.IIilI A]III IAMITIY The Soap Opera Goes On

The Long Boad Back ‘After-care’ for drug and alcohol abusers

t the Betty Ford Center in Rancho short “detox programs” have, Mirage, Calif., patients are prohibited he says “a failure rate of90 to from receiving phone calls for their 100 percent within a couPle of first flve days of treatment, cannot keep months.” For that reason, evany medication they might have-not even ery reputable rehab center Provitamins or mouthwash-and are assigrred vides its patients with an afterchores: Elizabeth Taylor hauled garbage care program to follow after and hosed down the patio. At the Smithers release. Though the require- Center for Alcoholism and Drug Treat- ments vary, they generallY inment in New York City, where New York clude weekly follow-uP visits to E-AP Mets pitching ace Dwight Gooden spent the the clinic for meetings to talk Comeback Gooden with manager Dauey Johrtson last four weeks, residents trying to kick the about learning to live sober. habit go through a program that harkens But a primary goal of manY back to grammar school: they meticulously after-care programs is to get patients into party at which many people are drinking. copy out statements, such as a list ofdefini- Alcoholics Anonymous or a similar sup- Clinics therefore teach patients to identify tions ofsobriety, and attend lec- port group that uses AA’s 12 such cues and deal with them-to quickly tures. But when patients com- steps (chart). “Meetings are leave the party, for instance, or find new, plete the standard one month of your lifellne,” says Betty Ford. non-coke-snorting friends. in-house treatment at a rehabilitation clinic, they are onlY -Er- RUG D The clinics often urge Patients Most centers have patients return for to attend 90 AA meetings in counseling after release. Graduates of beginning what may be the their first 90 days back home Smithers usually return two or three times and, after that, to attend regu- a week at first, then once a week for about most critical part oftheir recovery: after-care. Even doctors and psycholol It t’l \ tf larly, or whenever they feel the two years, says associate director Dr. Allan need-for the rest of their lives. Lans. Gooden, who tested positive for cogists who debate the merits of Sometimes, just going to meet- caine use late in springtraining, is expected various treatment Programs ings to help others will keeP an to receive psychiatric counseling up to agree on one thing: a few days or weeks addict on the wagon. Mrs. Ford, for in- three times a week. One reason for mandaspent in an alcohol- or drug-treatment stance, regularly works with patients’ tory follow-ups is that patients who’ve center is not enough to wean patients One relapse-prevention strategy recog- grown accustomed to leading disciplined from their dependency. Some 80 percent of nizes that old,environments can trigger old lives at the treatment centers are more addicts, be they drinkers or drug abus- habits. Ex-patients encounter “cues” that likely to suffer a relapse when they have all ers, fall off the wagon at least once, says can prompt them to reach for the bottle or daytothemselves. Sportsstarswhoseyouth Dr. Thomas Kosten ofthe Substance Abuse the white powder once again. The cue and huge financial resources make it extra Treatment Unit at Yale University. And might be”a friend who uses cocaine or a hard for them to recover might especially benefit from the continued scrutiny. Some clinics also offer after-care sessions for family members of patients, partly because do- 12 $tep$ to a llew Life mestic problems that may have triggered a coke habit will not necessarily have disap- Many rehab units urge patients to join Alcoholics Anonymous, whose 12 steps peared during the patient’s stay. have been used to bat1le everything from drug abuse to compulsive overeating. tllinor slips: Despite the best after-care, some relapses areboundto occur. Theriskil. We admitted we were powerless over 8. Made a list of all Persons we had alcohol-that our lives had become harmed, and became willing to make est period is the first 90 days after disunmanageable. amends to them all. charge. But after-care can keep a minor 2. Came to believe that a Power greater 9. Made direct amends to such people slip from becoming a renewed addiction. than ourselves could restore us to sanity. wherever possible, except when to do so The Veterans Hospital in Seattle found would injure them or others: that 70 percent of patients who completed 3. Made a decision to tum ourwill and our lives over to the care of God, cs we under- 10. Continued to take personal inventory its nine-month after-care program mainstood Him. and when we were wrong PromPtlY admitted it. tained complete abstinence or had only an 4. Made a searching and fearless moral isolated relapse during that period; 80 perinventory of ourselves. I l. Sousht throuqh praver and meditation , to imprdve our cdns’cioirs contact with God, cent ofthose who dropped out of after-care 5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to as wi understood Him, praying only for had serious relapses. Certainly there is no another human being the exact nature of knowledge of His will for us and the power to sure-fire cure for the estimated 17.9 milour urongs. carry that out. lion alcohol abusers and 5.8 million cocaine 6. Were entirely ready to have God remove 12. Havine had a spiritual awakening as the all these defects of character. users in the United States. But after-care result of tfiese steps, we tried to carry this seems to be the best way to keep them on 7. Humbly asked Him to remove our message to alcoholics and to practice these shortcomings. principles in all our affairs. the road to recovery. REPRINTED WITH PERM1SSION OF A.A. WORLD SERVICES INC’ Su.e.nor.I Bsc LrY with M tnx Mrr,r,nn in Wrehinpton. M tcH e rL Rnrsr in .Los :

Angeles and Kin e u S pn I N c En in New York :

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66 NswswpEK: MAY 11,1987 o :

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