Aversion Therapy Treatment
AVERSION THERAPY
Schick Shadel understands that sufferers of alcoholism and drug addiction do not lack morality or willpower. Addiction is a physiological problem affecting the brain. From this premise, hospital founder Charles Shadel pioneered the aversion therapy used for drug and alcohol addicion. This therapy is based on the principles of classical conditioning of the subconscious mind responsible for addiction.
Alcohol and other drugs cause false feelings of well-being. More and more confidence is placed in the substance while other survival feelings are ignored and bypassed. The result is a lack of concern for and confidence in other areas of life, compounded by 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. Environmental stimuli - like taste, smell, sight and setting, generally make the brain think of impending pleasure when alcohol or drugs are used. These stimuli are used with a medically supervised stimulus to create an aversion, or 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 eat too many cherries and make yourself sick from eating them. Then for some time later, the thought of cherries makes you nauseous because you associate them with getting sick.
The aversion process is similar to this principal, working with the subconscious rather than the conscious brain. Aversion conditioning works directly at the brain’s craving areas (stem) to enact an automatic or subconscious aversive response. This response precedes the craving for the drug of choice.
For the aversion to work, the conditions that would trigger the craving are instead conditioned to 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, the aversion is in effect, blocking the desire to use.
Aversion therapy 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, opiates (oxy, oxycodone, OxyContin, including other prescription pain killers), Vicodin and crystal methamphetamine (crystal meth or other amphetamines).
The Schick Shadel Difference
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AVERSION THERAPY AND OTHER “COUNSELING-ONLY” TREATMENT PROGRAMS
The major difference between Schick Shadel and counseling-only programs is this; Schick Shadel’s medical aversion therapy helps patients lose the cravings for alcohol and/or drugs. With this therapy the “one day at a time” struggle with addiction is usually eliminated.
Aversion therapy uses rehabilitation interviewing, which is a form of light sedation therapy. Combining the rehabilitation interviewing with counseling and education, helps our patients achieve comfortable sobriety.
Traditional addiction treatment targets the thinking/reasoning (cognitive) part of the brain (cerebral cortex). If a person could reason their way into recovery, all that would be needed is detoxification so one could think reasonably again. This may work for some, but, unfortunately, it does not stop the physiological cravings that cause most addicts to relapse repeatedly.
Schick Shadel’s therapy programs include education on the disease of addiction, individual and group counseling, personalized addiction recovery plans, family member involvement with introduction to self-help, and mutual support groups just like traditional counseling programs.
In the end, the dollar cost of counseling-only programs and Schick Shadel is usually about the same.
