How Can The Power Recovery Program Help Me?

End Your Addiction Now
by Charles Gant, M.D. and Greg Lewis, Ph.D.

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The Power Recovery Program has one purpose: to help you, as a recovering substance user, improve your outcome, regardless of what else you do. By "improve your outcome," I mean dramatically increase the odds that you'll be able to successfully recover from your substance problem. You'll notice that I haven't said that you need to abandon any treatment strategy you're using now. If you're following a traditional recovery strategy, you've got about a one-in-four chance of success. If you combine that strategy with the Power Recovery Program, the evidence suggests that you'll increase your chances of recovery to five out of six. Even if you're not currently following a recovery plan, the Power Recovery Program will give you the best chances for complete recovery. The program is unique because you can use it as a standalone strategy, or you can combine it with any other program you're currently following.

The three patients whose case histories I outlined at the beginning of this chapter will give you a good idea of the different ways the Power Recovery Program can work. Both Jane and Esther decided to discontinue the programs they were following. After our first appointment, Esther immediately stopped using her nicotine patch. Within twenty-four hours of beginning the Power Recovery Program, her cravings for cigarettes had completely disappeared. "It took me about two months to become a nonsmoker," she said, "but it only took one day to quit cigarettes." She went on to explain what she meant by "becoming a nonsmoker": "I had to get over all the little habits associated with smoking, like reaching for a cigarette in my purse, or thinking I needed a cigarette after dinner. I didn't crave cigarettes at all. But I had to get over going through the motions of smoking."

Michael's parents' first reaction when they realized their son had a substance problem was one of anger. They felt as if they had been coerced into putting their son on Ritalin without having been given adequate background information. They were unaware, for instance, that Ritalin is classed, along with heroin and cocaine, as one of the most addictive substances known. In fact, Ritalin disrupts brain chemistry in exactly the same way cocaine does. Fortunately, Michael's experience had a very positive resolution. The results of a series of diagnostic tests I prescribed for him showed the real roots of Michael's behavior problems: He had elevated lead levels (heavy metal poisoning) as well as digestive problems that prevented him from absorbing certain nutrients in his food.

His father's response was, "Why didn't our family doctor discover these things?" Unfortunately, the answer is that he didn't look for them. Michael's doctor went for what I call "the ten-minute solution." He did a cursory examination, then prescribed Ritalin. It's modern medicine's equivalent of the Old West gunslinger's creed: "Prescribe first, ask questions later." Within two weeks of beginning the regimen of nutritional supplements designed to detoxify his body and restore his impaired digestive function, Michael no longer needed Ritalin, and his behavior had improved remarkably. His mother's comment sums the situation up: "He's actually behaving better now than he did when he was taking Ritalin."

Jane was able to stop drinking almost immediately and taper her Prozac dosage down to nothing within two weeks after she began taking the Power Recovery Program nutrients. Within three weeks, her attitude had brightened significantly. "You know," she said, "my situation hasn't changed that much, but I really feel like I can cope with it now. For the first time in two years, I'm in touch with my feelings and not masking them with alcohol or prescription drugs." Jane began to see another therapist who understood the benefits of the Power Recovery Program and worked with Jane to help her deal with her true feelings.

I've talked about the low success rates of traditional addictions treatment programs, and now we're in a position to understand why those success rates are low. To put it simply, none of the traditional strategies takes into account the physiological basis of substance abuse. While no one denies that there are emotional and psychological components to many, if not most, substance problems, the fact remains that if you ignore the biochemical component of substance use, you can expend tremendous resources on psychological and emotional support and still not get to the primary causes of the substance problem.

About the Author

CHARLES GANT, M.D., Ph.D., a member of the American Academy of Psychiatrists in Addiction and Alcoholism, served as medical director for the Tully Hill Hospital, a drug rehabilitation facility in Syracuse, NY. He is now in private practice and lectures widely on biomolecular medicine and his substance abuse therapies.