Raising People's Bottoms - Kelly K. Talks Treatment Philosophy

I have been writing several articles lately supporting long term treatment. It is one of the ways I am able to give back to the world that was so patient and kind to me.I fell strongly that there is a dilemma the world is going through now that I want to try to describe it in a way that people will hopefully understand.

When people come to treatment, in most cases the patient or client has 1 or 2 reservations - in some cases even more. Being unique can be chronic.

An example of a reservation would be a man or woman thinking that they had a problem with drugs - but that alcohol was never a problem for them, so one day they could drink again socially and not go back to drugs.

Or a man or woman who would see no problem in just smoking Marijuana or believing that after an amount of time clean or sober they could learn to moderate their drinking or drugging.

The reality is that anyone of us for $50.00 or less could OD or find ourselves in a black out where our lives and the people around us are affected. For people who suffer with addiction it is like playing Russian Roulette. Someone will eventually be hurt or killed and maybe imprisoned too. It is only a matter of time.

Well these reservations can be quite costly and in some cases even fatal. That is why I have learned that treatment can work for almost anyone  - if given enough time to recover.

What Happens After Treatment?

The problem is that a lot of reservations are not acted on in the first month or two. A lot of people can keep their sobriety for 30 to 60 days - but what happens when they get out of treatment? This is especially true regarding facilities that are "locked down," (ie closed institutional settings). When life starts really happening, those reservations might come to the surface.

From 60 days on is often when people will start trying their "special spin" on their recommended recovery programs - and many find themselves drunk or stoned again after an experiment.

This can be a major turning point; I can not tell you how many times I have seen a client pull it together after a relapse or even two. There may even be such things as a "therapeutic relapse." Often, this happens 6 to 9 months into treatment... and then  they  get it. It is amazing to watch. Often times I will see alumni with 2 and 3 years and remember the early days when they were with us.

There is no such thing as a 100% controlled relapse. Though in my opinion it is much safer to go to detox and get back into a healthy routine if your whole community is sober - like at Sober Living by the Sea. There are up to 200 people in our community in Newport Beach, Ca, and the surrounding area is filled with happy and sober people from our decades of treating chemical dependency.

The problem is that a lot of those relapses happen after they leave treatment because the person underestimated their disease. They agree only to 30 day stays in treatment. Slowly but surely the world is beginning to realize that 30 or even 60 days is not near enough to make the kind of changes that everyone wants.

In the early days around AA the recovery rate was better because most people came to the program badly mangled -  completely out of "ideas" about what they needed to recover.

At Sober Living by the Sea, for the last 25 years we have been raising peoples' "bottom" -  and then allowing a sufficient time frame to work through any reservations that tend to pop up on the way to being recovered one day at a time.

Raising the bottom has left ourselves open to many different opinions. We have grown confident that the program works just fine. People come around eventually and pain is a great motivator. And when people are ready, almost anyone could deliver the message.

One of the things that separate us from other treatment facilities is that we understand that people may not really be ready for a long time. We have "living problems," drugs and alcohol were just a symptom of our disease.

Some people just have try it their own way to get their own experience. We are here and we listen and and agree and say "its ok, we understand."  Until there is a miracle cure, we will continue playing the odds.

If people don’t drink or drug – the odds are good they will not get drunk or stoned.

And if they do get drunk or high, let’s do it in as controlled of an environment as possible so the person can get it out of their systems, learn a lesson, and become a little more willing with a little better attitude. Then we build a defense and a network that protects this type of thing from ever happening again.

I hope no one ever has to go to treatment, but if they do, whether it is the Salvation Army or Sober Living by the Sea, I hope they give themselves time to heal from a progressive fatal disease.

I suggest at least a year of treatment. This is a good foundation to get used to something we will be doing for the rest of our lives. One day at a Time.

Sincerely

Kelly T. K.