Aversion Therapy
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Drug and Alcohol Rehab ProgramsAVERSION THERAPYSchick Shadel understands that sufferers of alcoholism and drug addiction do not lack morality or willpower. Addiction is a physiological problem, affecting the brain. Drug and alcohol rehab aversion therapy, pioneered by hospital founder Charles Shadel, is based on the principles of classical conditioning of the subconscious mind responsible for addiction. |
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Alcohol and other drugs cause false feelings of well-being. More and more confidence is placed in the drug while other survival feelings are ignored and bypassed. The result is a lack of concern for, and confidence in, other areas of life, and physical dependence on the drug.
The repetitious act of drug or alcohol use strengthens the memory. Like a cassette or video recorder, physical experiences stored in the memory can be played back when signaled. Addiction messages to the brain become embedded in short and long-term memory. Drug and alcohol rehab aversion therapy works because it targets the signals for those memories with an aversive response. It pairs the environmental stimuli - like taste, smell, sight and setting - that generally make the brain think of impending pleasure if alcohol or drugs are used, with a medically supervised stimulus to create an unpleasant motor response, such as nausea. Many people have probably experienced this same principle in their lives. For example, you really love cherries. One day you over do it and make yourself sick eating them. Then for some time later the thought of cherries makes you nauseous because you associate them with getting sick. The aversion process works on the subconscious rather than the conscious brain. Aversion conditioning works directly at the brain's core (brain stem) to enact an automatic or subconscious aversive motor response. This response precedes the craving for the drug of choice. For the aversion to work, the conditions that would trigger the craving are conditioned to instead trigger the motor response of nausea and discomfort. Aversion treatment acts to create this aversive sensory/motor response at the threat of relapse, when the patient is exposed to environmental cues that used to bring on the craving - in effect, blocking the desire to use. It works fast and it works effectively. Our patients can begin recovery without that immediate craving to drink or use. The doctors and nurses providing the aversion treatment monitor the level of aversion continuously through treatment and in the follow-up sessions. About 20 percent of addicts have at least two problems: the biochemical problem of addiction, and a psychiatric problem. This is about the same percentage of psychiatric problems seen in non-users. Both problems need to be treated to achieve success, but all too often only the psychiatric problem receives attention. Many have died of their addictions while futilely trying to find out "why they drink" or "why they use." A thorough detoxification followed by a comprehensive bio-psycho-social assessment and 'differential diagnosis' can ascertain what issues exist so that all the issues can be addressed. Mental illness and chemical dependency are both illnesses of the brain. Aversion treatment at Schick Shadel is provided to individuals addicted to alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, oxycontin, vicadin (or any other prescriptive mind-mood altering drug), amphetamines and nicotine. |
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