Wonderland Recovery Blog

I know the doctors and psychiatrists at Wonderland are the best in the business. They are cutting edge professionals that specialize in addiction. They provide life saving services to our clients. Yet with all their knowledge, skills and experience they cannot stop an addict from using! Our counselors, therapists and clinical team are the best they can’t stop an addict from using. Our nutritional consultants, fitness gurus and yoga teachers can’t stop an addict from using. I have come to the conclusion no one can stop an addict or alcoholic from using except the addict or alcoholic. Therefore all the services we provide at Wonderland are designed to empower our clients to help themselves. We provide a comprehensive set of services from multiple disciplines to provide exceptional recovery rates for our industry. And we encourage our clients to attend 12 Step meetings. The 12 Steps are not for everyone. But they do work for millions of people, including me. There are over 11,000 treatment centers in the nation and over 50,000 sober livings. If alcoholism and addiction were easy to treat, addiction would not be a bigger health problem than cancer or diabetes.

We all know alcoholism and addiction are huge social problems. What is less understood is alcoholism and addiction’s affect on productivity? It is easy to see, walk into a drug treatment center, how many people are not working, on disability, unemployment or general relief. Why? Addiction separates us from society. Being clean and sober is the first step back. Complete recovery requires reintegration into society. One of the ways we reintegrate is through working. Why can’ the newly clean and sober find jobs or work? A criminal record, gaps in employment, poor personal and professional networks or all of the above. Early recovery is a roller coaster ride of emotion and physiological changes in the body. In the recovery community we call it healing. A friend of mine Executive Dave said in our weekly “work in recovery” group something I’ll always remember: Find a “Get Well” job in the first year. I love that! While your body and mind are healing take it slow. Don’t try to find the perfect career, just get a Get Well job. Keep busy, go to meetings, get support and stay clean and sober. In my life this has turned out to be the best advice possible.

Pacific Community Ventures (PCV) http://www.pacificcommunityventures.org is an amazing organization. They are on the cutting edge of social entrepreneurship. This organization is a hybrid between a traditional VC firm and a Nonprofit Community Development organization. PCV has helped Wonderland develop employment programs and benefits for our team that help drive our success. If you get a chance check out PCV they are a company to be followed!

Alex

We get many questions on our recovery rate. We have a strong community of alumni in recovery. Our last check-in with former clients placed the percentage still clean and sober after leaving treatment at 65%. We are very proud of this statistic. We hope one day we can achieve 100% recovery rates for our clients; we want all of our clients to be happy, successful, clean and sober. There is no known cure for alcoholism and addiction. For more information on alcoholism and addiction please see this very well written article. http://health.howstuffworks.com/alcoholism7.htm .

We wish every person a life free of addiction. We cannot claim anyone leaving Wonderland Center has been “cured”.

Alex Shohet