Chris Prentiss - The Alcoholism and Addiction Cure: A Holistic Approach to Total Recovery

T H E
A L C O H O L I S M
A N D
A D D I C T I O N
CUR E

THE
ALCOHOLISM

AND

ADDICTION
CURE

CHRIS PRENTISS

CONTENTS

ix

Chapter ii

Chapter 43

Chapter 129

Chapter 145

Chapter 159

Chapter 175

Chapter 267

Chapter 303

I know your struggle, I know your heartache. I have seen the rending of families, the suffering, the tragic endings, and I have seen the wonder of transcendence over it all.

This book is dedicated to you who seek freedom from dependency for yourself or a loved one.

ACKNOWLEDG M ENTS

HEREBY ACKNOWLEDGE THE PRODIGIOUS EFFORT PUT FORTH on behalf of this book by Nigel J. Yorwerth and Patricia Spadaro of PublishingCoaches.com in Bozeman, Montana. Their meticulous editing, proofing, organization of the material, and shepherding of the book through all its stages was exemplary in every way. They brought their own particular wisdom to bear in a gracious and unobtrusive manner, for which I am grateful.I wish to thank Jessica Cail for her diligent efforts in research and in providing substantiation of factual information presented in this book.I also wish to acknowledge the editing effort of Monica Faulkner. Monica makes every writer look professional.I also wish to acknowledge Robert S. Tinnon for his precise layout and design of the interior of the book.I also wish to thank Nita Ybarra for her clean and uncluttered cover design.I thank those wonderful therapists at Passages for their dedication to healing, to being the best they can be, and for their loyalty and expertise. I also thank the doctors and therapists from Passages who have made such a wonderful contribution to this book.And lastly, I thank Pax. Without him, none of this would have ever happened. He is a constant reminder to everyone who comes to Passages and to everyone who reads this book of the tremendous growth and possibility for greatness that exists within every dependency. Seneca, a Roman philosopher who lived in the first century A.D., said, "Gold is tempered by fire, brave men by adversity." Certainly Pax was tempered in the fire, and certainly everything was burned away that was not pure. What is left is a shining example of the potential in each of us to surmount even the greatest adversity.

C H A P T E R O N E

MY PLEDGE TO YOU

Note: I wrote The Alcoholism ss Addiction Cure as if you are the one seeking a cure, even though you may be reading this to learn how to cure a loved one.

cure n. 1) Restoring to a sound or healthy condition.2) A healing./ITHIN THE COVERS OF THIS BOOK, I WILL SHOW YOU how you can cure your alcoholism or addiction. Here, at the outset, I want you to notice that I do not mince words. I do not say "however," "maybe," "although," "perhaps," or use other qualifying terms or conditions. By reading this book, you will learn how to cure your alcoholism or addiction.That statement is based on the results we achieve at Passages in Malibu, California, the world's most effective center for the treatment of substance abuse, where our success rate at the time of this writing is 84.4 percent.At Passages, we assist people every day to cure themselves. We don't cure them-we assist them to cure themselves. By learning how to activate your mental and physical resources, and by getting qualified help, you too can cure yourself or help bring about a cure for your loved one.Although you and I have never met face-to-face and gotten to know each other, I consider you my friend. If we meet, you'll find that we share similar experiences, particularly with regard to dependency. You or your loved one are treading the same ground that I trod with my son Pax, who was dependent on heroin, cocaine, and alcohol for ten years.You and I have felt the same despair, suffered the same hardships, experienced the same losses, seen the same rending of friendships and family, watched ourselves or our loved ones relentlessly spiral downward, and had our hearts broken and our spirits dashed. The difference between us, if there is a difference, is that Pax has come out the other side whole, healed, and cured, while you or your loved one is still caught in the grip of the powerful, soul-sucking vortex of dependency on addictive drugs or alcohol.Pax began using marijuana when he was fifteen, along with an occasional beer. I did what I could to deter him from that behavior, but he continued. At the time, I was unknowledgeable about how that seemingly harmless behavior could escalate into hard drug use. When Pax was eighteen, he came home from school one day and began crying. He told me he was hooked on heroin.For the next six years, I battled heroin for Pax's life. I put him in thirty-day programs, sixty-day programs, and ninety-day programs. Nothing worked. He was clean forty times or more. Each time he relapsed, I would ask "Why?" Each time, he did not know the answer beyond saying it was the incredible high. It was as if he was powerless to resist the temptation. I never knew from one day to the next if I was ever going to see him again, and I was constantly afraid I would lose him.I took him to drug therapists, alcohol therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, addiction specialists, and counselors of every sort. As I look back on those sessions, I remember asking myself why none of them were seeking to discover why Pax was using heroin. They all had suggestions for rehab, twelve-step programs, and more counseling, but not one of them initiated any investigation into what might be a probable cause of his substance abuse. In nearly every case, their suggestions were directed to creating an environment where he would be less apt to use heroin, and they advised me to punish him for his bad behavior. I learned firsthand, however, that punishment doesn't work as a means to correct substance abuse, even when someone is facing death.At one point during Pax's odyssey, a gang of drug dealers drove him into the desert to kill him because he had stolen drugs from them. They forced him to dig his own grave. Somehow, he talked them out of doing that by convincing them that he could get the money. The day after he came home from that harrowing experience, he used heroin again. Then I watched Pax come out of the hospital, his jaws broken in two places and wired shut from being kicked in the face by a drug dealer who wanted money from him. His teeth were pointing in all directions, he was barely able to speak, and through his teeth he was sifting food-and smoking heroin. At one point, determined to break the cycle of heroin use, I took him away with me to an isolated cabin in the Big Sur mountains on the coast of California. I kept him absolutely clean for nine months. The first week we left Big Sur, he used heroin and cocaine.I believed that Pax was turning to heroin for a reason. I did not know what the reason was, but I believed there was one. In his drug-free days before he became dependent, he was athletic, outgoing, happy, and a good student, even achieving a studentof-the-month award. He wanted to stop using heroin and cocaine and return to a normal life, but he was unable to stop. The day Pax discovered the "why" behind his dependency was the last day he ever used drugs or alcohol. In that moment, he was able to free himself of his addiction.Today, Pax is whole in every way-healthy, happy, prosperous, clear-minded, completely cured, and helping others to achieve the same freedom that he has achieved. It was Pax's idea to open Passages. He said, "Look, we know how to do it, let's do it." Together, Pax and I founded and are now co-directors of Passages, where we work side by side every day. I see him, and I'm proud of him and of what he has accomplished and is accomplishing. He has been reclaimed from the land of the dying, from an addiction to alcohol and addictive drugs that was so powerful that at times it seemed impossible to save him. Yet save him we did. All credit to him and to the generous and loving Universe of which we are all a part.So, I feel close to you, even though we havent met. I have no axe to grind here, no hidden agenda. I want to help you. I can help you, if you will let me. But to do so, you must come to see me as a friend who has your best interests at heart-a friend who has traveled the same road that you or your loved one is now traveling and who has reached the best destination possible: a completely reclaimed life.Next page