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Rehab Happy Hour

Take note, recovering alcoholics, Malcolm Gladwell: an alcoholic shelter program in Seattle has shown that drinking alcohol has been effective in treating alcohol addiction and alcohol-related problems. That’s because the residents of the shelter, 1811 Eastlake, felt more support to stay inside the shelter and improve their lives and less pressure to tackle all of their problems at once, according to clinical psychologist Susan Collins, lead author of a new study published in The American Journal of Public Health. “Individuals’ internal motivation to change was more predictive of decreases in drinking and alcohol-related problems than was attendance at traditional abstinence-based treatment,” she told NPR.

The study isn’t claiming that providing alcohol to alcoholics is some sort of miracle cure like the 1950s method of forcing a kid to smoke a carton of cigarettes (don’t do that either). What it does state is that the typical cut-and-dry cold turkey method is less successful — and thus leading to more health and legal trouble for patients, and more expense for taxpayers — than a gradual approach that takes into account all of the negative factors of an alcoholic’s life, not just the booze. It suggests that, with addiction, the black-and-white solutions often preferred by policy makers will not be as successful as a more holistic approach.

Read the rest at Motherboard.

By Alex Pasternack 3 months ago Like · Comment · Share