Total Bullshit. Why do rehabs stay so quiet? –

October 28, 2019 – Lopez: “You have to pull back, and find out how this treatment system came to be, to begin with. And, for a long time, addiction was not considered a disease, it wasn’t considered a medical condition. That started to change in recent years. But in that context, where it wasn’t considered disease, the model that took off in the U.S. — where they really started treating addiction, to begin with — was this 12-step model. So we’re talking Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous. And the system kind of grew out of these community groups — I would call them — doing that kind of approach. That 12-steps approach. And that’s what a lot of addiction treatment today, in the U.S., is based off of. Sometimes, it’s called the Minnesota Model, where you go to a place for 28 days. It’s based predominantly on the 12-steps. And you go through that.

“And that’s really what the addiction treatment system has grown out of. And, as a result, what’s actually happened is governments — whether state, federal or local — have really just been playing catch up. And, especially as we get into the opioid epidemic, they’ve been trying to regulate it more. But the industry … first of all, it’s unlike other places in health care — where you have this model where you find research, prove this treatment works, and then hospitals start adopting it. It’s actually the opposite here. Where people, kind of, just made this model — the 12-step model — as best as they could. Because the health care system wouldn’t take them seriously, or their condition seriously. And then regulators are coming in, and trying to make sure that evidence-based practices are followed. So, as a result, the big thing here is there really aren’t …

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