Approach to Treatment

Most addiction professionals and people in recovery from addictions have always known that recovery is not as simple as merely abstaining from ONE substance or behavior.  The phrase from Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) 12th step admonishing people to "practice these principles in all affairs" (AA's "Big Book" p.60) is a clear indication that recovery succeeds only when we address all of our addictive issues.  These same people also knew from the very beginning that most addicts have trouble relating to others, as in the "Big Book" phrase: "...self-centeredness! That, we think, is the root of our troubles." (AA's "Big Book" p.62) Historically, treatment programs that have understood these ideas have done well in helping people begin their recoveries. However, most such programs, while well-intended, were simply refining and reinforcing the solid recovery concepts just mentioned without fully understanding the importance of them. (In short, they were doing the right thing for the right reason without understanding why it was the right reason.) Two major clinical ideas have emerged that give new depth, life, and efficacy to these approaches:

First, the recognition of addiction as an interaction of behaviors centered around substances and obsessive thinking which, in effect, "circle and attack" the addict not unlike a pack of wolves, and,

Second, the proven clinical awareness that people with addictions suffer from attachment disorder. This disorder manifests as an ongoing inability to form and maintain healthy, interdependent relationships with others. Attachment disorders are most commonly diagnosed with children, but there is reason to believe that adults with these disorders have not overcome them; rather, most simply learn ineffective ways of living with them.

Knowing these two things, Caron Renaissance has recognized that our clinical services must use the best of professional skills and interventions to create an atmosphere of growth that addresses all forms of addictive behavior and thinking while teaching patients how to form and develop healthy attachments with others. No array of clinical services, no matter how sophisticated or intense, can actually help someone SUSTAIN recovery unless that person finds "something better" in recovery than he or she has found in addiction. "...to watch loneliness vanish, to see a fellowship grow...to have a host of friends--this is an experience you will not want to miss." (AA "Big Book" p.89)

Twelve-step recovery instinctively addresses the issues of addiction interaction and attachment disorder, but for many, this process is not immediately effective because the layers of addiction are intertwined with coexisting psychiatric disorders. Then, too, many are so detached and removed from viable relationships that they are no longer just "lonely" but truly detached from others at a hopeless level. This calls for treatment services in tune with the 12-step concepts yet deeply skilled in dealing with the more complex issues today's addicts and family members present.