BREAKTHROUGH ADDICTION RECOVERY HOUR

OCTOBER 18, 2008

ADDICTION AND THE SLOW ECONOMY

Jill: welcome to the Breakthrough Addiction Recovery Hour, my name is Jill Mattingly and with me is another person that has been with me before, Dr. Lois Dutton. I am keyed up today ready to come out of my seat, a rollercoaster ride so get ready.

Lois: I am advised of that and I won’t try to take over.

Jill: (laugh) Lois tell a bit about your background,

Lois: We have been down this road so many times but people should know that I have been around since Jesus was an alter boy and a hodge podge background that enables me to talk about a number of things. I have and undergraduate degree in nursing we know that, I have a masters in public health and epidemiology and a PhD in education and a certified addiction counselor so you can come at me with just about anything and I can at least fake it.

Jill: Yes, and I have seen you do that

Lois: That is what education does for you.

Jill: We are quite a team today and we are going to address things going on in the world and if you want to call and get in on our conversation or ask a question of Dr. Dutton, everything but how to can pickles, she can’t do that you will really be in trouble then,

So, anyway, if you would like to call in

Lois: or okra

Jill: Stop, if you want to call we are talking about addiction today and we are going to bring in what is going on in the world, in our economy and everything that is out there on the radio and tv, the election and everything and we are going to nail it down to the issue of addiction and how this could be a problem for some people this time of year and

Lois: It is a big problem right now

Jill: 770-226-0920 that is the number to call, 770-226-0920. If you are outside the Atlanta area it is 1-888-920-2665, if you would like to call and you can also listen live on www.920wgka.com, listening live if you have someone in another city they can listen too, I think a lot of folks can benefit from this topic. The economy and uncertainty fueling addiction. At Breakthrough we focus on Alcoholism and prescription drug addiction and dependency, mainly lortab, percoset or benzodiazepine like clonopin and we see an uptic in these uncertain times in addiction. There was an article just out we found a lot of information on the internet on this topic. This was called “Economy Driving People to Addiction.” It goes down that road and this fellow Dr. Mitchell Walick is Executive Director of Care Addiction Recovery and he is observing an increase in calls to his center. They are seeking addiction treatment because it is corresponding in the down turn of income and mortgage foreclosure and signs of economic distress, this is what is on people’s minds especially addiction professionals like us. It is on our minds because we see people effected in recovery and then there are those that never had a problem are developing an addiction.Lois: That is what is disconcerting to us, these real issues that face all of us in this country now leave none of us fully prepared to deal with the anxiety, the uncertainty and just plain fear that is very very real, this is not artificial it is true across the board and all of us are now put in the position trying to find ways to soothe ourselves and calm the internal fears that we have about tomorrow. When are we going to end up in a depression like the 19290’s. Nobody really knows and that uncertainty goes out like it is pervasive, it is everywhere and we all are put in the position of finding a way to get through these times and watching things like we were speaking of earlier. Unemployment rates, retirement accounts and with the loss of employment there is loss of healthcare and there is all kinds of fears that are generated and are very real.

Jill: I like what you said about calming the internal storm. These can be stirred up in these uncertain times, sometimes the internal is not dealt with. Most of us now we walk down the street and are not just dealing with the worst, we look around a people are experiencing problems. Like that so, as addiction professionals I believe that this is a good time to give important advice on how to handle the fear and what it stirs up and what it could create in terms of behaviors that could take you down a road you don’t want to go. People listening today are those that may go home at 5pm and look forward to a cocktail or a few glasses of wine to take the edge off, but when you throw into that the possibility of a foreclosure, or layoff, difficulty with the business making it you know we are looking at that turning into a whole bottle.

Lois: If two can do it then 3 to 5 can do more,

Jill: We want to talk about founded and unfounded fears and we want to talk about what fear is doing in our brain first of all. IF you don’t know how a disease works, it is very difficult to overcome it. We will talk about what fear is doing to your brain and how does it translate into a behavior that can create the problems we are talking about. I want to stir the pot too

Lois: I better hold on to my seat

Jill: We will get a lot of calls on this too; the crunch time going into the last 20 days of the election, is that right gene? 18 days, ok, Gene is on top of this. The last 18 days, what are some unfounded fears too, that should be fun to talk about, we will try to manage calls for that too, 770-226-0920 we are going to talk about addiction and the uncertain times we are living in today we will be right back.

Commercial Break

Jill: Welcome back to the Breakthrough Addiction Recovery Hour, the number is 770-226-0920. I am here with my co host for the day, Dr. Lois Dutton and the number is 770-226-0920 to call for more information. Dr, Dutton can explain anything in the world, so if you have questions just call her. Brian is on vacation this week my name is Jill Mattingly, again the number is 770-226-0920. Our subject is the economy and the uncertain times. Addiction and how it drives people into this addiction. We have talked a bit about fear in the first segment and as we come back we want to hit fear a little bit. Fear is nebulous and we need to squeeze it down to something that our audience can identify with.

Fear can be generated in a lot of different ways and you have given us a list of fears causing stress right now in the world.

Lois: Fear when manifested is uneasy uncertain unknown um, we don’t really know and understand what is going to happen we see things every day and experience with our neighbors and friends and family members, people losing their jobs because of uncertain economy and losing their retirement accounts. Some of us um that are near that threshold of our life don’t even bother to open our monthly statements because our blood pressure would go to the top of our head, it’s real when people lose security and healthcare benefits go away and what if they have an illness and what if they can’t make a mortgage payment and lose their home, the uncertain and unknown that all of us are facing today Jill, is just because of the economic problems that have occurred in the last month or so of this country. It is a matter of personal choice how you go about coping within yourself uh with your anxiety and discomfort and your uncertainty we all handle things in different ways and some folks we know um, are those individuals who because of past experience and past behavioral responses that have become so consistent that they now have reached the point of being almost always the way they chose to cope.

Jill: Lois I understand you know you are talking about the real things that are going on and I think what gets me is when I turn on the tv or listen to the radio and there is fear being generated artificially over ,

I was trying to bring up about the last 18 days of the election and people talking about something terrible happening after the election is over and then you are compiling on top of the unfounded fear, these people are having to deal with an artificially generated feeling about what candidate you know is going to do what and I thought it was interesting when you said that you choose how you will cope and something that happened beginning of the week, the Alfred E. Smith Dinner was an interesting way of dealing with the stress of the election using comedy as a stress reliever and that tells us that is a good way to let off some of the stress and let off some of the feeling of ringing someone’s neck, instead I will tell a joke. (laugh) I enjoyed it immensely and it started me thinking, if they can do this so can we but unfortunately we are out here feeling the stress from the election and economy and then you have the percentage of people around us that are looking for ways to cope with drug and alcohol addiction.

Lois: Jill you can barely take a step in our world today without being bombarded with someone’s opinion or someone’s take or someone’s view of what’s going on and of course my advice is always for people to decide for themselves and what they believe and how they feel about the issues that are facing us as a nation and get on with it and do not

Jill: The most important thing is old age vs. no experience, (laugh)

Lois: (laugh) that is one thing we hear all the time, that is one of the things that how do you decide between a man with tons of experience and sometimes looks

Jill: Ok, the number is 770-226-0920 we are not talking about fear itself, you have nothing to fear but fear itself,

Lois: and it was an old guy that said that

Jill: vs. inexperience. You know the way we cope comes from the way the brain interprets fear

Lois: We getting back to an area we know

Jill: Um, you have a part of your brain called the amygdula next to the limbic system where the control of emotions occur it jumps in and allows you to feel stress and elevation of anger or emotion towards the guy that just cut you off in traffic. The best way to describe what the amygdula does is, if you have a cat, do you:

Lois: used to

Jill: I have two and they are ruled by their amygdula, I know you will look this up but cats when they are afraid of something you know a person walks in that they don’t recognize or a dog and they get that look on their face their eyes are like saucers their ears puff up, that is a pure _response.

Lois: unadulterated

Jill: So that is fear personified, we don’t do that as much, um we don’t freeze in our tracks or puff up but what is happening in our brains is that the amygdula is stimulating other parts of our brains to figure out what to do about the impending problem. We are memory machines also we remember what makes us feel good ok? That is actually what makes addiction so difficult to treat because addiction is stored in the memory the memory of what makes you feel better. When this is stimulated it asks the brain what to do. Now, many people have put in their memory that when they drink or take a pill it will calm the way you feel right now and the brain follows suit with behavior to get that done. Let’s drink or take a pill, so what we are dealing with is fear can create a long line of responses in the brain before we are even aware of it and then before we know it we are in a full blown behavior that actually started maybe two hours before and it is just now you know translating into behaviors that will lead you into an addiction of the substance that is going to help with the way you feel modulating your emotion. So drinking and taking pills such as lorbabs, xanax, all of those can help you modulate you need to know where to interrupt your circuitry, after the break let’s talk about therapy and addiction treatment and teaching people how to interrupt that behavior process, so 770-226-7920, we are getting into the addiction treatment modality, stay with us this is the Breakthrough Addiction Recovery we will be right back.

Commercial Break

Jill: 770-226-0920 that is the number to call and we are waiting on your call to talk about addiction and economic uncertainty and how to help yourself or your loved one stay in a clean and sober state during this time of uncertainty or how to seek help during this time of uncertainty and we do see an uptic in the amount of calls and the amount of people inquiring about addiction treatment during times like these. I want to make sure you know that at Breakthrough we can help you address the issues that you are going through in terms of the increase in your drinking and increase in your drug use or any other type of substances to help you through this time and we can do it by making a phone call and we can do a free consultation which is where we sit down with Lois or myself or Brian and we will discuss what is going on and it is not a situation where we say the same thing to everyone, no. Everyone is different and it is individualized when talking about many layers of stress and difficult times and addiction.

Lois: Part of what is very critical for folks to understand that part of our role and what we really uh diligently try to do with everyone who comes through the door is to sit down and look at options within that person’s life and within their circle that they can utilize to take the place of always going to a drink or to a drug let’s explore options and what else is out there for you that will help you to cope with what the internalized fears are and the internalized

Jill: No everyone will meet the criteria that we have for our addiction treatment and we are outpatient and we have many come in that absolutely do need an inpatient setting to give them the barriers to the substances that they need. There are people that come in and they are active in ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS and it has worked for them to a point and they want more therapy or more information about the disease process and we have many different types of people who are helped by Breakthrough and so I want to encourage you if you or a loved one are struggling right now with addiction and you need help I want to say right away because when you start to go down a slippery slope or socio economic drift in uncertain times you can lose the ability to get the help you need such as losing health insurance and that can translate into limited resources available to you to get the help you need and also what if you have a physician or job that does not allow you to go inpatient or to do time in a addiction treatment facility. We try to remedy that by being outpatient in the evening, however, you may have a job that there is no missing anymore because too many lay offs are occurring and that would target you for losing your job. You have got to think about getting help as soon as possible if it is entering your mind that maybe I do have a problem and you may not know because it could be normal to drink one bottle of wine per night. If you feel like you are having consequences by using drugs or drink, um there may be a time or this may be the time

Lois: No question, just pick up the phone and call Breakthrough

Jill: A licensed professional will help you go through and choose the help you need, but also we at this radio show what we are trying to do is get people thinking about addiction treatment thinking about problems that occur from drug and alcohol addiction. That is what we are all about and I want you to call if you have a question or comment or to talk about your addiction treatment that has helped you stay firm during uncertainty. 770-226-0920 let me say it once more, 770-226-0920. How the brain reacts to fear there are a specific amount of occurrences and you don’t understand you will fall prey to the end behavior if it is drinking or drugs. So, getting into a facility or a situation that you can learn about this disease process is very important.

Lois: We are all about the biochemical bottom line for addiction it is a physiological that is our premise and we treat it as such.

Jill: I can’t believe I talked through that whole segment

Lois: You did

Jill: When we get back we will talk about what addiction treatment does for you in terms of helping you understand the disease process so call us at 770-226-0920.

Commercial Break

Jill: My name is Jill Mattingly I am the Director of Operations at Breakthrough Addiction Recovery and with me today is Dr. Lois Dutton our jack of all trades.

Lois: Correct

Jill: We are talking about addiction and how it pertains to uh, what is going on in the world today and the economic uncertainty and fear the underlying fear and stress causing an uptick in the use and addiction of drugs and alcohol. We spoke of fear and the brain reaction to stress and fear and the unnecessary fear that is out there right now in these last 18 days. Experimenting if I say President John McCain, do you have fear? President Barack Obama, do you have fear?

Lois: Can you believe she said that?

Jill: Um anyway we are talking about artificially generated fear and unfortunately that is muddying the waters for real fears and stressors that are out there in the economy with the financial state of many households or foreclosures and the fear response and how that can cavalcade come and talk to us before it becomes a problem.

Lois: Not only the escalation of use but people who have been struggling in staying sober, um, there is a real problem for people who have had periods of non use and now they find the fear and anxiety and uncertainty encroaching on the comfort level that they have not reached. People get so fearful so stressed so caught up in all of the uncertainty then the memory we talked about that famous piece of the brain will kick in and immediately people will remember that they know what to do to take the edge off, a beer or drink and it is going to be certain that it will take the edge off for me, so not only people who are not in recovery but people who have been in recovery for a while who are now experiencing that added stress so either way what we want folks to really really understand is that you can pick up the phone and call us we will talk to you on the phone, you can come and see us and sit down with one of us for free and let’s just look at what is going on let’s look at how do we shore up this sobriety you have had or how do we help you get into a position where drugs and alcohol are not your first choice. If you continue to use Jill we talk about the storm the external storm the internal storm that people are experiencing right now well we’re talking about the perfect storm down the road when all of these things come together and are fueled by drugs and alcohol and they have drugs and alcohol for any of us who want to use the drug and the alcohol has an incredible ability to calm those fears and it will happen it is a very powerful chemical response in the brain um, we could advise folks to go out and take a long vigorous run and they will kick in and get the endorphin but it is not going to be equivalent to an immediate rush of heroin or cocaine or bourbon or what have you, it is going to give you and not take the edge off but these are legitimate options that we can help folks explore if you will just come in and sit down and talk with us.

Jill: Let’s talk about some of the programs that might work for people struggling right now, we are talking to people right now who are trying not to go past one bottle of wine per night. The bottle of wine per night in succession for many months every single night may be a problem in itself. If you are really trying not to go beyond that it is probably time to talk about this. The programs we offer are intensive outpatient which is basically a combination of understanding the disease process of alcohol and drug addiction and understanding how to create a road map for recovery out of that type of behavior and also what are the triggers and what are the craving levels you are at and how to fight that in order to fight you need to understand the neurobiology of addiction which is very important.

Lois: That is the major part of psycho education teaching individuals so that they understand the disease they have acquired and how to manage it going forward.

Jill: And the need for a support system. Many come with it in place with ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS and are looking for more intensive services and uh we do offer also groups in the evenings and we also offer Smart Recovery which helps to kind of do you know interact with peers if you are not already in a group setting outside of Breakthrough. We also very much encourage especially if you are dealing with co-occurring disorders um, therapy from a licensed therapist that can understand the marriage of the addiction and the co-occurring disorder like anxiety and depression.

Lois: We have also built in to our program as a family and as such we build into the program an opportunity for the family to participate and it is a necessity.

Jill: We are going to the break and when we get back we will discuss the family and how they can help. 770-226-0920 the number again is 770-226-0920 we will be right back.
Commercial Break

Jill: Welcome back the number is 770-226-0920 for the Breakthrough Addiction Recovery Hour and I am thinking for some reason about pumpkins and I don’t know why, when I came back in….oh, they are sitting in front of us, why am I thinking about pumpkins, ok, radio show host, Breakthrough, get back on track Lois

Lois: We have to be serious here

Jill: We are talking about our program at Breakthrough and the things that can help a person get through uncertain times and the possibility of having with drugs and alcohol and you were talking about our family programs.

Lois: Family education, families are so critical to the recovery network because of the support that they can either um, give to the recovering person or the road blocks that they can throw up for individuals and this is the power of the family um, we bring families in and we include them in part of the addiction treatment process to give them the same benefit of education and so we understand the disease that has come into their family and has caused problems that is very important, the we know that the success in any addiction treatment program goes up proportionately when we increase that network and that support system that gets cocooned around the individual who is struggling. At Breakthrough we become part of that support network because we have a long extended um, opportunity to work with our clients just because they come in for the intense part of the program the beginning, then the follow up with after care that can last a year or more depending on how long the folks want to stay with us and how long we are being therapeutic for them and that is very important and what we offer to those coming Jill is the therapeutic relationship that we develop, all of us whether we are intentionally involved one on one or otherwise, people coming in know us by name and know that they can come in any time and sit down with any of us for a conversation that we are all open and available and all willing to work with them. I think that the other piece of the program and I am going to say it right out loud we can never underestimate the power of prayer and the power of reconnecting for a lot of our individuals reconnecting with the spiritual program that many of them have sort of divorced themselves from either because of their own feelings about themselves or because they feel that they have strayed so far from God as they understand Him that they can not um, get to the place of being forgiven again and it is extremely important that people reconnect with the spiritual base because in the darkest hour the power of prayer is still operative.

Jill: I will let you go there, I agree with you. I think that as people are facing the things they are you know I am facing certain things as you are in these times but we have an overwhelming need to band together and make sure we are talking about it with another person and not let it take us down the pathway into worsening drug addiction or alcohol addiction and also just like you said to reconnect us with what is important and the vertical relationship as well as horizontal and we do embody that at Breakthrough. We are at the last minute of our show today and I just want to say that you can find a lot of information on line at our website www.breakthroughaddiction.com we are in Norcross a simple drive and I say that because there are not as many on the road these days with gas prices a simple drive from anywhere in the nation. You can call us for a free consultation at 770-734-8091 if you would like to come in and talk to us, ask for Lois by name and she would be happy to speak with you.Lois: I do hope that anyone listening that just our bantering between friends our words I hope have had meaning for you, call us and let us talk with you and show you that there is hope.

Jill: Join us next week 3pm this is the Breakthroug

BREAKTHROUGH ADDICTION RECOVERY HOUR

OCTOBER 8, 2008

INTENSIVE OUTPATIENT PROGRAM/ALCOHOL POISONING

Brian: Welcome Atlanta to the Breakthrough Addiction Recovery Hour, my name is Brian Fujii my co host Jill Mattingly is not with us today and our special guest is Dr. Reginald Riley. He Is our coordinator for our evening programs at Breakthrough. Welcome Reggie.

Reggie: Glad to be here

Brian: We are going to be talking about several of our programs we have in the evening and how to help our clients stay clean and sober and today we will be talking about Intensive Outpatient Program. It is a beautiful day out there and I am sure we are competing with the Georgia game today. Our phone number here is 770-226-0920 again the number is 770-226-0920, or 1-888-920-2665 outside the Atlanta area and on line www.920wgka.com so we will be streaming! Dr. Riley is our newest addition to our program at Breakthrough and coordinating evening programs for us and Reggie we are excited about what is happening. Tell us about it.Reggie: The Intensive Outpatient meets Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, three nights a week from 6pm to 9pm so that is three hours a night nine hours a week. And we meet for four consecutive weeks.Brian: I can see that many times people out there who may need some type of help as it relates to addiction with alcohol or drugs so if it is in the evening it is a benefit for those that work in the day.

Reggie: It is designed for people who can not make it to the day addiction treatment program which is Monday through Friday 10 – 2pm and this is designed for those that work or have difficulty getting away. It allows them to come in and meet during that time and keeps the schedule that fits their lives.

Brian: We hear this a lot and I do a lot of consultations and we offer free consultations out in the general public wanting to learn more about the program. The first thing they ask about is an evening meeting to fit their needs, and initially we would just have them get involved with individual therapy but now with the new INTENSIVE OUTPATIENT program it is a real help. We have a call! Mark in Atlanta.

Mark: How are you guys doing?

Brian: What is your question

Mark: I don’t mean to put sulking I have been smoking now for 14 years and I moved from New York where cigarettes are $9 and moved here they were more affordable and I can’t quit and working from home makes it even tougher and it is a dirty habit and I want to live a healthy life. What do you recommend, I really I am so used to it in the mornings and breaks at work and I mean I know I don’t compare it to other things but it is so bad for me.

Brian: Interesting you say this Mark, we do know that nicotine and alcohol are the most critical and addictive medications because after all nicotine is a drug and it the thing about it is that it is legal. That is a real challenge that we face. In our program trying to quit smoking and drinking is the toughest because they are always around us and there are medications that people can uh, work with their physicians and they can talk with them about using uh certain types of anti-smoking medications and also too like any other addiction process, it is important to talk with a counselor about the situation to get the help you need. When you are alone it is easier to quit and being in an office can be a trigger. Many times if you will get together with a smoking cessation program there are many programs out there and also there are medications that you can take to help you decrease the craving for smoking.

Mark: What are the side effects?

Brian: Depending upon individuals there are minor to none. In some cases some do have side effects that may increase anxiety or possibly we have heard of some that increase aggression on some rare occasions. I dare say that you should get with your primary care physician and be able to find out uh, what type of medication might be best for you but I would dare say that it is very important that you get good counseling support. It is your emotional triggers that internal feelings the anger frustration or whatever you are experiencing that causes the need to smoke.

Mark: No doubt about it.

Brian: I would recommend that you take a look at smoking cessation clinics. Reggie do you have a though on that.

Reggie: Mark I would definitely say the primary care doctor to help you to curb the alcohol cravings of wanting to smoke and nicotine is an addiction and you also need to address the psychological factors or what it is you are craving that helps you when you are depressed or stressed or bored like you said your job working from home so it could be when you have free time or when you are bored.

Mark: I take a break from home it is all the time and I look at the build up of ash trays and it is disgusting and is like it just makes me feel like such a dirty person.

Brian: You are not a dirty person but certainly the habit can become uncomfortable and I do think you are ready to do something by your words today. You have come to realize that …….the major negative consequences that you might be facing and it could be a situation other than that.

Mark: The funny thing is that the two drinking and smoking are often associated and the funny thing is that I can control my drinking and it is not a problem and drugs have not been a problem and I have a brother who recently overdosed with heroin and the funny thing is that those type of things have not been an issue with me, but I will take a cigarette and stick exhaust from a car in my mouth and it is not immediate and it doesn’t and I just know it is so bad for me.

Brian: Mark we are at a break so hang on and we will talk more about the other piece that you are feeling. We will be right back and you can call in at 770-226-0920.

Commercial Break

Brian: Welcome Back 770-226-0920 is the number to call for the Breakthrough Addiction Recovery Hour. My special guest is Dr. Reginald Riley and he is working in our evening programs and we are excited to have him here today. We are going to get back to Mark in Atlanta. I was checking again about what you could do medication wise and I know that there are several out there and Chantix and Xyban but you need to check with your physician for the appropriate medication. I know you are aware of those in your life that have died as a result of abusing drugs, and I know that is a tragic situation and was wondering have you found this to be something in your life right now and you want free of it.

Mark: Well, I mean I have seen the results of the effects of being a heroin addict and see it first hand and how it ruins your life. Matter of fact the you know and it ruins the childrens lives and the mother now who is or will probably be on methodone the rest of her life and we recently saw in the paper that she was busted and eventually she is going to kill herself or she is going to go to jail. This poor kid has suffered enough and it is really tragic to me to see that someone can’t beat life they can’t beat a drug for life for love. My addiction I can’t compare the two because I am not stealing from people and lying to my family but most maybe it is what I have been through lately that makes me want to quit. I feel dirty and don’t and I go to school at night and around people that don’t smoke and I feel bad over the habit.

Reggie: I was sorry about your brother, but I do see you finding some positive in it by realizing that your addiction is struggling and you want to get help and you should follow up with your doctor if you have one and if not seek one out to speak with about possibly getting some of the medication to put your addiction and also pursue counseling.

Mark: I think I will, I always wish I had been able to help my brother, um, we tried but maybe we were a family of enablers but he couldn’t help himself and then you blame yourself, is there like people out there who need to speak to a stranger or are there programs out there that if you are an addict and I lost someone close to me, are there any services that require or a stranger can call and talk to someone. Do those exist? Somewhere I can get help.

Brian: Well, you can go and take a look on line and there are various places like ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS hotline or NA hotline and you know if you want to participate and volunteer you can call them and it is sometimes very helpful because there are those out there that are trying to say who can I talk to? We do this with our program, example, if you want to get the ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS hotline the number is 404-525-3178. Give them a call and get the information of who is needing assistance, and that you again could take a look and find out about your recovery I know there are always people out there looking for help.

Mark: One more thing there is a song out there called “How to Save a Life” someone dealing with someone addicted to drugs and the lyrics are moving.

Brian: Your information has touched a lot of lives. Have a good day.

Brian: Here we go, gosh an individual out there struggling and one of the things we see as we go through addiction recovery people sometimes think it is just them and yet we hear people like mark as a loved one someone in their life that they really cared about and that loss has impacted their lives as well as others. Addiction is not a solo event it really has an impact wide range not only for the person who is suffering but from family members and friends and the community in general, so you know what do you think when looking at INTENSIVE OUTPATIENT at Breakthrough how do we address this?

Reggie: Right, we definitely address negative consequences and even in day addiction treatment and individual therapy. We have the family education that we recommend that our clients attend so that the family can understand exactly what they are going through and understand their addiction.

Brian: That program we do the family on Wednesday evenings from 6pm to 7:30pm. 770-226-0920 if you would like to join this conversation we are having today. Dr. Riley our special guest and newest staff member at Breakthrough and if you would like more information our website is www.breakthroughaddictionrecovery.com and you can get a lot of information about our various programs and I want to touch quickly about family ed because that is a program that helps the family members. So many times the more we talk they realize how the negative impact has effected them. The word enabler what is that?Reggie: An enabler in some ways supports the use or encourages the use you could say is helping to cause the use of the individual that is using whether by buying it or not confronting when they are using illegal drugs so the enabler is an active participant of the drugs and alcohol.Brian: In some cases in the enabling they may not actively condone the behavior but by their passivity and not addressing it or maybe in some ways making excuses for the using and that sometimes causes a lot of folks to say it must be ok. We are at another break here so call us at 770-226-0920.

Commercial Break

Brian: Welcome Back we are talking about the outpatient services at Breakthrough Addiction Recovery and giving options to those needing an alternative to day addiction treatment and the new program has started for Monday, Tuesday and Thursday nights from 6pm to 9pm for four weeks. It is a wonderful program and gives our clients an opportunity to review why they are being triggered and gives great opportunities to look at coping skills to help deal with their addiction issues. Addiction is defined as an obsessive compulsive behavior. When I ask the question how much time is spent in drinking and drugging behavior I get the answer, all day long. That certainly is anger and depression are characteristics of getting people to use. So what has been the comments we have heard,

Reggie: A lot of things we hear are people dealing with the financial market whether it is the owner or someone looking at retirement and now seeing their savings go down and now the money has dwindled and they say that stress has made them angry and they are coping by drinking and using drugs.

Brian: As a result that is where we must help them look at coping strategies and obviously these situations seem to be overwhelming and I have found that as we work with our clients and we begin talking it through I love our statement, “Talking keeps you sober, secrets keep you sick” We hear so often that they don’t want to talk or share their thoughts and yet what happens is that as they begin realizing they are in a safe environment and while there working with others who have the same problem with their drinking shat usually happens

Reggie: They open up and we see in INTENSIVE OUTPATIENT individuals meeting in a small group and there is a clinician and initially they clam up and don’t want to share the most intimate details but once they realize they are safe again with a clinical professional and people like themselves they begin to open up and also understanding it is safe and confidential which is important to understand and at Breakthrough everything is confidential and..

Brian: Many don’t want people knowing their business and you know any particular situation that is a professional uh, addiction treatment facility obviously confidentiality is number one and we recognize that and honor that fully at Breakthrough and we hold your confidentiality in sacredness,. This is what we want to help the general public to know that whatever is your desire the problems with the economy and many have been downsized and are struggling and need help, maybe this is the time to do it. Maybe this is the opportunity uh, that they may be having a severance package and a situation they are needing the help that they need, this would be the time to do it. I want to remind you of our website www.breakthroughaddictionrecovery.com and see the host of programs for providing addiction treatment needed for your struggle with drugs and alcohol. We are at another break, 770-226-0920, we will be right back.Commercial BreakBrian: We are back and our telephone number here at the station is 770-226-0920, you know here at Breakthrough Addiction Recovery we offer a wide range of addiction treatment programs for those suffering from alcoholism and opiate addiction those that may be struggling with cocaine or marijuana I know there are a lot of folks listening today and you know you need to get the help. Please go to our website at www.breakthroughadditionrecovery.com and my guest Dr. Reginald Riley will be speaking with us about outpatient programs at Breakthrough. Many people are at sports bars today and trying to say we are going to win the game and not realize that they are binge drinking right? What are the issues faced with this,.Reggie: One of the major issues is alcohol poisoning this has been in the news lately but one thing college students are at risk of blackouts or anything from binge drinking and talking about alcohol poisoning and binge drinking for typical adult is defined 5 or more drinks in 2 hours for men and for women it would be 4 or more drinks. It is Saturday afternoon a lot of folks a tailgates, sports bars and they don’t realize they are binge drinking and it could definitely lead to alcohol poisoning.Brian: You know we see the definition like we said was five or more drinks so when you take a look at this well it is a six pack and you drink the whole pack you are a binge drinker. You have worked a lot with college students and prior to coming and working with us what are some of the things you have seen as far as on the college campus that young adults do as far as drinking patterns. Do they struggle or do they blow it off.

Reggie: They definitely struggle but from their perspective they blow it off. It is a social norm for college students to binge drink on the weekends and it is so socially acceptable and if you don’t know your risks then you begin to participate in that behavior and we see a lot of that with both men and women on campus, and if you are listening or parents please call us if you want to talk about this 770-226-0920.

Brian: Many times they don’t know, for those that are experiencing dependence on alcohol or other drugs, first of all there is tolerance and tolerance is part of that characteristic you need more and more of that drug or drink in order to get the same effect, so if two beers used to do it now you need six. The second is withdrawal,

Reggie: Withdrawal is when you take the chemical away from your body and your body goes through physical changes due to missing that chemical in your body.

Brian: Is that dangerous?

Reggie: It can be deadly,

Brian: If that is the case then they need to go to the emergency room and the third component is that if they keep on using despite the negative consequences and get several DUIs and still handle it. 770-226-0920 we would be very interested in hearing your opinion and the time is getting by us and wanted to talk more about alcohol poisoning.

Reggie: Some of the symptoms or signs of alcohol poisoning could be mental confusion and stupor going into a possible coma or an individual that can’t be roused. Counseling on college campuses I heard that a lot. Don’t just take them home to bed you need to look for slower breathing fewer than 8 breaths per minute and also your regular breathing is 10 seconds between breaths and hypothermia can come from alcohol poisoning.

Brian: 770-226-0920 we would love to hear your opinion about these topics and again if you are looking for a program that can help you or your loved one go to our website at www.breakthroughaddictionrecovery.com . Reggie as we take a look at alcohol poisoning. I have heard people say coffee or cold shower or sleep it off that it will help people overcome their um, alcohol state,Reggie: Totally false,Brian: You may need to get some help, call us at the station today. 770-226-0920 and we will be right back.

Commercial Break

Brian: Welcome Back to the Breakthrough Addiction Recovery Hour, my name is Brian Fujii with my special guest Dr. Reginald Riley. We have affordable programs to help you and your loved one get the addiction treatment they need and we offer a very important program called the Matrix model and we really do a lot of education and we also offer medications that help individuals decrease alcohol cravings and we would like you to visit our website at www.breakthroughaddictionrecovery.com and you can give us a call at our offices 770-734-8091.We offer a wide array of services and when you come in we offer a free consultation at no charge at all you can come in and talk with our clinicians and find out what the issues are that you or your loved one is facing and we can help you design and develop a specific plan to help meet those needs and help you or a loved one overcome addiction to alcohol or other drugs. Reggie we were talking about alcohol poisoning and some of the characteristics since you are working with some of our young adults in the college programs and you know we look here at some of the characteristics and we talked about this, what are some of the ways that we have people kind of making fun or thinking that you know getting drunk and passing out is an ok thing to do, why does that happen?Reggie: People drink to relieve stress so when the weekend comes the students want to study hard and play hard. We used to say in college counseling and they get to a point that took a lot of hard work so they want to play hard on the weekends and begin drinking and binge drinking in excess and not realizing what the consequences may be and not knowing what alcohol poisoning is. One of the main things is that alcohol depresses the nerves that control involuntary actions such as gag reflex and breathing so a fatal dose of alcohol could stop these functions and if you stop breathing while asleep or blacked out and nobody monitoring you they would not know and you would simply not wake up and that is a very important part of alcohol poisoning and it begins to stop and depresses those automatic and involuntary functions.

Brian: We do know that aspiration where people having passed out as a result of drinking if the gag reflex has been disabled and as a result they vomit as an irritant they can actually aspirate and into the lungs and they die. So this is a very very serious situation and we know that many college students um, die as a result of this kind of alcohol poisoning and also because of um, car accidents and we see this happening also too studies we have looked at there is a high incident of college students at the brunt end of intoxication as a result of acts of violence and that can cause a lot of chaos and as a result we find many do not sign up for even a second semester because the alcohol is such a great problem.

Reggie: Students have issues with drugs or alcohol and then don’t return the second semester.

Brian: This article says that when they do pass out they feel that it is ok and because the fact that the alcohol continues to feed in to the bloodstream and as a result they can actually have some problems with gag reflex and respiratory system shutting down. Wish we had more time, well listen if you have a question about our program go to www.breakthroughaddictionrecovery.com and we appreciate you being here Dr. Riley and look forward to our upcoming programs. Join us next week.

BREAKTHROUGH ADDICTION RECOVERY HOUR

OCTOBER 4, 2008

Brian: Good Afternoon Atlanta and welcome to the Breakthrough Addiction Recovery Hour, my name is Brian Fujii and my co-host is Jill Mattingly and Jill is still smiling from last week and the great time we had at Breakthrough in Norcross. Our on site radio show and today no applause or an audience.

Jill: Yes, nobody here to clap for us.

Brian: We are looking at the fall and everything getting nice and cool and in my neighborhood the trees are changing and take a trip up to North Georgia

Jill: Thanks Gene! (Background applause) The clapping machine now I feel better I can do the show. Ok, “Is it ok to call you Joe today Brian?”

Brian: Whatever you want to do

Jill: I wore my Sarah Palin glasses today and now I have to talk like her. Ok, addiction is a serious subject and not as serious as the failing economy and we can loop that back to addiction somehow

Brian: We spoke of the impact a few weeks ago and how it can increase the use of alcohol.

Jill: When you talk about the Fall Season, football, changing weather, many people in the park this morning at the Green Market, packed as it usually is on Saturday when I am there. They were out and about and could have been drinking a bit but this is the type of day people kick back watch football, drink beer and enjoy the weather so it is that time of year and people are going to start you know imbibe a little more and they are more in a party feeling every weekend, games to watch and things to do and we are heading into that season

Brian: Especially with the kids going back to school and also we see this obviously with college age and they are going back and we know what is happening on those campuses and we have spoken of that several times with binge drinking and that is huge on the college campuses today.

Jill: You have Oktoberfest, football parties, and parents need to be talking to their kids about drinking when they get the freedom away at school. What are your choices going to be? You have brought some information today of how parents can help their kids in this situation.

Brian: The statistics, when you mention parents, it is so important to help young people to understand the dangers that go along with drinking especially with binge drinking and there is responsible and irresponsible drinking. Just be cause you are drinking doesn’t mean you are irresponsible. This is a talk show so call us at 770-226-0920 is the number and if you are outside the area 1-888-920-3665 and the local number is 770-226-0920.

Jill: A call in show and if you hear something that compels you to comment we want to encourage you to do it and you may be helping someone else out there today. We had some great calls last week and I expect a few more this week on this subject.

Brian: Last week we spoke before the show, I was very excited and last month was celebrating recovery and we heard truly the voices of recovery last week and it was just exciting and to hear people who have gone through addiction treatment and received the benefit of it and are staying clean and sober and I will not forget the young lady calling in excited about how her addiction treatment worked for her and repeated addiction treatment works.

Jill: Perfect simple statement right there.

Brian: We have to understand sometimes it works and sometimes it takes a second try. If you are persistent it will change your life. One thing again, we are talking about an article you gave to me about this fact here about medications and how we are also talking about moms and being able to deal with the addiction issue but we will get to that in a few minutes.

Jill: What I wanted to get to is what does a parent do when their kid is going off to college and what are the statistics that are occurring on the college campuses.

Brian: The study that was done was amazing and I looked up the National Institute on Alcoholism and they came up with an interesting study they show that college students age 18 to 24 contributed to an estimated 1700 student deaths and also it was looked at that 599,000 injuries occurred and 97,000 cases of sexual assault or date rape occurred each year while they were in school as a result of the use of alcohol. What we are finding out is that alcohol addiction on the campuses today really has a lot of negative impact and we really need to be educating and I know we spoke earlier about trying to get more education on the college campuses and to help people take a look at alternatives and not just binges but controlling the alcohol cravings.

Jill: Usually the spring break parties are more off campus at the beach but this time of year on college campuses with the excitement of the football games and the social events going on to get people to know each other, before they are actually settling in to the routine of studying and classes, this is usually the time when you will see these problems that you cited. Even more important for parents to know let’s sit and talk about this and talk about what alcohol poisoning is what it might feel like you are doing fine for a while and then it hits like a ton of bricks, you wake up and you aren’t where you thought you were.

Brian: Many people don’t wake up and as you mentioned alcohol poisoning. It is a deadly disease. 770-226-0920 is the number to call if you would like to get involved in this discussion and I know some of you may already have young sons or daughters on the campus and they may already be engaged in this type of behavior. Maybe you want to share your concerns, 770-226-0920.

Jill: One of the reasons I wanted to discuss the parent/college situation. There is a study of parents more specifically moms and how their beliefs may impact how their child or young adult will use alcohol and I do want to get into the study when we come back from the next break and ask you a few more things about parents words to their college students. What would you recommend in working with many families during our family education program do you ever hit this on the Wednesday night program?

Brian: Yes and again from two different perspectives and helping the student many of who are in our program. We don’t take adolescents and many of these are struggling because of peer pressure. Number one is peer pressure and one of the things we will be talking about later in the show is how the example that parents are exemplifying because of their peer pressure how does that carry over. One of the things is we need to talk with them very bluntly about consequences of excessive drinking and that may sound simple and direct but I mean

Jill: Have you tried to talk to a young adult ?(laugh)

Brian: Especially about over drinking, some say don’t drink at all . Of course the first thing they want to do is revel.

Jill: A lot of these young people learn about over indulgence and heavy drinking from going to a party and seeing someone being effected by large amounts of alcohol or hearing of someone passing away after too much drinking. Many of these young people don’t know it exists until they see it first hand and so parents can actually jump the gun and get information in their heads so they know what they are seeing.

Brian: We also see the point of rebellion as if they are now out from under the wings and living in their own

Jill: I never did that!

Brian: You are still rebelling! What we see is that many times this is their badge of courage and they leave home and demonstrate that they can take care of themselves and they are living on campus with the fraternities and expectations and there they are and that peer pressure is so strong that they want to use and the question is how do I deal with that peer pressure.

Jill: We are coming down to a break and talk to how even 70 year old parents talk to 50 year old kids. 770-226-0920 we will be right back after this break, stay with us.

Commercial Break

Jill: Welcome back to the Breakthrough Addiction Recovery Hour, 770-226-0920 is the number to call and we are talking about alcohol and the use addiction dependency of college students. We were just talking a little bit about the fall season and how it brings out a lot of heavier drinking situations for the young adults and we aren’t going to leave the older adults out of it but we are talking about the 18 – 24 year olds going to the college campuses and the temptations and pitfalls of drinking when you are in that freedom situation and you had a great point that you gave us

Brian: I noticed in this article it says that first year students living on campus may be a particular risk for the misuse of alcohol, during high school they are always trying to sneak around and now that they are free they can get out there and mom and dad aren’t looking and these interesting statistics, those that go to college drink less than non college bound.

Jill: As a former high school teacher a long time ago, I remember a lot of my students that were you know fixated on going to UGA and working on all of my resume and putting all of my clubs on my resume and being very busy and responsible and I sponsored student council and had a lot of college bound kids around my desk all of the time. Not many of them were the partiers and it is interesting that I think maybe by getting out and into the college environment they realized that the pressure was off and let’s just go ahead and have fun. …for four years.

Brian: Good strategy. Interesting again this rapid increase in heavy drinking can contribute to serious difficulty with the transition to college, we know this it is tough to go but you have as far as high school and you are at home and parents asking holding you accountable and there is monitoring but on campus everything is on them and they don’t sit in a class of 20 to 30 students it is 50 to 100 students and you would be lucky if the professor knew your name. We are in a situation where young people go to college and try to get through a difficult first year and statistics show 1/3 of first year students fail to enroll for their second year of classes.

Jill: We aren’t talking about someone that is dependent we are talking about an addiction situation or

Brian: Heavy drinking

Jill: Exactly when we talk about dependence there is a difference we are talking about someone learning how to use alcohol who may be self medicating with the transition or self medicating for being inhibited and not having social skill and that gets into the brain system and the neuro net forms and says that this is an acceptable and very good way for you to become an adult. This will help you with social skills and stress in the future. It is the breeding ground of alcohol dependency and we may be seeing the first fruits of it and when they hit 35 or 40

Brian: A lot of times when people come in as we do the intake and we try to get some information I hear this a lot they were teens when they started but when they hit college and had those types of situations like the parties and trying to prove themselves or initiation right it is all they did they chilled out at the pub and now drinking becomes not just an occasion it becomes almost a daily activity because that is the way they socialize and begin to connect with those people on campus and that is the real danger.

Jill: I would like to hear from some parents or students. If you have a story to share call us at 770-226-0920 and if there is a person or yourself and you came out with some really good insights we want you to share them with us today. 770-226-0920

Brian: One more piece, you mentioned what can parents do, this line I really would like for parents to hear, they want to know what they can do to help and here are some things that are excellent. Inquire about campus alcohol policies, find out what the policies are and how old you need to be and the restrictions. Call their children, their sons and daughters and they may not answer but you could leave voicemail. Ask about roommates and the living arrangements and look at those going to school and they may not drink but may have been assigned a drinking roommate and that would be a real challenge.

Jill: I went through that as a matter of fact

Brian: Did you? That could be a tremendous challenge, there are people out there that come from a family that doesn’t drink at all and now placed with a drinker and they will have a problem.

Jill: Many seeds for future alcohol problems are planted at this time but I would like to talk about this study from Iowa State University and we can come back to the college age information. This goes along with what we are talking about, what can the parents do? This study was done by Stephanie Mann an Associate Professor of Psychology at Iowa State and this actually talks about mom’s beliefs impacting their kids or future young adults alcohol use. Listen to this statement Brian, “When mothers overestimated their teens future use of alcohol they developed a self view that they would be likely to drink in the future which ultimately led to them drinking more.” So this is like a self fulfilling prophecy. They have actually studied this particular the Mediation of Mother’s Self Fulfilling Effects on Alcohol Use. This is powerful information for parents and this is powerful for parents of any age, because like I said, your child could be 50 or 15. You might not see much difference in the behavior but it just might be the age that is the difference and this study goes on to say that they previously found mother’s beliefs about a teens future use hit the mark half the time and started looking at the mechanisms of the mother’s expectations, this was just mothers no fathers. It said that we know that mothers have self fulfilling effects on alcohol use through the past work they have done and so how is this happening they asked, so according to the professor she said the self verification theory proposes that people are motivated to confirm what they already believe to be true about themselves. So the children validated the self view that the mother had about them and their future drinking and they would act consistently with how the mother saw the child’s future drinking.

Brian: This really tells us something, the power of the spoken word. The power of the spoken word on impressionable children it is how we describe them that they ascribe and self verify.

Jill: We are at a break and we are going to talk more about your words to a loved one that may be using abusing alcohol.. 770-226-0920, call if you have a comment or question. We will be right back.

Commercial Break

Jill: Welcome back, 770-226-0920 that is a little Take Six in the background that is probably one of my favorite songs Brian, you probably didn’t know that,

Brian: I do now

Jill: My name is Jill Mattingly

Brian: And I am Brian Fujii

Jill: We are discussing the college drinking and how it impacts the students. The games and social events, we were discussing a study before the break of how a mom’s words and future predictions can impact their child’s alcohol addiction. At the bottom of this study when I was reading through this, this is what struck me, it says, “What people believe ultimately has an impact on what actually occurs, not just because they believe it, it is not magic, if we believe something even if it is wrong we believe it is true and act as though it is. If you act as if something is true your behaviors will cause the belief to become true. It sounds confusing but all it says is that as the mothers are starting to voice what they believe will happen with their kids drinking habits in the future, an example would be a child sneeks the dad’s beer and the parents say, well you are going to be a drinker like your father and your grandfather. They start to speak over their children of what they believe their future alcohol use or any type of behavior will be.

Brian: It is like you said you predestine them to what they will become especially if they admire the parent and deep respect for the parent they may want to be like that person,

Jill: I mean I think that this is so powerful, this is a study that they did on mom’s belief systems effecting their kids drinking patterns. So specific and yet so true across the board for so many types of behaviors that is so powerful to share with parents and spouses and anyone who has a loved one because we have seen 70 year old moms come in with their 45 year old sons and still saying this to them and saying without me he is going to be done. They sit there and prophesy over their sons and this starts at a very young age and I feel like that is one of them main components that parents and spouses need to hear about is their words.

Brian: Talking about words, self descriptors if we can shape a person’s thoughts about fdrinking and we see this study reflect in that, how much more can we reflect upon a developing child’s mind and say positive things, like they are loved we are proud and I hear this a lot especially during individual or when we see the family education program for example, we hear some try to prove themselves as if they had to show great accomplishments or be able to demonstrate their capacity to hold their liquor not just in college even in business. They tell us that the expectation to drink in business and be successful is a key component in success but where did that come from. Did it come from the general population that says if you are going to be a successful business person you have to hold your liquor so don’t the words define their behaviors and so if they don’t socialize they won’t be successful and that is a challenge in the addiction treatment realm to help them change the thinking process.

Jill: Right, 770-226-0920 the number again is 770-226-0920 if you would like to call and comment or bring a little bit more meat into the conversation about speaking the words what kind of words should we speak to the loved one that has a drinking problem or drug problem or as a parent what can you be doing you know you see a long line of alcohol dependent people in your family history so is there a way to start talking about your children or your young adult as we spoke of in the beginning. Again

Brian: You are saying what can I do in advance, we don’t have to wait until they have so many issues and now they are into addiction or dependence those words as you said need to be shared when they are growing up and as teens and young adults. The supportive words and encouraging words that will help them combat a lot of social pressure needs to be shared right now not 15 years later.

Jill: During family education every week, do these issues come up?

Brian: One thing we do see is a parent asking how can I make it up and help them make better decisions and at some point it is different, you still need to be supportive but when the child is an adult you have to help them understand responsibility,. So when we get back from the break let’s talk about responsibility but in the area of moving along in the early stages we do need to talk to our children now, so 770-226-0920 that is the number to call after the break.

Commercial Break

Jill: Welcome back to the Breakthrough Addiction Recovery Hour, we are a call in show so if you have some questions for us today please call us at 770-226-0920 and get in on our conversation today, we are talking about parents and spouses and the words they say to someone that is using alcohol or may have the propensity to have a problem with alcohol in the future. We are also talking about family education and we have a website www.breakthroughaddictionrecovery.com where you can go and get a whole lot of information and it is a very layered website and it can take a while but there is a lot of information about drug and alcohol dependency and all of the things that we do at Breakthrough including our free consultations. If you are listening and think that you or someone you know could use an hour sitting and talking to someone professional about what is really going on in your life. That way you can come up with a good way of treating or you know walking through a problem with alcohol or with drug addiction and free consultation is very safe and it is confidential and you can get a lot of uh, good solid information to walk away withBrian: Indeed, a lot of times talking about the good information now they have ways that they can talk intelligently with that family member who possibly is needing addiction treatment but is in denial or minimizing

Jill: Many families come to us in crisis mode it has already hit a fevered pitch and is life and death. It is very hard to stop what has begun but right now if you are looking at a loved one that is struggling or yourself you are noticing your use has moved up from the 5pm cocktail to the 2pm cocktail maybe it is time to come in or call and talk to someone and start to get a handle on what this disease is and how it effects you.

Brian: This is a disease and that is how we look at it, it is not poor character it truly is a brain disease and that is how we teach and that is what I do with family education and one way we feel that family education is so vital not just because you can come in and help the one who is addicted it is for the family because they are also negatively impacted by the slough that comes off with a person who is addicted. One thing is the phases of how they move into addiction and one phase is the disenchantment phase and that is before they go over the top and one thing we try to teach in family education is not only the response the person who is struggling but the family response increasing addiction that is coming about in their family member so we discuss avoiding the problem and don’t you see that a lot they want to put the problem aside and ignore it and it is almost like minimizing or being in denial just like the person in addiction. We start dealing with avoidance and then blaming the person with addiction. If it weren’t for you……..so we blame and it is non constructive

Jill: It effects the addict in terms of their success in addiction treatment because if they feel they are there because of the problem they have caused their family they won’t embrace being treated themselves, they just try to fix something so everyone will stop bothering them about it.

Brian: Then a co-dependent relationship forms and we try to fix and control things and try to make things peaceful and calm

Jill: Addiction treatment is not about how to hide your addictions better and many times when they come in they feel like they are in the ultimate hiding place from family and loved ones and that they will stop bothering them and yet have intention to use and that is where the family can really be a very instrumental part making it about the addicted person.

Brian: I am so glad you said that Jill both the family and the person addicted can be engaged. We have a lot of silence it takes time to build courage to start talking about what is going on in the family but after time someone will start talking and someone else begins to identify. We are at another break,

Jill: Before break, our family education is every Wednesday night at 6pm and if you want to come and your loved one doesn’t want addiction treatment but you need to deal with this, you can come and sign up for our family education program and it could make all of the difference in the world, we will be right back, stay with us, 770-226-0920.

Commercial Break

Jill: Welcome back to the Breakthrough Addiction Recovery Hour, my name is Jill Mattingly

Brian: And I am Brian Fujii

Jill: We are joined by Sarah Palin and asking her what she thinks of family education, uh oh, she just left so we are back to you Brian.

Brian: I am glad you mentioned before the break that if there are family members effected by an addict and chooses no addiction treatment, the family members can certainly take advantage of this education and begin to understand what might be going on with their loved one or the person facing addiction. Not everyone is dependent but could be abusing. I was speaking about the disenchantment phase before they begin looking for addiction treatment but also the family goes through a disenchantment phase and I mentioned the family response to the increasing addiction that they see and one was avoidance and secondly blaming the addict for all the problems in the family which obviously that can’t be true but the tendency is as family members to try to attribute that to the person who is addicted which is unfair. What we try to do is really help the family members focus upon themselves. When they don’t what happens is they get a misperception of what is going on and there is a real unbalanced situation so if they begin looking at themselves and take care of their own emotions. If you are constantly blaming someone else you are not taking responsibility for what you can do to make things right.

Jill: And I it is almost like those things happen simultaneously

Brian: And the anger is a two way street, that anger about if it weren’t for you……or if it weren’t for me……

Jill: This is not a sprint it is a marathon, for family dealing with young adults or adult children, this is a marathon that is why this class, it is a 10 week class Wednesdays at 6:00 it gives you the tools to walk through life with someone that has a disease just as if you would learn how to deal with someone who has had a devastating disease in their life like paralysis or a stroke, the family is effected and given education and tools on how to deal with it, it is almost the same thing.

Brian: I am so glad you said that Jill, if the family is not working on getting things right with their own life, they have caregiver burn out.

Jill: Well, www.breakthroughaddictionrecovery.com, get our number, call us and sign up for the family education classes it will be a powerful change for you and your family. We hope you enjoyed the show this week, Brian will be back next week with Dr. Reginald Riley talking about new programs. Tune in next week at 3:00 and have a great day.Brian: See you again.

BREAKTHROUGH ADDICTION RECOVERY HOUR

LIVE IN NORCROSS FOR NATIONAL RECOVERY

SEPTEMBER 27, 2008

Brian: Welcome Atlanta to the Breakthrough Addiction Recovery Hour here broadcasting live in Norcross

Jill: We are not talking we are celebrating right here at Breakthrough Addiction Recovery so here is the call out to everyone in Norcross and if you have enough gas come from Acworth or Midtown. Anyway, if you want to come on out and celebrate with us we have our doors open today and an open house going on and actually we are straight from Breakthrough Addiction Recovery with a live audience

(applause) and we also have lots of food we have uh actually the executive director has been delegated the duty of cooking hot dogs and we have some left and if you would like to come and see us meet some people at Breakthrough we would love to have you so,

Brian: The address is 8000 Miller Court East, Norcross, GA and put it in your mapquest and find your way over here. We would love to be able to share this good time with you

Jill: Good times, good times

Lois: The folks are looking good and everybody say ……

Jill: What we are trying to accomplish is honoring National Recovery Month and what we want to do is um, go along with the whole theme of National Recovery Month called “Voices of Recovery” and “Voices for Recovery” in a few moments we will have people share their stories today and their voices will be heard

Brian: We have already had a panel discussion today with various individuals about our programs and representatives from vendors that we use and very excited to see a lot of our colleagues as well as clients and many of our folks here that are a part of this celebration, I know many of you out there are probably in recovery and we would like to hear from you because we are talking about these voices and if you are listening to this and are really interested in being able to share your story please give us a call at 770-226-0920 again it is 770-226-0920 and if you are outside the Atlanta area the number is 1-888-920-2665.

Jill: I am glad you mentioned that Brian because we are a call in show today even though we are doing the remote broadcast you can still call us and get in on the conversation or you may have questions about what we do at Breakthrough and we will try to answers some questions about our programs and also if you like Brian was saying want to talk about your journey of recovery that would be a wonderful way to honor National Recovery Month. So. Dr. Dutton what did you think about the discussion today.

Lois: Well we had a few people drafted and not dragging they came I thought it was an incredible we had some of the big guns today, Dr. Johnston our psychiatric director and now is the camera man over here and Dr. Reggie Riley and incredible young man here with us today and our fearless leader Brian was here doing his thing and Brian’s thing is always good and of course I was there so that was the crowning you know that was the coup de gras when I show up the show is over. It was really I thought a good exchange of ideas to be recorded for the website and so go in and put a face with a name and um, and listen to some of the powerful information that came out of that panel this morning. I want to say that you know the Recovery Month is a relatively new celebration and it is about time we celebrate the incredible men and women that walk a walk, take a journey that most people in this world don’t have a clue what it is about and it is my hat is off to all of our people who have made this incredible journey to recovery. I tell you you guys are made of some really really good stuff, um, and just to see you every day, I don’t think you really realize how much you bring to those of us who have had the privilege of serving in the capacity of being “counselors” and therapists and all of those high fallutin words, without you our lives would not be as blessed as they really are so my hat is off to you and happy National Recovery Month.

Jill: You know we had some guests on throughout the month and Joel Bagley, Beth Fisher Hatch of GARR

Brian: The Georgia Association of Residential Recovery,

Jill: We actually went to their event at Peachford and were able to network with other people and when Breakthrough Addiction Recovery hour came to be we knew we wanted to get out to the community the other resources out there. We serve as an Intensive Outpatient Center but there are resources for all of the different place for a person when they are trying to get help for an addiction

Lois: All you have to do is pick up the phone and call, there is something somewhere that will meet your needs, don’t hesitate,

Brian: Since you talk about those resources, Breakthrough has a fantastic website out there, www.breakthroughaddictionrecovery.com and many listening right now may call and want to know what is out there and the website as you look at it and find that you want more information we offer a free consultation to any person interested in knowing more about how to fight this disease of addiction.Jill: Our call in number for the show and I do want you to call, especially if you hear something that really strikes a chord with you today or an encouragement to those that are in recovery and that number is 770-226-0920 so this is a call in show and you can call and even though we are broadcasting, we will take your call. We are not in New York we are in Norcross, and those of you who live in Norcross or surrounding area and have enough gas to get here we are at 8000 Miller Court East off of Peachtree Industrial Blvd., we have plenty of food and come watch the show and get a nutritious meal to boot.

Jill: Also, come in and meet us we would love to see the listeners or just because you happen to drive from 3-4 every Saturday and can’t help it.

Brian: That is why they call it intelligent radio

Jill: Right, once again that address is 8000 Miller Court East in Norcross someone said we should say we are giving away free gas…..ok, if you just tuned in no free gas but free hot dogs.

Lois: There you go

Jill: Anyways we would love to see you here

Brian: As we take a look at the National Recovery Month one of the big things we see is that many people try to find ways to get help and during this period of time what we are trying to do is help individuals know that there are resources out there as Jill said and many of you may be looking for long term programs and we can help you get there, also there are people looking for inpatient and we can help you find that resource. We are intensive out patient and that is a program that will help you get the help pyou need in order to get over your addiction and one key thing is two different levels, one is intensive day addiction treatment from 10-2 and then we have also for those that may not be able to take advantage of it because of work or other reasons we have intensive out patient program that provides addiction treatment from 6 – 9 three days a week where you can come right from work and participate in a very informative and very supportive program where they can understand the disease of addiction and find ways to use medications to decrease alcohol cravings for the drugs and most important to be able to know how to have a way to have these skills develop to resist the use again.

Jill: Letting people know about resources, when we come back from the next break we would like to bring people to the mic that have a story to tell of realizing where they were and knowing they needed something different and they came to Breakthrough and found the difference and I am excited about having people really talk about what is going on in their lives. If you would like to call in and tell your story it is 770-226-0920 again, it is 770-226-0920. We are coming to the break so stay with us we are going to have a great show here live at Breakthrough Addiction Recovery.

Commercial Break

Jill: Welcome back to the Breakthrough Addiction Recovery Hour, this is Jill Mattingly and my co host Brian Fujii and we are live from Norcross not New York from Breakthrough Addiction Recovery and doing the show up here in honor of National Recovery Month. It has been quite a day hasn’t it Brian

Brian: In fact we have a couple calls

Jill: First it is Jennifer in Commerce, how are you

Jennifer: I am fine, I am driving back home from a tour of Georgia today I uh got sober in 1984 and have been sober since then and um, I am not on marijuana maintenance or anything like that and um, I have well did you have a questions cause I have been sober a long time or I will give you a rap for the day.

Brian: Tell us something about what has kept you sober for so long cause there are a lot of folks struggling,

Jennifer: I got sober the usual way through 12 step that we all know about and I went to meetings daily for the first 6 to 7 years um, but I was probably clinically depressed and had never really diagnosed with it any way but I have always felt uh, even before I got sober that there is always a solution and the thing I realized about myself early on is that if I was in any way lying to myself I actually got hired by a guy in the program that wanted me to do cold calls and I remember one day struggling and I hated it and almost like a higher power said Jennifer you need to be grateful that you have a job and do the best you can and get your resume out but don’t sit around and whine.

Jill: It sounds like life happened to you but you were able to make the decision to go into recovery and stay sober for 20 years and that is what National Recovery Month is and that is celebrating what you have done and walked through.

Jennifer: The main thing for me is that I can not let my ego take over, um, if I whine about stuff or I deserve that is a really bad thing to say and when I pray I don’t say I want a better job or anything it is my will not being done.

Jill: That is as success story and I wanted that today and I am just really thankful for what has happened to you Jennifer and thanks so much for sharing your story today you have a wonderful blessed day

Jennifer: You too

Brian: We have Barbara from Roswell, welcome to Breakthrough

Barbara: I mainly wanted to call I have someone in the program who I love very very much and I am a mother and I have got to tell you that every Wednesday night I want to be there because I am learning as much as he is learning and I have I can only say wonderful things about the program and let everyone know that I wanna tell everybody but I mainly want to see that my son is successful in this and I think he is doing a fantastic job

Brian: You are talking about Family Education on Wednesday \

Barbara: And I encourage every family to get out there and give them the support that they need to understand and we all need too.

Brian: We look forward to having you every week and you make a great contribution while you are here and we thank you for your call and I know we will be looking forward to talking with you more in the future and thanks again

Barbara: See you Wednesday

Jill: She is talking about the Family Education on Wednesday and if you want more information on that program you can go to our website at www.breakthroughaddictionrecovery.com and look at what we do, Brian you are the ma n of the hour during thatBrian: Yes, we have a wonderful time, it really is the contribution that the families make and how they continue to contribute to the program and one great thing about it is that it really helps the family members to understand the process of addiction and also too that they realize that they have a struggle and that they can be successful and be able to work their own recovery which is amazing, because there is a lot of pain in the families.

Jill: The whole name of the game is voices of recovery in honor of National Recovery Month and if you are just joining us we are live from our location in Norcross at 8000 Miller Court East and put it in your GPS and we still have some food no free gas but we do have free food and drinks and we are celebrating recovery for people who have gone through the program and celebrating just that there are resources out there that people can tie into through Breakthrough Addicition Recovery.

Brian: We have our very favorite person Scott is with us today and I have worked with him for a long time and I have seen this young man grow and mature and he has become one of our real leaders here and his um, recovery and his ability to really talk to others has been a real strength and resource for many folks just beginning in the program so Scott welcome

Jill: Hey Scott

Scott: Hey,

Brian: You know Scott let me just tell you this, can you tell us something about how you found us and then what are some of the benefits that you have received since being in our program.

Scott: Well, I went through a traditional 12 step and was sober for 8 years uh, fell off the wagon so to speak and had set myself up for all intensive purposes all along the way by not going to meetings and uh, doing things like drinking non alcoholic beer thinking it would be safe and I have come to find out that wasn’t safe at all and leading me down the road to relapse. I knew I was having a problem and I happened to hear the radio program from work and it inspired me to the internet to look it up and that got me in here for my consultation and really hadn’t intended to join the program at that point, I was actually going to buy some time and um, appease my family um, but once I heard what the program was about and what they had to offer, I went ahead and jumped in with both feet and very pleased that I have.

Brian: I can see how you have benefited and I want to say, you have quite a few days of sobriety

Scott: I am at 171 days, (applause)

Jill: Way to go that is what today is about, celebrating you and celebrating that we can effect people’s lives with the programs that we have here and I am so proud of what we do here at Breakthrough and I am so glad to hear in a person’s life how the change occurs and we are coming to a break right now and we will continue with Scott when we come back, don’t go away, if you want a hot dog you are going to have to wait. 770-226-0920 if you want to call in and tell your personal story. This is the Breakthrough Addiction Recovery Hour and you can check us out on the internet like Scott did at www.breakthroughaddictionrecovery.com.Commercial Break

Jill: Welcome back to the Breakthrough Addiction Recovery Hour. We are celebrating National Recovery Month here in our offices in Norcross, GA. 770-226-0920 that is the number to call today we are live doing the broadcast from Norcross and it has been a blast we have a lot of food and a lot of great people showing up, panel discussions and a wonderful day so far, so what I would like to do is come back into our conversation but we do have another call on the line this is Jaclyn in Atlanta, hey

Jaclyn: I am Jaclyn I am originally from August and I started addiction treatment in 1989 I thank my daddy is a big church member and so was I we were really into church and still am and my daddy loved me with all his heart and saw I was addicted he did everything in his power and we went to addiction treatment and I just want to call in and let everyone know that is listening addiction treatment works. Yes it does and you know I heard you talk about how the family education, it is so important for everyone to know that the addict or addictionr uh, they must become educated how can you tackle and battle and live with a disease without being educated and I want people to understand no matter how many programs you go to there is always more to learn.

Brian: That is right Jaclyn that is one thing and we have to run but you are correct, you can do your best to stay clean and sober and yet the information is so powerful and that is what we do here at Breakthrough and we help people understand the process and how they get better but you know most importantly too is probably developing coping skills to deal with some of those relapse thoughts and maybe thinking stress relief and when you have those skills on board you really do stay clean and sober.

Jaclyn: Right that is the good news and I have done that and after 10 addiction treatment centers I want you to know it may take two or more than one. I just want people to know that it does work and you can’t give up and I promised my daddy

Brian: Thank you so much we appreciate your input today and your words are truly words of encouragement for those in recovery.

Jill: Thanks Jaclyn

Brian: We are back to Scott and Scott you know at the break you were talking about how your recovery has been so strong but a little history and you said you would share. Many people think that when they are in recovery that they’ll never ever have temptation to drink

Jill: He is ready to share I can tell

Brian: Yes, tell what you went through in your recovery and then something happened and you decided to try to see if you could manage one drink

Scott: True, after 8 years of sobriety I um, felt like I could handle that one drink and um, it was in a position that I worked with some folks that did that each day after work and I thought what the heck one beer won’t hurt me but after that one beer a couple days went by and I thought if it didn’t kill me or get me hooked I will try another couple of beers and it wasn’t long I was bypassing beer and going to hard liquor which is what I had done originally not only the hard licquor and went back heavier than when I had quit the first time um, it was kind of scary and the whole time I was doing it I was convincing myself or at least told myself I would quit at any time and no way was I going to be addicted again, and that was not the case, I fell hard and considerable amount every day and um, that is when it really started to show in my life that it did have an impact on many many levels and that there needed to be a change um, and again.

Jill: That is when you found us

Scott: Thank goodness for the radio as I was coming home from work and I looked into it.

Jill: You have gone through all of the programs, day addiction treatment, individual therapy

Scott: I have and they have helped and I am still in After Care and I find that the informational aspect is what keeps me sane and sober at this point. Because I know now how I became addicted and what to do to stay sober and stay on an even keel um, I know that if I go or have that thought pattern of trying one more beer, I know where it will lead and send me down that same path and not more than likely lead me to something even worse than when I left this time so the information is phenomenal and I feel like I can come to anyone here at any time and you know if I have a problem or a concern or I have a craving or an urge I can come to them and they will walk me through it and point me in the diorection I need to be going.

Brian: Scott that information and this falls right in line with what Jaclyn said, it is the information and the knowledge that we had. When we started the SMART Recovery group and Scott helped with this

Jill: The founding member

Brian: The SMART Recovery group is a cognitive behavior support group which utilizes many techniques and such that we have here and it is a peer led group. Tell us about it.

Scott: It is a great tool to have in addition to the other groups during the week and the fact that it is peer led is what is great for me because it it tends to be more of an open forum where we kind of lead the discussion where we need it to go at that particular time and if someone has a particular problem we will focus on that and help them work through it and it is more of a free flow of information that is right in line with everything here so the peer led idea is wonderful and I think it is as I said another great tool in the whole program.

Brian: It is interesting as you take a look, we are the only SMART Recovery in the Atlanta area and so if you are looking for a different type of support group you might want to try our program and we do this on Thursday from 6 – 7 in our facility here and it is an interesting thing and not only is support group but gives the tools to put in the bag so that they can deal with relapse thoughts or be able to deal with problems and take cost benefit analysis.

Jill: I am energized by Scott’s story and what has happened to him. We are doing this as a live broadcast for those of you just joining us we are at Breakthrough Addiction Recovery here in Norcross, 8000 Miller Court East and if you are in this area and you have enough gas in your tank come on over and there is still some time left you can see us broadcast live and talk to people about the programs. Scott I want to thank you so much there was a moment in your story that I know someone out there heard their story and

Scott: That is what happened to me and I hope it did help

Jill: If you would like to get more information about Breakthrough, www.breakthroughaddictionrecovery.com and you can look and see what programs are available including SMART Recovery, Family Education and we do alcohol detoxifications here at Breakthrough and we do something called ambulatory alcohol detox and many people um, usually are looking for alcohol detox and think hospital is the only option and if you want to look at what ambulatory alcohol detox is on the website please do so and give us a call and you can get a free consultation from a licensed professional here at Breakthrough and talk about what is going on with you.Brian: Many times we get calls people