1. Does the program accept your insurance? If not, will they work with you on a payment plan or find other means of support for you?
2. Is the program run by state-accredited, licensed and/or trained professionals?
3. Is the facility clean, organized and well run?
4. Does the program encompass the full range of needs of the individual (medical: including infectious diseases; psychological: including co-occurring mental illness; social; vocational; legal; etc.)?
5. Does the treatment program also address sexual orientation and physical disabilities as well as provide age, gender and culturally appropriate treatment services?
6. Is long-term aftercare support and/or guidance encouraged, provided and maintained?
7. Is there ongoing assessment of an individual’s treatment plan to ensure it meets changing needs?
8. Does the program employ strategies to engage and keep individuals in longer-term treatment, increasing the likelihood of success?
9. Does the program offer counseling (individual or group) and other behavioral therapies to enhance the individual’s ability to function in the family/community?
10. Does the program offer medication as part of the treatment regimen, if appropriate?
11. Is there ongoing monitoring of possible relapse to help guide patients back to abstinence?

These are all questions the government’s substance abuse gurus suggest that you ask. Hawaii Island Recovery in Kona, Hawaii fills the bill for all of them. For instance, does the treatment center offer a medically supervised detoxification program? Hawaii Island Recovery features access to a detox facility to help those withdrawing from alcohol and drugs. The program enables you to detox in a relatively pain-free and comfortable environment. The medical staff can prescribe medicines to ease the withdrawal experience. The idea is to get you in shape emotionally and physically so you can easily fit into a residential addiction recovery setting. Ask for a schedule of activities for a typical week at their facilities. Hawaii Island Recovery offers a balanced program of individual and group therapy, lectures, education sessions, support groups and healthy recreational alternatives. There also are frequent medical and psychological assessments performed by professionals, and counseling sessions with clinicians and caseworkers. Ask to see testimonials from former residents. While no treatment center will show you letters from dissatisfied clients, they should have a stack of letters or e-mails from appreciative former participants. And find out how much importance they place on long-term recovery. Aftercare programs are crucial to the success of everyone who enters treatment. At Hawaii Island Recovery, the aftercare regimen includes regularly scheduled meetings with peers, 12-step meetings, family integrations, help with employment and school enrollment, progress and accountability reviews, and organized sober activities with alumni members. For more information or to get answers to your own questions about residential treatment, call Michael Larroque at Hawaii Island Recovery at 866-906-6911.

Big Island Recovery Bed Room

The most obvious sign is your personal appearance and your surroundings. When people have fallen into alcoholism or drug addiction, getting the drink or the drug becomes the most important thing in their lives. It’s more important than food, sleep, school, work, relationships, family members or any other number of responsibilities that go with daily life. Recognizing you need drug rehab may start with a look in the mirror. Again, it’s typically others who will recognize when you need drug rehab before you do. Alcoholism and drug addiction carry the major symptom of denial, which makes it difficult to see how much the drink or the drug is taking over your life. Loss of interest in normal activities and hobbies, falling off in school or work performance, changing your friends (lower companions), changes in appetite and appearance all indicate a personality change brought on by alcohol or drug addiction.
What to Do When You Recognize a Need for Drug Rehab
Whether it’s you or someone you love who needs drug rehab, the most important thing you can do is pick up the phone and call drug rehab centers for information on how to get help. Don’t wait until it gets worse because you never know when the next drink or hit will be the last one. For most people struggling with addiction, drug rehab is a scary thought. It means giving up the drug and learning how to cope without it. Talking to an intake coordinator at a drug rehab center can help guide you on the right path to getting help. They are trained to help break through the denial that often gets in the way of recognizing a need for drug rehab. Research a variety of drug rehabs and choose the one that is right for you. The most important thing you can do for yourself and those you love is to admit you need drug rehab, and take the help that’s offered. Contact Michael Larroque at Hawaii Island Recovery at 866-906-6911. to get answers to your own questions about residential treatment.

Corals near Big Island Recovery

Government spending costs in regards to substance abuse and addiction reached $467.7 billion in 2005, according to a study released last month. The report, released by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA), was based on three years of research, and is the first ever study to assess the costs of alcohol, illegal drugs, tobacco, prescription drug abuse, addiction and its consequences when it comes to all levels of governmental expenditures.
The study also found that 96 percent of the federal and state government spending was used on alcohol, illegal drugs, tobacco, prescription drug abuse, addiction and its consequences, in contrast to only two percent that went toward prevention and treatment. So for every dollar that is spent on prevention and treatment, $50 go towards programs addressing the effects. Of the money, governments spend the most on health care costs associated with substance abuse (58 percent) followed by the costs due to crime and homelessness (13 percent).
These 2005 figures, the most recent year for which data was available over the course of the study, reveal a stark reality and ever-present stigma when it comes to substance abuse. Amid a range of suggestions on how to address these spending patterns is the suggestion that governments balance the cost allotments more evenly taking into account that addiction is a disease, that it is preventable and treatable, but that the treatments needs to be widely available for them to be effective. Call Michael Larroque at Hawaii Island Recovery at 866-906-6911 and see how eager we are to help you.

Big Island Recovery Beach

The effects of alcohol addiction range across all aspects of the individuals life. The main effect is the individual drinking alcohol in overabundance at times that they should not thereby causing damage to themselves and possibly others. Some of the potential effects of alcohol addiction include but are not limited to the following: Physical effects: cirrhosis of the liver, pancreatitis, alcoholic dementia, heart disease, nutritional deficiencies, sexual dysfunction, and death from many sources. Social effects: Marital conflict and divorce, social alienation because of behavior. Economic Effects: loss of employment, financial problems such as loss of living quarters, poor judgment, Legal Consequences: charges for drunk driving or public disorder. There is also the possibility of domestic violence either to spouse or children. Emotional Consequences: alcohol abuse can affect the individual drinking as well as the recipients of probable abuse. For instance, an alcoholic’s children can experience delays or damage to their emotional development. Friends and family who perceive alcoholism as self inflicted may lose respect for the alcoholic further diminishing his or her social support network. Get yourself or your loved ones on the right track to recovery call Michael Larroque at 866-906-6911 @ Hawaii Island Recovery today and start a new wonderful life.

Rocks near Big Island Recovery

Maintaining comprehensive bio-behavioral understanding of addiction also speaks to what needs to be provided in drug treatment programs.
At Hawaii Island Recovery we are careful not to pit biology against behavior.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse recently published Principles of Effective Drug Addiction Treatment provides a detailed discussion of how we must treat all aspects of the individual, not just the biological component or the behavioral component.
As with other brain diseases such as schizophrenia and depression, the data show that the best drug addiction treatment approaches attend to the entire individual, combining the use of medications, behavioral therapies, and attention to necessary social services and rehabilitation.
These include such services as family therapy to enable the patient to return to successful family life, mental health services, education and vocational training, and housing services.
That does not mean, of course, that all individuals need all components of treatment and all rehabilitation services. Another principle of effective addiction treatment is that the array of services included in an individual’s treatment plan must be matched to his or her particular set of needs. Moreover, since those needs will surely change over the course of recovery, the array of services provided will need to be continually reassessed and adjusted. The staff at Hawaii Island Recovery is trained to do just that. Come see what recovery in paradise looks like. Visit us soon at http://www.hawaiiislandrecovery.com or call Michael Larroque at Hawaii Island Recovery’s office at866-906-6911  in Kona, Hawaii.

Diving at Big Island Recovery

There is at least one genetic test for an allele that is associated to alcoholism and opiate addiction. Though this allele is more common in individuals with alcohol addiction, there is no conclusive evidence that the presence of this gene is necessary for alcohol addiction. Some researchers argue that the evidence for such alleles is contradictory. There is a theory that alcohol was discovered and utilized as a replacement for polluted drinking reservoirs in urban society. In this case, death from liver disease was preferred to death by waterborne disease. Over time, this resulted in a selection process of genes that were able to handle more alcohol. Essentially the population changed from being a predominately hunter-gatherer society to more urban. This theory explains why certain groups like Aborigines or Native Americans have a higher alcohol tolerance.
Alcoholism can be a lifelong struggle. Though behaviors are changed, relapse is always a possibility and often occurs. Relapse does not mean an individual is doomed to alcoholism.
Call Hawaii Island Recovery at  866-906-6911 today and talk to Michael Larroque for more information.

When first venturing into the addictive process, people come in contact with something or someone that creates a mood change. A person may become addicted to the thing or person that creates the mood change almost immediately or over time. The mood change does not have to be a positive one. People can become addicted to anger, depression, self-pity, shame, etc… The list is immense. People can also become addicted to crisis as well. Often these people end up in relationships with people who are seasoned at creating crisis and the best people at creating havoc are alcoholics and addicts. A person may be more prone to slipping through the gateway of addiction during times of crisis. During times of crisis a person is more vulnerable to becoming addicted. A crisis can be anything from the death of a loved one to losing a job.

Once the person begins to rely on the object to change their mood instead of their own resources the process of addiction is initiated and the only way to break free from the inevitable progression of addiction is to recognize that one is addicted and seek help from outside themselves. The reason why a person who has begun the process of addiction must seek help from outside of themselves is because they have become their own worst enemy so to speak. It is impossible, except in the most unusual of circumstances, for a person who has begun the process of addiction to stop on their own will power. They must find a power greater than themselves.

If you are suffering from addiction please call Hawaii Island Recovery at 866-906-6911.

Diagnoses of substance-induced mental disorders will typically be provisional and will require reevaluation sometimes repeatedly. Many apparent acute mental disorders may really be substance-induced disorders, such as in those clients who use substances and who are acutely suicidal.
Some people who have what appear to be substance-induced disorders may turn out to have both a substance-induced disorder and an independent mental disorder. For most people who are addicted to substances, drugs eventually become more important than jobs, friends, family, and even children. These changes in priorities often look, sound, and feel like a personality disorder, but diagnostic clarity regarding personality disorders in general is difficult, and in clients with substance-related disorders the true diagnostic picture might not emerge or reveal itself for weeks or months. Moreover, it is not unusual for the symptoms of a personality disorder to clear with abstinence sometimes even fairly early in recovery. Preexisting mood state, personal expectations, drug dosage, and environmental surroundings all warrant consideration in developing an understanding of how a particular client might experience a substance-induced disorder. Treatment of the substance use disorder and an abstinent period of weeks or months may be required for a definitive diagnosis of an independent, co-occurring mental disorder. Our substance abuse treatment program and clinical staff can concentrate on screening for mental disorders and determining the severity and acuity of symptoms, along with an understanding of the client’s support network and overall life situation.

The HAWAII ISLAND RECOVERY Drug Rehab program is an individualized and personalized treatment experience. Each client’s addiction treatment plan is formulated by all of our clinical staff, including our medical doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, and addiction treatment professionals. We know that generalized programming is not always beneficial to clients and that the individual needs of client may vary. We focus on both addiction treatment and alcohol treatment, or one or the other if needed.

We believe that one-on-one treatment produces the best results. It is the rapport that develops between the client and the clinician that produces the most favorable results. Often clients have experienced trauma in their lives and this may be one of the many factors contributing to their drug and alcohol abuse. We provide a private, exclusive and comfortable environment in paradise (Hawaii) to begin healing from these issues. For more information call Michael Larroque at Hawaii Island Recovery at 866-906-6911.