Miracles Of Recovery

Addiction, in all its guises, kills uncounted 100's of thousands every year despite billions spent on education and treatment and the failed war on drugs.

We have the tools, but the current applications have failed, the approach must change to save this and future generations.

When You Change The Way You Look At Things.....

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...the things you look at change.

Freedom from addiction is not, and has never been one size fits all. Today more resources and paths of treatment and recovery are available than ever before yet decades of bitter experience has clearly demonstrated though that whether it is classic 12 Step recovery, CBT, DBT, EMDR, Smart Recovery, Celebrate Recovery, etc. without engagement in a community of individuals intimately familiar with the curious nature of addiction thinking, having personal experience with life’s inevitable difficulties, challenges, and successes free of intoxicants and addictive behavior, sustainable healthy long-term recovery, as the current overdose death and relapse rates attest, is elusive. Miracles Of Recovery lays the foundation to bring recovery and treatment into the 21st century.

Current Reality

Since 1971 over a Trillion dollars has been spent on a war on drug addiction. Yet according to the Center for Disease Control deaths from drug overdoses continue to climb. In 2019 70,630 succumbed, which is 185 per day, 1 every 8 minutes on average, and this does not reflect the 100’s of thousands dying of other addiction related causes and illness.

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health reported 2.5 million people sought help for addiction in America in 2018 out of the over 21 million (1 in 13 above the age of 12) who meet the criterion for Substance Use Disorder (SUD). Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act the Addiction Treatment Industry has grown to over 13,000 treatment facilities nationwide, yet despite this growth today in America the #1 killer of adults under 50, according to the Department of Justice, is addiction.

The Way Out

Miracles Of Recovery will create an all-inclusive platform for all who suffer from drug addiction as well as those who love them, addressing the stigma of SUD (substance use disorder), embracing all recovery paths, while providing real and affordable continuing engagement with treatment professionals and established recovery communities worldwide while creating new ones.

Miracles Of Recovery bridges generations, embracing the future while honoring the past, utilizing ZOOM/E-rooms to engage this and future generations from mobile devices, Smart Screen TV’s, computers, and Virtual Reality as that technology evolves.

Everything Changes

________________________________________The world of recovery, just as the world in general has changed a great deal since the first “100” in what became Alcoholics Anonymous, the first real sea-change in recovery thinking, gathered to write the book Alcoholics Anonymous (Big Book) in 1938. Then, those suffering from addiction, if labeled incorrigible by society, could be sentenced to sanitariums or insane asylums and unless someone would take legal responsibility for them could spend the rest of their lives locked away in what were essentially warehouses for those society had deemed beyond redemption, out of sight, often in appalling conditions or even possibly “cured” with a prefrontal lobotomy (preformed from 1935-1960). While those in recovery lived in fear of the stigma (unfortunately still evident today), their lives possibly ruined if it became known by their employer or the public they had had a “problem.” Another sea-change is desperately needed, and it begins with embracing the world as it is, not as it was.

My journey in recovery began in 1985. Though the world had changed in many respects between 1938 and 1985 the transmission of information and the world of recovery fundamentally hadn’t. In 1985:

· The Internet existed but was almost exclusively the domain of governments and universities.

· TV had supplanted radio, but magazines, newspapers, telephone directories, libraries, books and posted mail still ruled the day.

· Cell phones as constituted today didn’t exist. There were “portable” phones varying in size from a small loaf of bread to a briefcase, were expensive to use, and only made phone calls unlike the pocket computers of today which happen to have a phone app.

· Many had radio pagers, but then you had to locate a phone.

· Dell released their first computer, along with the introduction of the Commodore Amiga 1000 and the original Apple Macintosh.

· Windows version 1.0 was released.

· Nintendo introduced the NES gaming platform.

· AA and NA were steadily growing and expanding, as they had since their respective inceptions.

· Though professional recovery had existed since the earliest days of AA (Dr. Silkworth, author of the Doctor’s Opinion in the Big Book, opened “Duffy’s Tavern” at Knickerbocker State Hospital in NY for detox and then sent patients to the “farm” for 28 days of continued treatment) 12 Step calls were two members of either Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous (founded in 1953) carrying the message, face to face for free, to suffers was still typical. A call to a local AA or NA Central Office would start the process or Doctors and the Clergy who knew members in the recovery community would routinely send suffers their way as first points of contact.

But critically in 1985 acquiring deeper knowledge and information happened through encyclopedias, libraries, magazines, newspapers, and telephone directories, just as it had for generations. Cable TV was in 44% of American homes, CNN 5 years old, still the basic transmission and assimilation of information and knowledge had changed remarkably little, and though professional treatment was available, the world of recovery was still principally 12 Step calls, hard backed books, and real world, face to face gatherings.

Today:

· Newspapers and magazines are dying out, once central sources of information, have become basically irrelevant for those under 40, while the internet has effectively replaced phone books and encyclopedias as well as posted personal mail.

· There are more mobile devices in circulation than the population of the Earth. These “phones” though are actually palm sized personal computers those under 40 uses almost exclusively for communication, entertainment, banking, shopping, and information gathering.

· People entering recovery under 40 have in most cases not picked up a “real” book or visited a library since leaving school but are “hooked” on their mobile devices.

· AA ceased growing in 1992, stabilizing at the current 2 million members (AAWS GSO statistics). And though NA does not publish estimated membership statistics, its growth is minimal at best, clearly not reflecting or addressing the 15+ year old surge in Crystal Meth and Opioid addiction.

· There are thousands of online recovery groups and social media pages regularly accessed, unfiltered or vetted. And for those seeking help with addiction, today the first point of contact typically originates from an Internet search, or a radio or television ad for a treatment center.

AA and NA’s 12 Traditions, principally Traditions of Anonymity (12th), Attraction, not promotion (11th), and (No)Professionalism (8th) ** though relevant at the time of adoption (early 1950’s), today handicap them from adapting to an evolving world. Additionally, many “oldtimers” in these Fellowships have become the self-appointed guardians of recovery deriding people they feel don’t “identify” correctly or arrived at “their” meeting in a van (sarcastically referred to as druggy buggies) from a professional treatment center, openly criticizing any mention of CBT, DBT, EMDR, etc. often making them feel unwelcome. Many as well reject any other path of recovery, often even deriding other fellowships, but a particular animus exists directed at those begun in the professional setting; clearly points to why AA’s and NA’s growth, though still dynamic paths as originally intended, have stagnated. Coupled with the current prevailing attitude of many that relapse is too be expected, even sadly, inevitable with the reality of today’s professional recovery which is typically at best a 90-day process where treatment modalities and access to professionals end upon completion and you have the perfect confluence resulting in the current abysmal long-term recovery rate and chronically high relapse rate despite increased initial availability of services and heightened overall general awareness.

________________________________________The Insanity of Relapse

Addiction Thinking

How someone can rationalize repeatedly using intoxicants, aware of the possible deadly consequences or incessantly engage in behavior (sexual, gambling, DUI, etc.) that places everything in their life at risk, to the rational individual, is truly baffling. Those addicted to Heroin will lament how they “hate” kicking (detoxing), never wanting to do it again since the experience is so unbearable and painful (think of the worst case of the flu with severe body aches you have ever had and multiply by 2 or more and you have a rough approximation of the experience) but when asked how many times they have detoxed, the answer, typically, is “I don’t know, too many.” Being fully aware of the consequences, would someone rational purposely subject themselves to an experience they “hate” repeatedly, say like volunteering for a needless root canal or IRS audit? Let alone something potentially deadly? Of course not, that would be irrational.

Yet this is the mindset of individuals who suffer from addiction. Repeating the same action expecting a different result demonstrates a base form of insanity. Yes, it is strong language but how else would you describe someone who after being repeatedly arrested for driving under the influence, incurring large financial and personal consequences, continues to drink and drive? The Opioid addict who was literally just brought back to life by a timely dose of NARCAN ® (Naloxone HCl), their first action to make sure no one used the rest of their drugs or if they came to in a hospital take the first opportunity to leave AMA (Against Medical Advice) to return to using the same drug which put them there in the first place! Or the individual who completes a professional treatment program, frequently costing over 100,000 dollars, after a 90 day (depending on their insurance) stay relapses often within days after “graduating.” From experience, having worked with thousands of individuals over the past 35+ years both as someone in recovery and a recovery professional, the above examples are unfortunately typical.

To borrow from Wayne Dyer: When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. Education, though important, has proven not to be the overriding answer, while CBT(Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), DBT(Dialectical Behavior Therapy), EMDR(Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) are effective professional treatment modalities along with Psychotherapy, as currently employed have all largely failed, principally because they are not scalable, i.e. Healthcare Providers do not cover these modalities beyond the end of the professional treatment cycle. Another contributing factor is the gulf existing between the professional treatment community and the outside recovery communities of AA, NA, etc. Due to built-in limitations and restrictions inherent in both, as well as some cooked in institutional prejudice coupled with a culture-based unwillingness to change or adapt, strikingly prevalent in the outside recovery communities, no genuine path exists to bridge between them. While the professional community’s hands are tied due to the constraints of Insurance Providers and HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) guidelines, many in the outside recovery communities remain fixated on a single path, disparaging other paths or modalities often making individuals who come to the Fellowships from professional treatment feel unwelcome, running truly contrary to the dictum all should hold dear: “first, do no harm.” Mix in the brokers and treatment centers on the professional side whose only interests are financial, with little or no regard for suffers or recovery, tainting all in the professional sector, providing fodder for the negative narrative in the outside recovery communities and the reasons for today’s abysmal long-term recovery rate (20% according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, though many believe it closer to 10%) and the high chronic relapse rate comes into focus.

Together We Can Change The World

Supporting Miracles Of Recovery will bring recovery into the 21st century, saving 100's of thousands of lives, removing the lingering stigma, providing long term, affordable access to professionals and build innovative paths leading suffers back to constructive, fulfilling lives free of crippling addiction, while saving uncounted families from the phone call they live in dread of receiving.

Creator

My name is Vincent Lee Jones and I am a CCAPP Certified Mental Health Recovery Peer Specialist (CMHRPS). I have been in recovery since September 1985. My professional career began when I was asked to work pro bono with at risk students at Huntington Beach High School. At the time I had developed a reputation within the at large recovery community as an effective communicator and after the death of two students from prescription drugs I was asked to start working with high-risk students, which I did for nearly 5 years. Word of mouth lead to offers of compensated part time freelance Facilitator positions with numerous local treatment facilities in the ensuing years.

In 2011 I accepted a full-time position. Along with clinical duties, as a Director my responsibilities included addressing the day to day needs and struggles of clients transitioning from the professional setting back to the real world. From this intimate experience their day to day struggles and challenges and the lack of any real effective aftercare to address them became painfully obvious. As a retired Building Contractor/Designer I created a construction program utilizing a workforce comprised almost exclusively of people new or returning to recovery, helping them to not only learn a trade and earn a living but since many of them had relapsed numerous times, to begin truly building a foundation to live free of active addiction in the real world. This program changed many lives but ended when the funding was withdrawn.

In my 35+ years in recovery I have worked with thousands of individuals from all walks of life, teenagers to the retired, famous to infamous, prosperous to those barely getting by to the homeless and dispossessed, adamant atheists to those embracing strong Religious beliefs; suffering from all manner of intoxicant and behavior-based addictions as well as those who love and care about them, both as someone intimately familiar with addiction as well as a treatment professional.

Miracles Of Recovery: the blueprint

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The link below provides accesses the complete blueprint of Miracles of Recovery.

https://miraclesofrecovery.com/