STRESS REDUCER LOOP

The success rate on addiction treatment is 20%. This is not acceptable. There are thousands of smart and dedicated people who are trying to solve the problem of addiction. There are millions of dollars being spent to fight the problem of addiction. The people with addiction are highly motivated to not be addicted.

Then why is the success rate so low?

We are using the wrong model for what an addiction is.

Our success rate in treating addiction is abysmal and now there is a new model to explain addiction with 95% success rate, Stress Reducer Loop

If you or your loved one has been ravaged by addiction, don’t give up.

It’s not all your fault, addiction treatment is using the wrong model to help you.

I’m Gary Sprouse, MD, “The Less Stress Doc”. I have been a primary care physician for 35 years. I have been working in a rural county in Maryland where resources for addiction treatment is limited. I was treating patients with addiction with traditional treatments and was getting limited success. Something was not right.

After years of research, joining national addiction treatment societies, working on the state committee for addiction, I realized we had the wrong model. As a physician, I was trained in the disease model. Calling an addiction a disease made sense. But the results were horrible. 20% success rate, gut wrenching stigma, overcrowded jails, millions of dollars being wasted in treatment with little accountability, frustrated medical providers etc. It is time for a new model.

Stress Reducer Loop is a new model to explain the facts that we know about addiction. The premise of the model is we all have stress and we all find tools to relieve our stress. But when the tool you have picked, your stress reducer starts causing stress, you are in a Loop. If you have a couple beers after a bad day at work and then get a DUI on the way home, your stress reducer just caused stress. You are in a loop.

This Stress Reducer Loop model fits the facts better than the disease model and the treatment results are remarkable. I was getting a 95% success rate in my office.

A patient who was living in a tent in Baltimore after 15 failed rehab stents was sober for 2 years.

A patient who tried to kill herself because she had given up hope of being sober has been sober for 18 months. She is employed, married and a mother and loving life.

I have a term CASH, that my patients love.

They feel Connected.

They feel Accepted.

They feel Safe.

They have Hope.