This program, known as Survivor Outreach Services, will call army survivors and ask if they wish to join a group of those who also lost relatives in the army.

Like many outreach programs, one call will not convince people to attend group so many calls are are done but in a non-aggressive way.

This program has helped hundreds of survivors make some kind of sense of their loss and move on.

Group counseling can be extremely intense and personal and can help anyone with any kind of problem.  Comfort in a group and acceptance is a powerful therapeutic alliance.

The beginning of any recovery program for addiction is detox.  Simply stated, the addictive drug is no longer ingested causing withdrawal symptoms as the body adjusts to being without the addictive substance.  Living through detox can be rather painful and uncomfortable.

Drug addiction has always been viewed as a psychological problem and treated as such but the rapid detox approach deals with addiction somewhat differently.

Addiction is viewed as a physical problem; a chemical imbalance in the bain brought about by the addictive drug so addiction is treated as a medical problem.  Rapid detox is performed in a hospital – an ICU or Intensive Care Unit no less.

First the patient is admitted to the hospital at least 24 hours prior to the procedure and a detox ‘plan’ is developed from careful monitoring of the patient.  Next the actual detox procedure is performed with the injection of drugs designed to speed up withdrawal while the patient is sedated.

Last, the patient is monitored for another 24 hours in the ICU for any changes in vital signs.

This form of treatment, known as the Waismann Method, performs a very dangerous procedure within a hospital in case emergency medical care is needed.

The one drawback is the fact that medical insurance will not cover these costs.  In spite of this the long term recovery rate of patients who had undergone this treatment is cited at 75%.

This ‘cold turkey’ approach combined with sauna baths to release toxins from fatty tissues and life skills therapy is proving to be very promising.

The rate of recovery for this new method of detox is cited at a whopping 70% permanent sobriety.  Mostly this treatment has been used with heroin/opiate users but is gaining popularity as a form of treatment for all types of substance abuse.

I’m sure we will here of this approach in the future.

Methamphetamine can be made out of chemicals found in hardware and convenience stores and can take about three hours.  The byproducts of manufacture are toxic and smelly – smelling somewhat like a gas leak.

Some think making a batch and selling it is an easy way to getting rich but it really is not.  You stand a good chance of killing yourself or at least poisoning yourself if you do not end up in prison.

And if you are thinking of trying out crystal meth…keep in mind that some moron cooked up this batch in a dirty kitchen with no idea of quality control.  You just may kill yourself.

So what is in meth?  That is actually not an easy thing to list; there seem to be several completely different ways to make it.  The recipe I found came from an Internet search and takes about 3 hours to make.

It uses dilute hydrochloric acid that is found in brick and driveway cleaner, lye, starting fluid spray for your car and many nasal inhalers.  These ingredients are boiled, kneeded and evaporated in a specific way to make meth crystals.

Not something I want to run out and smoke…

It seems that an Oregon man left work and started drinking beers in his car from a cooler as he was driving home.  On the way home he managed to get very drunk and slammed into a stopped or slow moving car on the side of the road.

He killed all 4 people in that car but, he himself, was seemingly unharmed.  The police came and found the man had 4 prior convictions for driving under the influence of an intoxicant.

After being brought to the hospital the man refused a blood test to determine his blood alcohol count but submitted to one 3 hours later.  The test registered a blood alcohol level of 3 times the legal limit of .08.

He later pleaded guilty to 4 counts of first degree manslaughter and was sentenced to 43 years in prison.

So do not drink and drive…..

It seems that the drunk driver was heading home around 2 am and started to get sick.  So he quickly pulls into the nearest parking lot but misses and ends up on the lawn where he got sick and passed out.

The parking lot and lawn he ended up on contained the local State Police barracks…

They merely walked outside, woke him up and arrested him.  His blood alcohol count was twice the legal limit.

From The Big Book

Anyway, meth labs are extremely dangerous to run; explosive, a lot of toxic chemicals and chemical byproducts and can be contained in something as small as a suitcase.  Did I mention they were illegal?

Most meth labs are found because of their peculiar smell so labs are usually located in remote areas although they have been found in apartments, houses and even hotel rooms – anywhere there is a way to heat a pot.

The latest means of production is a meth lab in a moving vehicle using the ‘one pot’ process or ’shake and bake’.  The ingredients are mixed in a 2 liter soda bottle using lithium as a heat source – lithium heats up when in contact with water.

This method of production only makes small amounts of meth but has the advantage of diffusing the smell easily and making cleanup easy; by merely dumping the used soda bottle and toxic chemicals out the car window. And…a moving lab is harder for the police to raid.

But rapidly expanding gases produced when lithium and water mix may turn the soda bottle into a bomb if it is not ‘burped’.

“Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.”

After facing yourself, your past and the wrongs, identifying what needs to be fixed….then time to fix them, if possible.  Unless fixing them would directly injure others further.