TRIAD TREATMENT CENTER JOINS RECOVERY RADIO AS ANCHOR SPONSOR AND PARTNER IN RECOVERY

Recovery Radio extends its deepest thanks to TRIAD Treatment Center, and its principal financial backer, Tony Vaughn, for it's loyal and enthusiastic sponsorship during the last few months of our show. We wish TRIAD well as it continues its goal of bringing NTR™ to the public. The world needs more prescient organizations like TRIAD who have the insight and vision to know that better ways to address the disease of addiction are now evolving, thanks to the wonders of modern medical science! Thank you, TRIAD!!

TRIAD, located in a convenient office location near John Wayne Airport in Orange County, CA provides addicts with the exclusive and proprietary NeuroTransmitter Restoration System (NTR™). NTR™ is an office-based outpatient medical treatment process that gives the newly-recovering addict a jump-start into Recovery.

NTR™ is a 10 day series of specially-developed and naturally-occurring intravenous amino acid infusions which helps the drug-damaged brain to heal much more quickly than normal upon cessation of drug use, including alcohol.

NTR™ does the following:

• markedly reduces or even eliminates drug cravings
• speeds up the return of normal brain function (speedier return of intellectual function; cognition)
• significantly eases the discomfort of the “detox” phase of drug and alcohol treatment

All three benefits of NTR™ are HUGE and cannot be overstated. In a word, NTR™ is revolutionary and will change the very approach to treatment of addiction. NTR™ likely will replace or supplant medically-assisted detox as the first step in the overall drug and alcohol treatment strategy. It is not a stand-alone approach and is best utilized by seamless incorporation into a 30-90 day inpatient or outpatient drug treatment program that also addresses the emotional and spiritual aspects of the disease of addiction.

Prior to NTR™, there were no truly effective medical approaches to the treatment of drug addiction. NTR™ heals the addict’s brain at the cellular and molecular level. The best we had for addiction treatment prior to NTR™was AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) and other 12-Step groups, which addressed only the emotional and spiritual components of addiction.

There is no cure for drug addiction. There is only lasting remission, and only IF the addict addresses all three components of the disease of addiction. Adding the NTR™ treatment process at the "front end" and including it in a blended three-prong approach (medical, emotional, spiritual) greatly improves the likelihood of ongoing recovery. This blended approach may include formal rehab treatment as well, and should always include ongoing participation in a 12-Step group and getting a sponsor and using him/her. NTR™ is best viewed as a powerful medical tool that provides the addict with a “jump start into recovery”.

We know that addiction is a disease, not a moral lapse or lifestyle choice. It is a three-part disease which includes Medical, Emotional, and Spiritual components. All three elements of the disease MUST be addressed concomitantly in order to expect durable, lasting remission in Recovery.

NTR™ is the missing link in the recovery puzzle. For once, the addict can now address all three elements of the disease of addiction. NTR™ is step one. Rehab and 12-Step participation closely follows; the latter (12-Steps and sponsor) should continue for life.

The NTR™ experience at TRIAD Treatment Center is tailored to the individual addict. It is administered by specially trained clinicians in a comfortable outpatient clinic setting, under the supervision of Medical Director, Dr. Stephen Groth, or his colleague and associate, Dr. Neil Neimark. Dr. Neimark is a board-certified family practitioner with a strong background and understanding of both the disease of addiction, as well as medical approaches to treating it.

Interested parties may visit the TRIAD website for more information, or may call the TRIAD office to schedule a consultation appointment at the numbers listed below.

TRIAD is located at:

Triad Treatment Center
19742 MacArthur Blvd., Ste. 110
Irvine CA 92612.
Phone: 877.664.3550 (Toll Free) or 949.747.1978.
Website: www.tendaytreatment.com 
Email: info@tendaytreatment.com 

Note: Dr Steve has an interest in TTC and assists them in providing this valuable service to its clients.

THIS WEEK'S SHOW - This week's show has been Cancelled
Questions about the topic may still be addressed to our office: 949.273.8490,
or CONTACT US.

Alcoholism Among our Nation's Seniors- Retiring into Addiction

The twilight years are viewed by many as being that period of our lives following retirement during which we can pretty much do as we please. After four or five decades of being productive members of society, we can now kick back, travel a bit, enjoy our hobbies, watch our grandchildren grow up, and leisurely enjoy the remaining years of our life.

Unfortunately, for way too many older individuals, the latter years find them in failing health, losing their spouses to earlier deaths, and in many cases, finding that there's just not enough to do. They become bored silly. And depression sets in.

What to do?? Drink!! And they do.

Alcoholism is rampant among our nation's senior population. Estimates suggest that nearly 10% of those over the age of 65 may be classified as active, chronic alcoholics- just like the overall numbers for society at large. Go to any retirement community or senior village and check out their local Trader Joe's or Stater Brothers market: You will see a steady parade of seniors carrying out cases and bulk-buy bottles of booze, wine, beer, and just about anything alcoholic.

ER's are another interesting place to visit in retirement concentration areas. You'll see a steady parade of gurneys whizzing by, containing older people who've been brought in for falls, accidents, self-neglect, domestic violence (yes!), and acute presentations of alcohol-related diseases like alcoholic cirrhosis - all related to excessive and chronic use of alcohol.

Alcohol in many ways is to the senior population what methamphetamine are to the junior high school crowd: It's the most popular drug of abuse. Already, more than one-third of people over the age of 65 in North America drinks alcohol and 10% of them abuse alcohol. Reasons for this are many. For one, alcohol is legal, cheap, and easy to procure. Also, many people greater that 65 years old in 2006 come from a generation where illicit drugs were frowned upon and even looked upon with utter disgust. Yet, the fact that booze is a drug escapes them entirely, and they are then on their merry way to what in fact amounts to legal drug addiction. In coming years it is likely we will see greater numbers of seniors from the Baby Boom generation who have active addictions to prescription medications (which is already fairly common), as well as to illegal drugs such as marijuana and even cocaine!! 

Although alcohol and substance abuse is statistically at epidemic proportions among the elderly, it remains for the most part unreported, undiagnosed, or ignored. The reasons that substance abuse by our senior citizens goes undetected are varied, but most have to do with the fact they are no longer active in mainstream society and there is simply no one around to notice. Less than half of alcoholics over 65 are diagnosed, a Penn State study has shown, because often the telltale signs of alcohol dependence are masked by patient denial and seeming good health. The researchers found a substantial disparity between the prevalence of diagnosed versus self-reported alcoholism (1.9 percent versus 4.3 percent respectively) in that study- which itself likely is a gross underestimate. Fewer than one in five existing substance abuse programs in the United States offers services specifically designed for older adults, according to a University of Iowa investigation.

This week we will discuss alcoholism in our nation's senior population. We will ponder the numbers and percentages, and we will add up the economic and human cost. More importantly, we will discuss what is being done by our nation's social and public health policy-makers- to address this burgeoning problem. We will find out what makes treating alcoholism in seniors similar to treating it in the younger ages, and how it is different.

Would you like some useful tips, tools, and solutions to help you to address your parents' and your grandparents' alcoholism, or, your own? Then join us this coming Saturday night!

SILENT TREATMENT- BRINGING ADDICTION TO THE FOREFRONT OF AMERICA

The “silent treatment” is what we do when we shift our eyes and our attention away from something we wish to avoid or pretend doesn't exist. It is extremely passive-aggressive. This is historically how America has chosen to deal with its #1 public health problem: Addiction.

"Silent Treatment" is also the name of a vibrant and ambitious upcoming national public awareness initiative and information campaign, which rolled out on August 2nd of this year.

It will bring the subject of addiction out into the open, and into the forefront- as it should be. Addiction affects fully 60% of our nation, either directly (about 10%) or indirectly, the latter by its impact on those surrounding and deeply affected by the active addict.

Jane McDonnell
Project Director
Silent Treatment Initiative

Our guests on our show July 29th were Jane McDonnell and Thom Forbes, both key participants in The Silent Treatment initiative. The intent of the Silent Treatment campaign is to drive readers to their website, where there exists a huge repository of information and resources for dealing with Addictions. The Recovery Radio Show is proud to have been chosen from a large field of existing recovery-oriented radio shows nationwide to participate in the Silent Treatment process. Our podcast is available on the Silent Treatment website on their audio content and recovery radio section.

Jane is President/Project Manager of Public Access Journalism LLC, a media and journalism consulting group located in Crownsville, MD in the Washington, DC area. She is project manager on behalf her firm for the Silent Treatment initiative. Thom is a former journalist who serves as lead reporter for the Silent Treatment newspaper series. This series will premier on August 2nd, being distributed nationwide by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. Their effort operates under a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Thom Forbes
Lead Journalist
Silent Treatment Initiative

Thom is a seasoned journalist who has worked as a newspaper reporter, magazine editor, book author, conference chair, website creator and blogger (www.elephantonmain.com), and who himself is in recovery. So is his wife and daughter. He is Silent Treatment's lead reporter, and writes the kick-off article and several others for their newspaper series which began on August 2nd, 2006. The series is distributed via press wire syndication by the former Knight-Ridder news distribution service, now assimilated into the larger McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT). The intent is to bring attention to the issue and to put pressure on America to change its way of looking at Addiction. The hope is to change how we view addiction; from the historical and inaccurate view as a moral lapse/lifestyle choice, to the much more correct medical disease model and the huge #1 public health problem that it really is.

The planning for this effort began over a year ago and is timed to coincide with National Recovery Month, which is September.

Recovery Radio strongly recommends to our listeners and readers that they take a look at The Silent Treatment website. There is much great information and resources there to help not only the recovering addict with solidifying one's own recovery, but for helping a loved one find it, as well. The whole point of The Silent Treatment project is to bash stigma over alcoholism and addiction, and to provide the tools and resources necessary to find recovery.