Recently the Mike Sorrentino aka the “situation” was released from rehab after only a two-week stay for suspected drug treatment at the Cirque Lodge in Utah. The Situation’s rep claimed he attended the celebrity adored 12 step rehab simply to relax and rejuvenate himself. However, cast members reported they personally witnessed the Situation over using prescription drugs while at the shore house.

Certainly Mike’s partying lifestyle would lead many to believe he would eventually have problems with overusing both drugs and alcohol. The cast mates of the hit MTV series often end their nights at 5 am to 6 am in the morning and then get up the next day and continue to party all day into the early morning. Anyone would be exhausted, but the Situation is choosing to take pills to give him energy instead of slowing down his party lifestyle.   While the Jersey Shore star claims he is stronger and better than ever, Mike the Situation likely has a long journey in front of him especially with the choices he makes in the vital next few months with the taping of another season. The Saint Jude’s Program strongly recommends at least six weeks of classes to fully understand our program and the concept of how natural lifestyle evolve. St. Jude’s uses this time to educate the guests so they can become fully aware of the goals they want to obtain while participating in this alternative drug/alcohol treatment program. It’s hard to believe Sorrentino could come to terms with his drug use over a period of two weeks, especially when 12 step programs tell participants they are doomed with a disease and an addiction…Forever.

It will be interesting to see how this story pans out. If the “Situation” can make better choices while in the Jersey Shore atmosphere he most certainly can make it through anything. If he chooses to go back to his party-lifestyle it may lead him to make more bad decisions regarding prescription drug use. Ultimately his fate lies in his own hands.

Outpatient methadone rehabs currently serve 254,000 clients throughout the US.  Approximately 12% of all outpatient methadone clients, or a total of 30,000 people, are in New York City.  Some new research reports shed light on their situation. 

Methadone is the most highly regulated outpatient treatment available, on both the state and federal level. It is mainly confined to clinics where clients must line up every morning to receive their daily dose. This brings with it some horrible unintended consequences. Most visibly, and this has been the reason why many communities have sought to keep outpatient methadone treatment centers from opening, this setup causes a daily convergence of substance users, all with differing levels of commitment to change, and many with no intention to change. The influence of the less committed on the more well intentioned or moderately intentioned clients can be devastating. When they should be moving on with their lives, instead, the active substance user subculture remains a part of their daily life.

While it was found that a shocking 1 out of 10 outpatient methadone clients in New York City had experienced an overdose within the last 2 years, it’s important to realize that their problems aren’t even contained to these troubled users, but rather touch many more outpatient methadone clients. More than 21% reported being with someone while they overdosed – for a total of one-third involved directly with overdose episodes.  What’s more, 73.5% said they know people who mix both licit and illicit substances with their methadone. What we have is a culture in which the vast majority of people attending outpatient methadone treatment programs in New York City are still heavily involved with active high risk substance users. The continuing substance use at outpatient methadone clinics in New York City is so bad that 73% of clients believe free needles should be provided at the clinics.

This report certainly paints a grim picture of the outpatient methadone treatment scene in New York City. Typically, the regulation of methadone clinics also requires that clients attend a number of individual and group counseling sessions, at least once a week – but many clients are required to attend even more often. This can only compound the problem, further drawing each client into the “recovery” subculture, which as we’ve seen, at least in New York City’s outpatient methadone treatment rehabs, includes a large proportion of active substance users. What’s more, another recent study found that these counseling sessions may be unnecessary, and may actually decrease retention rates.

Now, whether or not outpatient methadone drug treatment is actually an effective solution for opioid abuse is another question altogether, but as far as the comparison between counseled and non-counseled clients goes, this latter study doesn’t bode well for the counseling component of outpatient methadone treatment. The researchers focused on the first four months of outpatient methadone treatment (due to regulatory limitations), and found that 92% of clients who were allowed to take methadone without attending the typically required outpatient counseling sessions, stayed in treatment for at least 4 months – while only 81% of those who attended counseling actually stayed in treatment!  Both groups equally reduced drug intake, but the non-counseling group was actually involved in less criminal activity than the group who received outpatient counseling!  This may be one more important piece of evidence which points to the counterproductive nature of most substance abuse counseling methods.

Beyond these problems, the former study also cites many complaints of outpatient methadone clients that the staff are hard to get along with, that police regularly stake out the clinics looking to entrap people, and that many of them miss doses due to difficulty complying with the many bureaucratic traps involved in New York City’s outpatient methadone programs.

When looking for an effective long-term solution to a substance use problem, you should consider carefully whether you want to become a part of the rollercoaster ride of New York City’s outpatient treatment rehabs. There are more effective programs that do not include the ingestion of drugs as a solution! Call 1-800-497-3086 for more information on other options available to you.

Most everyone will read this title and be instantly horrified or angry. You may be wondering how I can say that a tragic death like that of Whitney Houston is considered a “successful” outcome for drug treatment. But what is truly horrifying is Ms. Houston’s life post treatment, and her subsequent death, fit exactly into an expected and acceptable treatment outcome.

Whether you look into the most common 12-step treatment programs, non-12-step and holistic treatment programs, religiously based drug treatment or any form of addiction counseling, all require the substance user to accept that they have lost control over their thoughts and behaviors; i.e. they are powerless. In fact most drug treatment programs will not allow patients to graduate from programs without admitting and accepting they have a lifelong disease that renders them powerless over substances.

In many treatment settings patients are asked to look around the room and are told that only 1 in 10 of them will maintain sobriety for any length of time. And worse yet, all are told that they can never recover fully, but instead will remain in a state of perpetual recovery where relapse is common and expected. Not only is this erroneous information stressful for the substance user, but it is also provides a ready-made excuse for continued drug and alcohol use problems.

According to multiple sources Whitney Houston attended her first out-patient rehab in 2004, and thus began her descent into typical and accepted treatment success: the revolving door. Houston, like the millions of substance users much less notable than she, absolutely accepted her powerlessness and embraced it. She became a living example of the self-fulfilling prophecy created by drug treatment; ‘I must accept that I am powerless; I am powerless over drugs; I have cravings; it’s part of my disease; I can never recover; I must use drugs; I have no power; I want to use drugs; drugs will kill me; I am powerless…’ These ideas are indoctrinated in the drug treatment patient, and ruminate around their minds continuously. Treatment providers espouse that if people understand and accept their “disease” that is marked by “powerlessness” that they will then be able to “control” it. What?!? Even the idea itself is convoluted and has now created a culture of ‘Whitney Houstons’ who truly believe they are powerless and can never overcome their problems.

As people who have been labeled addicts continue to use drugs post treatment, (i.e. relapse as referred to by the treatment community), this reinforces the idea in their own minds that they are powerless. While the vast majority of people know they are not “powerless” when they enter their first treatment program, most believe they are when they leave. No one ever stops to ask the question, if addiction is a disease and people really are powerless then how do millions of heavy, problem substance users stop using alcohol and drugs or moderate their usage each and every day, and most without any treatment whatsoever? The answer is, they couldn’t possibly, but they do. Teaching Whitney Houston and millions of others like her that they are powerless is a death sentence. Ms. Houston is just one more in a long line of tragic outcomes that drug treatment and the prevailing addiction disease fallacy creates.

As we mourn the passing of a truly talented artist, it is most important to understand the real tragedy; that is Ms. Houston was given the wrong information and as a result did exactly as the treatment providers said she would; she kept using drugs. She kept struggling needlessly, when in reality she had the power to change herself all along, and in fact, she was the only one with such power. What is even more tragic and despicable is this same treatment community that gave her the noose that killed her now holds her up as a poster child for the awful ‘disease of addiction’. For them her death is a success on multiple levels as it allows them to continue to disseminate their misinformation that ultimately lines their pockets and keeps substance users dependent forever. What a convenient dichotomy.