AA is Faith-Based, Not Evidence-Based
Alcoholics Anonymous is the most widely used treatment for alcoholism. It is mandated by the courts, accepted by mainstream medicine, and required by insurance companies. AA is generally assumed to be the most effective treatment for alcoholism, or at least “an” effective treatment. That assumption is wrong.
We hear about a few [...]

Alcohol rehab numbers outstrip hard drugs
While alcohol was the major sole factor, Mr Pitts said 70 per cent of admissions also listed it as “among their reasons for seeking treatment” and this demonstrated how pervasive alcohol dependence had become across society. It was also viewed as an “easily accessible, socially acceptable and relatively inexpensive [...]

New research on the brain and behavior clarifies the mysteries of addiction by Craig Lambert, Harvard Magazine, March 2000.
Early experiences with drugs, whether in the womb or as an adult, have ineradicable effects. Drug users often describe a wish to recapture the bliss of their first high. But this goal proves elusive because once the [...]

New combination of treatments is effective for alcohol dependence
McLean Hospital researchers, along with colleagues from 11 other study sites nationwide, report that the medication naltrexone and up to 20 sessions of alcohol counseling delivered by a behavioral specialist are equally effective treatments for alcohol dependence when delivered with structured medical management in the Journal of [...]

Alcohol major cause of drug rehab admissions, again
Alcohol has again topped harder drugs like ice and heroin as the addiction which drives the most Australians into crisis rehab. Seventy per cent of people admitted to the major not-for-profit rehab centre Odyssey House, based in Sydney, in the past financial year listed alcohol as among [...]

It’s the Holidays. How About Just One? by Jim Atkinson
I had my last drink nearly 16 years ago, so you’d think I would have assimilated pretty much every bit of unpleasantness associated with clean and sober life in a society that remains thoroughly sodden with alcohol. But I still can’t quite handle the holidays.
It’s not [...]

The Discovering Alcoholic is the blog of a “recovering alcoholic clean and sober without relapse since the fall of 94″

September is National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month. Voices of recovery…

From the Center for Disease Control (Aug, 2008):
The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism defines binge drinking as a pattern of drinking that brings a person’s blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to 0.08 grams percent or above. This typically happens when men consume 5 or more drinks, and when women consume 4 or more [...]

Singer Billy Joel spent time at the Betty Ford clinic for alcoholism treatment in 2005.
Billy Joel leaves US rehab clinic
Singer Billy Joel has left a Californian rehabilitation clinic where he was being treated for alcohol abuse. His publicist confirmed that the 55-year-old had now checked out of the Betty Ford clinic, in Rancho Mirage, [...]