[ Doctor DeLuca’s Addiction Website ]
From:
H0CKEYH0@aol.com
Sent:
Sunday, August 20, 2000 8:11 PM
To:
adeluca1@bellatlantic.net
Subject:
Of possible interest...
******************************
Sigurd
Ackerman, MD, President
St.
Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center
1000
Tenth Avenue
New
York, NY 10019
July
13, 2000
SUBJECT
Reply
to: "Victory for Abstinence Based Treatment"
Dear
Dr. Ackerman & Colleagues:
I
am alarmed that in this modern age that you suggest that an alternative
recovery
method is invalid, regardless of the research many of your peers
have
done on the subject. Do you deny a person infected with HIV a different
medication
if he does not respond to the first one ever developed?
From
what I understand the harm reduction model was embraced by your
treatment
center enough to have welcomed meetings to be hosted there that
helped
to teach people about the methods that might be used. Your sudden
change
of heart makes me wonder what sort of organization you are running.
Did
you discover that harm reduction was not profitable enough? If the
managing
directors had such a problem with non-abstinence based treatment for
alcohol
problems in the first place, why did you waste time and resources
hosting
it? It appears to me that you have been bullied by the media, or
possibly
by those who fund your institution into eliminating a new concept
long
before it has been given a fair chance to prove successful.
Why
is it so inconceivable that a new and radically different approach to
alcohol
treatment might just work? There is a major disservice here to anyone
who
seeks to lessen their alcohol intake without being told they are a
hopeless
drunk. There are people who drink to suppress depression, grief,
loneliness,
and a multitude of other circumstantial discomforts. I cannot
accept
that a disease is caused by someone drinking to deal with unfamiliar
or
uncomfortable emotions caused by peripheral circumstances. It would be
more
logical to assist people in dealing with those emotions they are
suppressing
with alcohol then to irresponsibly diagnose them with a disease
and
pawn them off into a program which they don't belong in.
One
of the major problems you seem to have is discerning alcohol abuse from
alcohol
addiction. None of the experts on television or in the press seem to
be
able to clearly define this line. If it is a case of someone having
physical
withdrawal symptoms from alcohol abstention I can see where you
would
declare an actual physical addiction. In absence of these symptoms, it
would
suggest to me that the person has been drinking to suppress
something(s)
specific. If the person was properly attended to in
psychotherapy,
assuming there was no co-existing physical addiction, once the
emotional
trauma is dealt with the self medication of alcohol would no longer
be
an issue. If the abuse of alcohol continues after the underlying issues
are
dealt with and the overdrinking has been addressed by the therapist, at
this
point a closer look at the person's relationship with alcohol could be
further
explored.
It
is my hope that your directors will not let this issue die. It is
imperative
to explore new and improved methods of treatment and advance the
effectiveness
of alternative approaches to any health problem. It is nothing
short
of gross negligence on the part of the medical community to do anything
less.
Jennifer
Newman
Point
Pleasant NJ