Addiction Treatment

If you think you or someone you love or know has an addiction or substance abuse problem, feel free to contact me. I should be able to help. I have been treating addiction disorders for over thirty years and have written numerous books and articles on the subject. I have also led many workshops and training seminars on addiction treatment for literally thousands of mental health professionals both in this country and Overseas.

When thinking about addiction treatment, it is important to make the distinction between substance use, abuse, and dependency because each requires a different approach to treatment. For instance, a lot of heavy drinkers aren't necessarily alcoholic and some alcoholics aren't necessarily heavy drinkers. In contrast, it is rare to find anyone who uses crack cocaine or meth crystal recreationally and isn't addicted to the drug. Often the distinction between someone who uses a substance recreationally and someone who is a substance abuser or physiologically and psychologically dependent on a drug is difficult to make.

Complicating the diagnostic picture further is the fact that addiction is not a stand-alone condition. It is extremely rare to find someone who has an addiction who doesn't also have a co-occurring condition like depression, anxiety and trauma. It is also rare to find someone with an addiction that doesn't suffer from multiple or rotating addictions like sex, gambling, food and other behavioral addictions that have little to do with substances that are ingested into the body. Add to this the fact that many substance abusers misuse a multiple of drugs, often in the service of combating their depression, anxiety, or boredom; it becomes obvious that addiction is a multifaceted problem that does not always respond to a simple cookie-cutter approach where one size fits all mentality.

For more information, I invite you to read the first chapter of my book, Addiction as an Attachment Disorder.

Click here to download the first chapter.
(PDF/Adobe Acrobat file, 123 kb)