Thank you Robert Parker and Tom Selleck!

Robert Parker died at his desk in January 2010 but his characters Spencer and Jesse Stone live on – the latter in a television movie series first starring and now also written by Tom Selleck.

Why should you care?

Because these books and movies are about the only place on TV or in popular fiction where you’ll read about what actually works for overcoming alcohol abuse.
Additionally, in the latest movie, Innocents Lost, which aired Sunday, May 22, you get the bonus of a “rehab mill” you’re sure to recognize from one you’ve been through, or read about, or had the 12 Step hucksters try and lure you into.

Selleck’s character, Jesse Stone, wends his way though these books and movies as a competent, smart, isolated man with a taste for scotch. You don’t need to take as long as he is to fix it, but then you probably don’t want to be a multi-part TV series, either.

The latest and last Spencer novel, Sixkill,  also provides as good and realistic a journey into and out of alcohol abuse, as a modern Native American man could ask for.

Why are the real answers to addiction treatment so rare in Hollywood and pop fiction? Remember, 12 Step rehab, when it works, works for over-age 12 year olds and predators – no lack of those in Hollywood. Nor in the ranks of popular fictions writers.

Additionally, skeptics are leery of taking on an 18 billion dollar a year industry. That kind of money buys a lot of threats and retaliation against anyone pointing out that the Rehab King Has No Clothes.

You, on the other hand, can get actual help for yourself or someone you care about without any fear whatsoever. Just give us a call for the most effective, confidential, efficient, and affordable help available anywhere.

“Alcoholism” vs “Alcohol Abuse”

Virtually every article you read assumes that anyone with an alcohol problem is an “Alcoholic” – and every one of those articles is WRONG!

Nothing is more destructive to you than the myth that all misuse of alcohol is a product of the same “progressive, terminal, disease”. That model, if you care to dignify a myth with that misnomer, is the exception to the rule.

Alcohol abuse is just that. Abuse.

The good news? You aren’t doomed to a lifetime of meetings, medallions, and associating with people you wouldn’t be caught dead with otherwise. In fact, trying to do that will very likely increase your drinking! How else would you be able to do that to yourself?

According to research presented at the “New Perspectives” conference we attended in Nanaimo, British Columbia in the fall of 2008, 85% of the people seeking help with alcohol problems are alcohol abusers – not alcohol dependent “alcoholics”.

Is it any wonder that programs based on AA, fail for these people when even their “success” rate for actual “alcoholics” is under 5%?

So why do treatment facilities lump everyone into the failed old “one size fits all” label? Mostly because it’s cheap and it maintains their desired 95% relapse rate.

After all, it’s damn hard and expensive to find staff who can provide the competent services needed to actually address your situation, even if they wanted to. Which they don’t!

It’s your choice of course, but do you want individual, competent, confidential, and affordable service to solve your particular problem? Or do you want to be lumped into the herd being prodded down the chute to a predictable – and hardly appealing – end?

Easy choice? Yes?

The hardest part? Making that first phone call. After that it’s down hill all the way to a better life.

Odds and Ends

Alcohol Abuse, Alcoholism, and 12 Step Programs That Can’t Tell the Difference, don’t care, and will gladly burden you with inappropriate and damaging labels that will haunt you for the rest of your life.

Women and Alcohol – What To Consider In Treatment and why women need and deserve services built around women’s needs, not just another recycled (and failed) men’s program – which is all anyone else has to offer.

Confidentiality, why you want to avoid residential treatment and groups of all kinds.

The Bucket of Crabs or Why AA and Al-Anon are Bad For Your Health.

Links to Success:

Smart Women and Alcohol Abuse

“How Can You Possibly Cure My Years of Alcohol Abuse in Just 5 Days?”

The Real “Steps” to Overcoming Alcohol Abuse

Ten Things I Wish I’d Known Before I Sent My Brother Off To Rehab;