussed in the film and substance abuse in general.

Below is an article I wrote just over a year ago. It is absolutely just as relevant today, if not more so. It was originally posted here at GoArticles.com. In recent times there have been some states that are starting to at least require drug testing in order to receive specific public support. It is a start, but much, much more can be done, as you’ll see below.

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Health care reform has been such a frenetic topic in recent years with heated debates from both sides of the aisle in our nation’s capital, but few of the arguments have touched on one major way to reduce costs, improve productivity and reinvest the money saved into other areas of the budget.

The area in question is Medicaid. While it has helped millions of families with much-needed public assistance, there is a major downfall and abuse of the system. One is through drug companies lobbying to get high-priced drugs paid for by Medicaid (and then promoting doctors who accept Medicaid to prescribe those drugs more). The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) cites federal healthcare spending as “the single greatest threat” to the United States’ budget stability in its new report, The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2010 to 2020. Combined outlays for Medicare and Medicaid currently equal about 5.5 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The CBO reports that under current law, spending for those two programs is expected to keep growing faster than the economy, reaching 6.6 percent of GDP by 2020 and potentially reaching 10 percent by 2035.

According to a report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the combined federal and state expenditures for Medicaid represented 0.4 percent of the economy in 1970, but this percentage grew to 0.9 percent in 1980, 1.2 percent in 1990, 2.0 percent in 2000 and 2.3 percent in 2007.

It’s not like there weren’t warning signs. One example is an article in the New England Journal of Medicine from February 5, 2004, which stated, “Prescription drugs are the fastest-growing component of health care spending. Medicaid has been hit hard…”.

The pattern is quite simple. Get a list of symptoms voted into the DSM as being a mental disorder so that there are insurance billing codes, develop drugs to treat these symptoms, pay off the FDA to approve the drugs, spend millions to lobby to elected officials for public funds to pay for the drugs and many millions more to tell consumers they need these new drugs while already having secured doctors in their pockets. Then develop some new drugs and disorders and repeat the process all over again once the patents run out. Make billions of dollars to settle lawsuits and still profit hundreds of millions of dollars in the end, regardless of the lives lost. This isn’t some theory, it IS what is happening.

On top of that, we have millions of people on Medicaid right now who are not only living off of yours and my tax dollars, but doing so while continuing to take illicit drugs. Real Medicaid reform would put tougher provisions in place to become eligible for Medicaid and reduce spending on pharmaceuticals. Senator Orrin Hatch from Utah is trying to push for drug testing for people receiving public assistance, which could work if the right system regulations were put in place.

Now, I don’t want you to think that I am anti-Medicaid, because that is definitely not the case. In fact, my family received financial help in the form of public assistance at one point when I was an infant, and I know there are millions of people who are deserving of the help and also working their way back on their feet. However, something has to change or our nation’s debt will continue to spiral out of control on this single point.

So here is something that I would propose to start to reverse some of this insanity:

Start by passing a law stating that all adults receiving Medicaid must pass periodic drug tests. In the event of a positive test for a banned substance, then they have the opportunity to attend a rehabilitation program paid for with public funding or another one of their own choosing. There could be a three-strike rule, with two chances at recovering through treatment and losing benefits on the third positive drug test, or something to this effect. This doesn’t mean the door would be shut forever, as they can re-apply for assistance after completion of another drug rehabilitation program and submitting clean drug tests for a period of at least 90 days. Any children involved would not lose their benefits, but they would be given to their caretakers in the interim.

This practice alone could save billions of dollars that could be used to fund other activities, including educational projects, job training, childcare, etc. It would also put more responsibility on the individuals receiving the help and going to treatment instead of relying on the government to take care of them in their condition.

Another adjustment would be that the addiction treatment centers receiving public funds should have to comply with a set of standards based on results, such as with a universal outcome monitoring system to demonstrate effectiveness (more on that later) and hold rehabilitation programs accountable for their services. This would increase the percentage of those who attend and complete these treatment centers of having permanent sobriety, and in many cases this would allow them to take advantage of other public programs for education and job training to begin earning enough income to not have to rely on public assistance.

The third reform practice to reduce Medicaid spending would be to cut prescription drug costs. This could be done by limiting the eligible amount to force drug makers to comply if their patent has not run out yet, so that spending would be equal to other drugs that already have generics at much lower prices. The prescription drug cuts would also include removing drugs that are given for subjective diagnoses, such as many behavioral disorders, without fully substantiated evidence. As covered earlier, these mental disorders are typically voted into the DSM with a series of symptoms, and diagnostic criteria loose, at best. I have seen patients with the same set of symptoms get 3 different diagnoses by three different doctors, all of whom put them on different drugs, when the symptoms were actually CREATED by drugs in the first place. This happens in the addiction treatment field very often, actually. Requiring some form of strict diagnostic testing for it to be covered may be a good idea, such as if it can’t be identified via blood test then it probably won’t be covered, or an equally verifiable procedure.

I just read an article from Reuters stating that a Federal investigation wound up in 37 arrests at a Boeing plant regarding prescription drug abuse. The most commonly abused prescription drugs include painkillers, benzodiazepines and stimulants.

All companies who receive Federal contracts are required to be certified as having an adequate drug-free workplace program. The problem lately has been that prescription drug abuse is harder to detect, especially when some people involved may have legitimate prescriptions for the drug, so even if they test positive it cannot be held against them unless they are obtaining additional drugs illegally. Another problem, especially for larger companies, is that it is harder to detect when there are so many employees.

I believe there are a few things that can make drug-free workplace programs more effective, and the first one starts with the quality of the employee education requirements. Most companies just take the easiest route to meet the minimum requirements and watch the same old, boring videos, read newsletters or have just some local presenter come to speak who doesn’t really provide much information or make a lasting impression. Having the right speaker/education for employees can go a long way to curbing workplace substance abuse. In addition, the better the supervisor training the easier it would be to detect potential problems, as co-workers would be more aware of signs and symptoms to look for, as well as how to approach the situation to help make their job safer and more productive for themselves and others.

The bottom line is that whether it’s a big company like Boeing or a small business, the care and intention behind the components of a drug-free workplace can often make a huge difference.

Well before jumping into this documentary I was aware of the competition in the addiction treatment field. In the last several years, facilities have felt the economic pinch as well, with many having closed around the country or operating at less than capacity. After all, whether they are non-profit or for-profit, someone still has to pay for the services, and only a select number of centers get state or federal funding.

People searching for rehabilitation program options often speak to more than one facility, as they should, before making a choice of where to admit themselves or their loved ones. In many cases, if they tell the people on the phone the other programs they are considering, then they will hear negative points about those other programs. This has been going on long before any economic turns.

I feel that if a program is secure in its services and confident in its results, then there should be no need to verbally attack other centers to prospective clients or anyone else. Instead focus on what it has to offer and how it may be different, but in a positive way. The fact is that all facilities have casualties, problems and mistakes. That is the nature of what is dealt with in this field. Some of the ideas expressed in the documentary talk about how we can improve the overall quality and results of treatment, but even then there is nothing that will work 100% of the time.

When I began contacting interested parties and facilities for interview requests for the film, I got quite a bit of negative comments about others in the field. In fact, there wasn’t a single person or program that didn’t get criticized. Some agreed to be interviewed and some didn’t for various reasons, including wanting to know if their competition is going to be included.

I had to remind each one that this film is not about promoting any particular treatment modality, but instead to highlight the common beliefs and practices that they all had. When roughly 95% of the programs out there are telling people they are diseased for life and most claim they have to take medications to treat addiction, then the few that are left need to be banding together to help create positive change together.

In order to create more opportunities for alternative treatment modalities in regards to equal opportunities on state and federal levels, these programs should be forming a group and focus on how they can help each other. Set differences of opinion aside and see what common ground is there. I was very surprised through my interviews just how much these people and groups did have in common, and know that if they actually took the time to have a civilized meeting with other facilities they would see the same thing and have new friends in the field.

Creating a new group with a unified voice, despite varying approaches, will open doors to sharing resources and information and generate more opportunities to grow. Having an inaugural meeting or conference of some type will help to bury the hatchett and set aside differences, and I’m willing to bet will actually result in a lot of people thinking to themselves, “Wow, why didn’t we do this before?”. I know I thought that when I started speaking to and meeting these other people, and one of my goals is to have a conference to accomplish that.

It is common for people to often choose sides on a topic or discussion. In the case of addiction treatment, polarization is heavy, even among programs that are similar. The side I chose in this film isn’t from an individual program perspective, but rather a few common beliefs that can be found in many programs and groups out there – that addiction is not a chronic, relapsing brain disease that is incurable.

No doubt people will be critical of me and some of the participants in the film. That is fine. I am not promoting their programs, only highlighting their commonalities, and realizing there are many more to be shared. I worked with what I had, but this is truly with the intent of looking for the higher purpose of the project. If critical people can look past the disagreements and find the bigger picture (it takes actually watching the film to accomplish this in most cases), then I’m sure that a lot more positive action can occur as a result.

I want to reiterate that there is zero connection with any particular program or group – this is a completely independent production of mine that was self-financed on a shoestring budget. I’ve endured some heavy personal things both during and as a result of this project, but my belief in the overall message is what kept it going despite the turmoil.

So, before jumping on any specific team or side, if you feel you can relate in any small part based on the trailer or written information, then please watch “Curing Addiction” before passing along any judgment. If you have any questions you can reach me through the contact page on this site.

Sincerely,

Lucas Catton

An unprecedented look at solutions for permanent recovery and fixing our treatment system

The National Institutes of Health claims that addiction is a chronic, relapsing disease of the brain that is incurable but treatable with counseling and pharmaceuticals. This assertion over the past few decades has lead most Americans to believe it as being a true statement.

However, a growing number of former addicts and treatment professionals alike are speaking out in opposition to the disease theory, as there are mountains of data to prove that addiction is not just treatable, but in fact curable.

“Curing Addiction” is a documentary film containing interviews with some of these experts and people who have recovered from different parts of the country. Not only does it explore the disease theory in question, but the film also provides advice and solutions for effective therapies and fixing the treatment system in America to save more lives and tax dollars.

The documentary was written, directed and produced by Lucas Catton, who has worked in the rehabilitation and prevention field for over a decade and is also a former substance abuser. The completely independent production was self-financed over a period lasting several months and spanning 6 states. On- and off-camera interviews were conducted with people representing multiple types of treatment approaches.

“This has been a continual learning experience for me,” says Catton. “I went into this with the intention to find workable solutions from different sources with the focus being on results. I believe we wound up at that point, and I know there are a lot more resources out there with the same goals. This is a solid start.”

Catton indicates that the release of the film during September is significant because it is observed as National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month, which is now in its 22nd year. He wants the message to be that every day there are people are permanently putting substance abuse and the label of being an addict behind them forever in order to move on with life.

The film will be submitted to festivals and the hope is for a cable network to pick it up to be able to reach as wide an audience as possible. Catton is also using it to continue his advocacy work in the legislative realm and bringing the message via speaking presentations. To watch the trailer, order a copy of the DVD and to get updates on the latest happening, visit www.curingaddictionthefilm.com. Media outlets can request a review copy by e-mailing info[at]addictions-recovery.com.

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September is National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month. Now that the initial production of the documentary “Curing Addiction” is complete with the first run being printed as we speak, the important task is to get this film seen by people who should receive the message. This of course includes current and former addicts as well as family members, friends, support systems, treatment centers, counselors and especially elected officials.

One of the major topics is to modify laws to allow for more types of rehabilitation programs to exist on an even playing field. Another point is advocating that treatment centers conduct some type of outcomes monitoring to invest more in results-based therapy.

In order to do this, we are seeking sponsors to get DVDs sent to every Representative and Senator at both the state and Federal levels who serve on the health and human services committees. This means that roughly 1,000 copies need to be printed and distributed. If you or someone you know might be interested in helping this cause, go to this page, click the buy now button, indicate the number of copies, and put in the comments section that they are to be distributed to legislators. Each state has roughly 20 legislators on these committees, so please say which state you would like them to go to, or if you would simply like to contribute to the overall campaign. We will send you 2 complimentary copies for each state sponsored – one for yourself and one to give to someone else.

Many companies today have guidelines in place to qualify them as certified drug-free workplaces. Some states have additional benefits for doing this, but the real incentive should be to have healthier staff who are more dependable and productive.

We have developed a special presentation to meet the one-hour yearly requirement of employee drug education, that is guaranteed not to be covered by anyone else. So this year, why not have Lucas Catton (CEO of Addiction Recovery Consultants) come out and address the issue with your employees instead of the same-old, boring, out-dated and sometimes even misleading or false information provided by other speakers or newsletters.

Contact Addiction Recovery Consultants for more information, including how to get group discount rates for multiple businesses or locations. Drug-free workplace programs should do more than just fill a requirement, and can actually be life- and money-saving endeavors.