What makes my opinion about obsession relapse treatment prevention any more suggestive than those on employees at rehabilitation centers? I've been there. I'm an alcohol abuser. I have been sober since July 10th, 1985.

That anniversary means more to me than my precise birthday. And I am proud of my 25 years of sobriety, but every time I think of that achievement, each time I tell vodka you are simply a part of my past, a part of me feels downcast. Downcast for the mates that went through rehab with me and are no longer here to share mutual joy and amazing relief for getting that demon of a monkey off our backs.

Yes, even today those stinking thoughts still hit me out of the blue, and though I reject such thoughts, they are an involuntary occurrence that makes me think "where the hell did that thought come from?" After 25 years of sobriety, they occur, albeit less often, and I now know those thoughts will always crop up. It's just the way in which it is.

When I went through rehab, 12 of us were going to graduate inside days of one another. We felt a standard bond, a friendship that we all needed to have continue past our stay at the rehabilitation. Within months, literally, 10 of those graduates stopped talking with Debra and me. Two had died, eight regressed back to their old ways. Just after, Debra vanished, having kept her return to alcohol a secret. I was the only remaining sober graduate. What made me the fortunate graduate? What lead me to succeed when all my beloved rehab companions failed?

It wasn't the rehab center! My counselor related I'd receive a follow-up call in 6 months, again at my one year anniversary, then again after 2 years. She never called, no one from that center called. It caused me to feel like they did not care. They appeared only to be concerned with in-house patients because that is where the money is. Heck, at least with a follow-up telephone call I may have been a statistic. And a positive statistic at that!

So what did I do differently than my companions after we were back in society, attempting to build a new life? I was the only one who used a light and sound instrument. An InnerQuest IQ-III to be specific. Bless the late Rob Robinson for having his products for sale! I strongly believe having a light and sound mind machine at my instant disposal to be used when those 'bad thoughts ' started infiltrating my mind, my thought processes, and my mental and emotional disposition made all the difference in the world. I was the only one to employ a mind machine out of our graduating class of 12, and I am the only one still sober, still alive. I do not care how directors or therapists feel about that statement, because I know it, strongly believe it as the one variable that helped me maintain my sobriety whereas my buddies, who did not have light and sound mind machines at their disposal- failed.

iLightz Pro by Mind Gear
It's time to put as much emphasis on staying clean/sober after graduation as it is for getting clean/sober while being an in-house patient. Light/sound mind machine technology has the sessions that will help to control addictive behaviors, to help establish the base for a positive psychological and emotional attitude, and for giving the ex-addict instantaneous access for conquering that stinky thinking thought pattern that strikes at any time, anywhere. Put stronger stress on relapse prevention and you'll see less failure rates among rehab graduates, which in turn improves the trustworthiness of rehabilitational programs.

Think about it: I was the only one to use light and sound after graduating and I am the only one still sober. I used binaural beats for brainwave entrainment.

So you are most likely saying that's a single example. Phooey! I went through it, have you? What of all of the others I have met since my graduation who also experience addictive behaviors? Be it for sex obsession, cocaine, downers, meth, you say it. They have all taken to using light and sound mind machines as it personally helps them cope. So next time you are sitting in a staff meeting, discussing how to boost your success rate and increase your funding, look no further than Mindmachines.com. You'll find a cheap and highly advantageous tool that can improve your program's success rate, which in its turn will help when submitting forms for extra funding, and oh yes, basically give your graduates a decent chance at staying clean and sober for probably the rest of their life.

Over the years I have been concerned with 1 or 2 rehab centres as a advisor for getting neurofeedback and/or light and sound programs began (learning /. Relaxation). Fundamentally, I'd show them what these mind machines look like and the way to use them , how they can be amalgamated into their existing techniques of treatment, and indoctrinating them on how to maximize the sessions for the advantage of their patients. Why I select to try this is to open the eyes of specialists and administrators to the cost- effectiveness and benefits that mind machines offer. Especially when many rehabs are facing extraordinary cutbacks and even closure. But just as significantly, I do this because as favourable as the treatment patients receive while staying at a rehabilitation center are, most rehabs tend to turn their patients loose after fulfilling their time at the center, enlightening them good luck and to call if they feel setbacks approaching. Should not graduates be given tools to take home with them for stopping relapses from occurring?

Once out, patients finish up in a world that hasn't modified. Only they have changed. Granted the sole way an addict can really stop their addiction is to really need to give up, to switch their routine once back in society, and to abstain from visiting the places they frequented before checking into a rehab. But it is so hard for an addict to do this without psychological and emotional support. Here's where I suspect most rehabs fail. They put so much importance on treatment while the patients are attending the rehabilitation, and seemingly have little time to maintain a tally of what happens to their patients when they graduate.

I've seen too many people fall into their addictive behaviors because such mental and emotional support groups are not available in time of need. Is that a cop-out reason to revert to old ways? Sure. Not having the ability to make new buddies who are clean and/or sober makes them hunt down old mates that shared the same addiction? Yes, that too is a pretty lame excuse. But when the need to go back to old ways is strong, when that old addictive 'friend ' is waving for their return, the addictive cycle rears it's repugnant head. A significant percentage of ex-patients become new patients once more. With the cost of rehabilitative treatment being so astronomic, and the hours needed to stay at these facilities lasting from several days to one or two weeks, even months, I might think more rehab centres would put a better accent on relapse prevention; meaning once an individual graduates, greater signification should be placed on aiding them re-integrate into society, re-integrate with themselves, and make available more tools for the graduate for immediate utilization of overcoming that 'stinking thinking ' urge that will pop up at any time, for any basis. Those thoughts just occur out of the blue, and when they occur, it is an anxious and frightening experience for the recently clean/sober individual. They don't get these thoughts because they would like to, they get these thoughts because addictions are waking bad dreams. Stinky thinking, in my opinion, falls short in describing just how horrible these urges and thoughts can be.

It's not my plan to upset the directors of rehabs, but with many rehabilitation advisors and therapists themselves once being hooked on 'their favourite mate ', and often experiencing personal relapses themselves, rehabs must wake up to the increased need of having tools accessible for their graduates. Tools that will help overcome those sudden urges faster than calling an advisor and being told they are going to get straight back to you after they finish their in-house group counselling session.

That is the potential of light and sound mind machines in relapse recovery. It is just one tool to help maintain a clean/sober life. It has worked for me, it has worked for the handfuls of folk I've met since beginning my own recovery, and it can work for today's addicts trying recklessly to quit the addiction that's killing them. It's time you give this modality major thought , that is, if you're really serious in helping your patients remain clean/sober.

Michael Landgraf is a EEG Neurofeedback and mind machine expert and has an extensive record of working in the domain of relapse prevention

Tags: binaural beat, binaural beats, eeg neurofeedback, relapse prevention