In an alternative to AA, a self-empowering approach can be used to create individualized treatment plans which incorporate greater or fewer relapse prevention approaches to recovery. A self-empowering approach to alcohol recovery emphasizes four main points including: maintaining motivation, coping with urges, managing thoughts, feelings and behaviors, and living a balanced life. By incorporating these four aspects into your daily life, one may have a greater chance for success in alcohol recovery. EEG Maps of Alcohol-dependent Individuals Although definitions of relapse vary, it generally refers to a return to former drinking habits after a period of alcohol recovery. Electroencephalography (EEG) measures electrical activity in the brain, and beta wave activity in EEG mapping has bee...

Through a self-empowering approach to recovery, those in alcohol treatment can learn about alcohol addiction and how to cope with cravings. It is important to implement a client-friendly approach to recovery because this will maintain the clients’ interest in treatment. Understanding what the client hopes to gain from treatment may be a key indicator of what to emphasize on during treatment. The interests of men and women during treatment may be different where women like to focus on self-esteem issues and men find that a less important aspect of their recovery. Through the use of a self-empowering approach to alcohol treatment, individualized treatment plans can be created for men and women that emphasize on specific areas of interest they would like to enhance. Tools and techniques wi...

Many studies have shown that alcohol and drugs are transferred to breast milk and ultimately to infants. Thus, drugs and alcohol should be avoided while breast feeding. Mothers who struggle with reducing drug and alcohol consumption should consider entering a drug or alcohol rehab. In an alternative to AA, a self-empowering approach can be used to help mothers learn how to abstain from all drugs and alcohol and learn tactics to cope with cravings so mothers can continue to breast feed without possible harm to the infant. Individualized treatment plans can be created for mothers who are breast feeding which can emphasize on specific thoughts, feelings and behaviors that may have been the cause for their drug and alcohol consumption, and learn how to manage them. You might also be intere...

Past research suggests that (self-empowering addiction treatment) cognitive-behavioral therapy is effective in the treatment of alcohol dependence. In some cases, psychological treatment can be significantly improved by pharmacotherapy. Pharmacotherapies used in alcohol treatment include disulfiram, an aldehyde dehydrogenase inhibitor; naltrexone, an opioid antagonist; and acamprosate, a noncompetitive NMDA receptor blocker. Few studies have compared the effectiveness of these pharmacotherapies for alcohol treatment. A team of researchers from Finland set out to do just that (Laaksonen et. al., 2008). You might also be interested in: What is the Best Alcohol Treatment? Effectiveness of Pharmacotherapies for Alcohol Treatment: The Study The researchers conducted a randomized, open l...

Individualized treatment plans are extremely beneficial for adolescents in drug treatment because specific programs can be created to allow adolescents to work through problems of anxiety and depression. In an alternative to AA, individuals can use evidence based addiction treatment plans to reduce anxiety. Adolescent drug treatment and prevention programs tend to focus on illicit drugs and alcohol. However, the misuse of prescription medication is also a major problem among adolescents, especially those who have high levels of anxiety. Researchers at the University of Kentucky, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and University of Michigan employed latent profile analysis to identify three distinct classes of adolescent sedative and anxiolytic misusers (Hall, Howard & M...

In an alternative to AA, a self- empowering addiction treatment program allows each unique individual to target specific risk factors that led them to drink or use. Here, we explore research that suggests a link between ethnicity and adolescent alcohol use. According to the deviance proneness model, alcohol use develops in adolescence as a pattern of deviant behavior. This deviant behavior may be influenced by parental history of substance abuse, social relationship with deviant peers, personality variables, alcohol expectancies, and other variables. Studies suggest that ethnic differences may also affect the development of alcohol abuse and the outcome of alcohol treatment. Researchers from the University of Connecticut evaluated a deviance proneness model for ethnic differences in ...

German alcohol treatment survey shows that frequency of binge drinking predicts alcohol-related social problems better than volume of alcohol consumed. As an alternative to AA, a self-empowering addiction treatment program allows people to work on eliminating negative outcomes from binge drinking by looking as past drinking patterns. Binge Drinking and Social Problems - What is the Link? Medical, psychological, and social consequences of drinking are related not only to the volume of alcohol consumed but also to patterns of drinking. For example, binge drinking, sometimes referred to as irregular heavy drinking or heavy episodic drinking, has been linked to many negative outcomes. A team of researchers in Germany investigated the combined effect of volume and binge drinking in pred...

In an alternative to AA, self-empowering approaches to recovery incorporate living a sen life. This includes proper nutrition, exercise, and rest. Maintaining good mental health is an important aspect of long term abstinence and nutrition, exercise and adequate rest, play a significant role here. Good health in recovery is an important aspect to achieving a greater quality of life. Link Between Sweet Tooth and Alcohol Treatment - The Study Existing evidence suggests that response to sweet taste reflects the activity of the endogenous opioid system, which is also involved in the pleasure response to alcohol consumption. Response to sweet taste is heritable and can be measured; the phenotype is identified as either sweet-liking (SL) or sweet-disliking (SDL). Naltrexone is an opioid rece...

In an alternative to AA, alcohol recovery can be attained through a self-empowering approach. The Role of AA Sponsors Several previous studies suggest that participation in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is associated with less alcohol consumption, more sobriety, and improved quality of life. Few studies have focused on the role of AA sponsors. An AA booklet defines a sponsor as “an alcoholic who has made some progress in the recovery program and shares that experience on a continuous, individual basis with another alcoholic who is attempting to attain or maintain sobriety through AA.” The booklet states that the sponsor’s role is to help the newcomer get sober and stay sober, answer questions about AA, and provide an understanding, sympathetic friend. In a primarily qualitative study, res...

The traditional Alcoholics Anonymous 12 step approach to alcohol treatment suggests that one must completely abstain from all drugs and alcohol to achieve recovery. However, in an alternative to AA, a self-empowering approach is implemented where individualized treatment plans outline recommendations for problem drinkers as well as those with less severe drinking problems. You might also be interested in: What is the Best Alcohol Treatment? Moderate drinking or controlled drinking refers to limiting alcohol consumption to the point of no (or few) negative consequences. Previous research suggests that controlled drinking strategies are successful for many problem drinkers. In the United Kingdom, Norway, and Australia, controlled drinking is commonly recommended by healthcare providers....