Addiction: Alternative Treatments
PSY 425
February 1, 2006

Introduction
The initial exposure to any drug addiction treatment is an overwhelming experience. Whether one attends an Alcoholics Anonymous session, a Detox facility, or a Psychiatric in-patient center, one unavoidable conclusion manifests itself: Addiction is a horrible situation for any human being.
The following paper looks at several different elements of the addiction treatment environment, and from differing modalities to success rates, addiction treatment is examined, contrasted and compared.
Modalities
There are many options for the treatment of alcohol and drug addition. These treatments are referred to as modalities. Treatment modalities are most often referred
Drug testing is used to ensure that addicts are not continuing to use while enrolled in an Outpatient facility.
The most commonly known program is the self-help 12-step program. Most people have heard of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) or Narcotics Anonymous (NA). Currently, AA is the largest self-help group and has been the model for other self-help groups such as Overeaters Anonymous (OA). AA began in Akron, Ohio in 1935 and continues to thrive. The program is based on 12 steps, which addicts work through to recover from their addiction. These are the 12 steps:
We admitted we were powerless over alcohol and that our lives had become unmanageable.
We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understand him.
We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
We humbly asked Him to remove these shortcomings.
We made a list of all the persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
We made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
We continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
We sought through prayer and