Online Addiction Recovery Support
Online Addiction Recovery Support
The disease of addiction is chronic and unremitting and cannot be cured by a single treatment experience. Long term recovery requires ongoing commitment to utitlzation of available treatment resources.
The research is clear: the longer an individual with drug or alcohol addiction remains in treatment the better the treatment outcome in terms of days abstinent and long term recovery.
A single thirty day residential treatment experience or completion of a six to eight week intensive outpatient treatment program can provide the foundation for a solid recovery. However, the individual completing these intensive phases of treatment ideally should continue in formal treatment such as outpatient individual and group counseling by addictions specialists, supplemented by needed psychotherapy, for a year or longer. This individual, again ideally, will become involved in the Twelve Step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, attending meetings on a regular basis, say five meetings per week minumum for 12 months, obtaining a sponsor (mentor) in AA or NA, and a home group (a group he/she commits to attending every week and becoming active in supporting). Thereafter, the individual should attend these self-help meetings regularly for as many years, or longer, as he/she was in active addiction. The author’s position is that 12 Step involvement should continue for the rest of the individual’s life.
An intriguing and beneficial addition to the recovery armamentarium has developed out of internet technology, namely, provision of online addiction recovery support services such as daily recovery tips by email and weekly or more often contact with a recovery coach or counselor by phone and email. This supplement to traditional addiction services and Twelve Step programs can provide crucial supports to the individual striving to recover from drug or alcohol addiction. See, e.g., http://www.alcoholdrugsos.com/Services_Individuals.asp#SupplementRecovery.
Jan Williams, MS, JD, LCADC
http://www.alcoholdrugsos.com
In addition to his law degree, Jan Edward Williams has a Master of Science degree in pastoral counseling, and is a licensed clinical alcohol and drug counselor. He has personal and professional experience to aid him in helping persons with alcohol and other drug problems. He is in recovery himself, with over 29 years of continuous sobriety, and has been working in the drug and alcohol field for 27 years. Recently Jan has developed an online drug and alcohol abuse counseling service, called AlcoholDrugSOS Services. This service is aimed at helping persons with drug abuse or addiction problems or alcohol abuse or addiction (alcoholism) problems. His web site is http://www.alcoholdrugsos.com/, and his e-mail is [email protected].