Empathy
is your pain
in my heart.
Author Unknown

I feel that it is time for me to share information I have learned in the past few years. As a result of my own personal experience of losing a loved one due to an addiction to alcohol in 1987, this information should be spread far and wide. The important factor with this program is that it must be followed religiously. All of the information below has been gathered from other sources as an indirect result of contact with a lady who has a clinic in California. I will provide that information for anyone interested in contacting her. There is a disclaimer here. I am not receiving any funds for placing this information on my website. This information comes straight from my heart. Please read all the information with an open mind.

I will include additional information where biochemical and nutritional measures are being employed successfully as it becomes available. Addiction affects all of us, one way or another, directly or indirectly.

There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.
Beverly Sills (b. 1929)

It has been brought to my attention that one can't 'cure' their addiction strictly from a nutritional standpoint. This is absolutely true. It is highly recommended that you use the nutritional program (as per your health consultant) along with the A.A. [Alcoholics Anonymous] 12-Step Program. It is essential that you work with someone who completely understands what you are experiencing. What is important here is the knowledge that you can 'kick it' with the good nutrition, A.A., God, and someone to work with. I have brought this program information online only to let you know there is additional help out there. I feel that it is extremely important for you to know that addiction is not a personality flaw - it is a biochemical imbalance.

I know the painful process of this disease. All this information comes from my heart with much love for everyone. Please feel free to contact me if you feel I should include more information. Thank you for visiting this page and reading everything.

A PROGRAM FOR ADDICTS THAT WORKS

Addiction is the favorite 'malady' of celebrities. Wealthy movie and rock stars, champion athletes, the wife of a former president, and the wife of a presidential candidate all describe feeling as helpless in the face of their addictions as any broken wino on skid row. We owe them a debt of gratitude for braving public humiliation to come out of their lonely closets. The public is beginning to understand that addiction is a matter of degree, not sin. Whether it's to alcohol, cocaine, heroine, crack, marijuana, stimulants, sedatives, painkillers, cigarettes, coffee, tea, or betel nuts, addictive substances are straws that people grasp at in their clumsy efforts to feel good or keep going when the body says it can't. I'm thankful we're past the point where 'respectable' folks view addicts as the dregs of society. The well-known merchant in the splendid house on the hill could very well be hooked on cocaine, and his wife on alcohol or both. And now with cheap crack cocaine on the streets, the children of the rich, the middle-class, and the poor can be equal opportunity users.

Society is far from the stage of providing easy answers, but the very numbers and the spread of addiction across all national and class boundaries reinforce the newer concept that there is no such thing as an "addictive personality." Psychiatrists and psychologists who based their approach on uncovering and uprooting the 'deep-seated' turmoil that drove an individual to drink or drugs have set the standard and received most of the funding. That is changing.

Julia Ross has been working with addicts since 1975 in public and private facilities. Relapse rates among patients were discouragingly high, and so was the burn-out rate among the staff. Important information was appearing about the probability of nutritional and biochemical imbalances, rather than lack of will-power or character, in a person's susceptibility to alcoholism and other substance abuse. Psychologist George Valliant, who directed a 40-year study at Harvard, advised in his book, The Natural History of Alcoholism, Harvard University Press, 1983, that workers in the field look outside of psychiatry for solutions to the problem of addiction.

Julia Ross writes, "His advice came as a shock to many of us in the chemical dependency field. Although spiritual recovery was addressed in A.A. [Alcoholics Anonymous], most of our treatment tools were psychological."

By the time she became executive director in the late 1980's of her own outpatient clinic, Recovery Systems (Mill Valley, California), enough data had piled up to make it possible for her to devise a treatment protocol that, amazingly, took most of the pain out of withdrawal.

Endorphins are natural opiate-like chemicals made in the body that are thousands of times stronger than heroin. Researchers are saying the children of alcoholics, for instance, tend to produce lower than normal levels of endorphins. This implies that they have a subnormal sense of well being. This uncomfortable deficiency state creates a natural, biological urge to alter consciousness to get high. Alcohol, drugs, and certain foods and behaviors give temporary relief from this depleted state.

One of the key words is food. In her earlier work, Ross realized that, for clients who had been abstinent for long periods and then relapsed, "life in recovery was simply hell for many of them. Their depressions were often unbearable. Irritability, mental confusion, low energy and chronic craving also plagued them." It took a long while before she and other workers realized that their clients had substituted addiction to certain foods for their original chemical dependency(ies)! Refined sweets and starches were the most popular "drug foods." As clients got fatter, they got hooked on binging, purging, and/or under-eating all of which have been to shown to raise endorphin levels!

Researchers have been developing new clinical tools for addressing the genetic biochemical core of addiction. They found that certain amino acids, vitamins, and minerals can quickly restore adequate levels of mood-enhancing neurochemicals. The use of these nutrients can dramatically improve addicts' experience in detox and early recovery.

The worst fear facing any person who is addicted to any substances whether prescription drugs, alcohol, cocaine, or food is that abstinence and recovery will be rewarded by a permanent state of craving and misery! The amazing thing I learned about Ross's program is that, for the last four years, she has seen cravings routinely eliminated within 48 to 72 hours. "Detox is usually limited to four days of mild discomfort for food and alcohol addicts. The cravings, insomnia and depression of stimulant addicts take longer to eliminate, but are markedly improved in one week."

Treatment may utilize nutritional therapy, vitamin and mineral supplements, certain amino acids (glutamine, taurine, tyrosine, etc.), counseling, group support, 12-step meetings, specialized medical care, exercise, and/or relaxation training. "This combined program allows us to address broader physical issues that contribute to craving and relapse. Chief among these issues are hypoglycemia, food intolerance (particularly to grains), candidiasis (yeast overgrowth), thyroid dysfunction, and stress.

"In programs like Recovery Systems, Health Recovery Center in Minneapolis, MN, and Comprehensive Medical Care in Amityville, NY, where biochemical restoration is fully implemented, long term success rates run as high as 70 to 83%."

SANE EATING IN RECOVERY
Julia Ross, MA
HEALTH AND NUTRITION

For many people, surviving recovery is almost as difficult as surviving addiction; particularly in winter.

Depression, often deepest in the dark holiday months, is a common problem for recovering people. The closely related problem of overeating is even more pervasive. Sober holidays frequently become a painful round of overeating, purging, and reactive dieting. Those trying to deal intensively with food-related problems (anorexia or bulimia) find that the way to abstinence is often difficult at any season.

Many people with no history of overeating find themselves craving sweets, starches, and fats in recovery. Most overeating problems predate alcohol and drug abuse, especially among the children of alcoholics. Children of alcoholics seem to have inherited many biochemical deficiencies. Poor diets and high stress, found in many alcoholic homes, cause further depletion. Finally, new deficiency states are created during active addiction. Even children of addicts who are not substance-addicted often suffer symptoms of depleted biochemistry, such as depression, exhaustion, and mood swings.

We know now that sugar and other food, as well as behaviors like purging can trigger the release of endorphins (natural opiates). This means that food can be a potent anesthetic drug. It also explains, in part, why withdrawal (e.g.dieting) is so difficult and relapse so common. When we add the fact that endorphin levels are lower in children of alcoholics we reach a new appreciation of the biochemical nature of addiction.

Endorphins and the other mood-enhancing neurochemicals are made from specific amino acids. Those of us who are deficient in these amino acids and essential vitamins, mineral and fats, suffer depression, low energy, cravings and anxiety. We are bound to find relief where we can in alcohol, cocaine, sugar, marijuana, etc. Unfortunately, in addition to their other side effects, these drugs make the original deficiency worse. This means that when we finally stop using drugs, we are left with very little natural capacity to feel good. So we suffer in sobriety and many of us relapse.

In the last five years, nutrition and addiction specialists have begun to collaborate very productively. Bay Area treatment centers are seeing dramatic reductions in cravings, depression, and anxiety as a result of implementing nutritional programs especially designed for recovering people.

It is important to keep the following things in mind when looking at these new recovery tools. The first thing is that emotional and spiritual recovery programs must be firmly in place because addiction is an emotional, spiritual, and physical disease. Second, expert supervision of diet and supplemental plans is usually necessary. Finally, recovering addicts tend to be very sensitive to substances and the same nutrients do not work well for all of them.

We regard substances like sugar, caffeine, Nutrasweet, white flour and artificial additives as drugs, not foods. They all deplete, rather than nourish, the body. Recovering people who rely on these substances are never out of a drugged state. They have not yet experienced the full benefits of sobriety.

We recommend that recovering people eliminate drug foods (like sugar) and problem foods (like wheat). In the past, this detox process would have been a nightmare of prolonged withdrawal and relapse (as most dieters have found). Now, however, the nutrient supplements that are making drug and alcohol detox easier can ease the discomfort of food withdrawal as well. Most importantly, they can quickly help eliminate cravings.

Please consult your health professional before embarking on any dietary or supplemental program.

Recovery Systems Mill Valley, CA (415) 383-3611

Health Recovery Center Minneapolis, MN (612) 827-7800

The following book is highly recommended
by Julia Ross. It is an excellent resource.
SEVEN WEEKS TO SOBRIETY,
The Proven Program To Fight Alcoholism Through Nutrition,
Joan Mathews Larson, Ph.D.

Important Note:

Details of the food supplements are purposely left out because each person requires individual consultation.

It isn't
for the moment
you are struck
that you need
courage
but for the long
uphill climb
back to sanity
and faith
and security.
Ann Morrow Lindberg (b. 1906)

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