No matter who you are, no matter how in control you believe yourself to be…you can’t beat a drinking problem outside a private alcohol rehab center. California alcohol rehab facilities are essential to the healing process for no more or less a reason than that alcoholism is disease, and like all disease it can’t be eradicated without expert intervention. Think of it like this: You wouldn’t expect a cancer patient to beat cancer without help from a hospital. By the same token, you shouldn’t expect an alcoholic to quit drinking without help from an alcohol rehab program. That’s just not the way healing works.

If you’ve made it this far, you don’t need to be told how devastating alcohol addiction can be. Now, it’s incumbent upon you to do something about it. At Sunset Malibu, our exclusive alcohol rehabilitation programs and luxury alcohol rehabilitation facilities can give you all the support you need to get better…but only after you’ve found the courage to take the first step. Remember, no alcohol rehab center in Los Angeles can help an alcoholic who refuses to be helped. For your own sake, don’t wait any longer to finally make the right decision.

You’ll probably be in bad shape before you check into Sunset Malibu’s private drug treatment center. Worse than bad shape, maybe. The day you enroll in one of Sunset’s exclusive drug treatment programs, you may not think you have a snowball’s chance in hell of ever beating drug addiction for good. In fact, you may you think you’re too far gone to get saved by even the best drug treatment facility in California. Thankfully, you’ll never be so wrong about anything in your entire life.

Sunset Malibu’s drug treatment center is everything any addict could ever ask for. From the luxurious drug treatment facilities to the expert drug treatment caregivers, Sunset will give you all the support you need to get better. Drug treatment at Sunset Malibu isn’t easy, I’d be lying if I told you that. But it’s worth it. It will save your life. I’m not sure any addict could ask for anything more from any drug treatment center in Los Angeles.

Interventions have got to be about love. An intervention can’t work if it’s driven by angst, or acrimony; if you want an intervention to be successful, you’ve got to remember why you set out to conduct it in the first place: to convince the addict you care about that he’s got to get help.

If someone you care about has slipped into a pattern of compulsive drug abuse, you’re sure to have plenty of grievances against him. An intervention, though, isn’t the forum in which to air them. Interventions only matter..are only successful…if they result in an addict’s enrolling in a drug rehab center. Short of that, nothing could ever be important.

The intervention process is never easy. The good news is that professional intervention counselors can help you along the way, and that the right guidance can make a world of difference. For your own sake, for the sake of whomever it is that needs help…don’t wait another day to make the right decision. An intervention is always too important to put off until tomorrow.

Intervention only works when it’s built on love. That’s the most important truth, the only point that could ever really need to be made. Intervention has got to be…GOT to be…a labor of love. Of compassion. Of empathy. Intervention that works is intervention that shows an addict exactly what he has to lose if he doesn’t beat addiction: the friends, the family, the community. The Love. Intervention that works is intervention that’s built on love. There is, in the end, no more compelling way to say it.

Successful intervention, it’s important to remember, is and can only be measured according to its outcome. Intervention that succeeds, that matters, is intervention that convinces an addict to get help for his disease. Period. There is no other goal, no other purpose. Intervention that works is intervention that facilitates healing. Beyond that, everything else is really just details.

Intervention, of course, is never easy. It can’t be. Intervention is by its nature a traumatic experience: for the intervenee, for the intervener. But make no mistake: Intervention is worth it. Intervention saves lives. For you own sake, for the sake of the addict you care about…make today the day you make the right decision.

Intervention specialists say the only pleasant intervention is the one that doesn’t work. Interventions, when you think about it, can’t help but be hard: The nature of addiciton…the nature of addicts…means that any attempt to conduct a meaningful intervention is bound to be traumatic. But make no mistake: It’s worth it. An intervention done right is an intervention that saves an addict’s life, that helps him recognize the fact of his addiction, and helps him admit the the truth of his impotence against it. That process is never easy. It can’t be. But again, it’s worth it. My intervention saved my life. It’s as simple as that. There’s no other way to phrase, no other way to think about it, even. If it hadn’t been for that intervention, I wouldn’t be here writing this. Someday, if you’re lucky, someone you care about will be able to say the same thing. For you own sake, act now. No, it won’t be easy…but the things that most need doing very rarely are.

The wildfire-like spread of pornographic sites on the Internet, combined
with the large amount of X-rated material already available has some
experts on sex and addiction concerned, that an increasing number of
unsuspecting people will become victims of a rapidly growing obsession,
porn addiction. Porn addiction is characterized as a behavioral
condition resulting from the abuse or overuse of pornography. Like other
addictions, porn addiction can ruin lives and relationships. While many
people may be able to use porn without developing an addiction, some
could be in peril of developing a serious porn addiction.

‘Porn addiction’ is not classified by medical doctors as a disease, porn
addiction is defined as a psychological dependence, or addiction to
pornography, characterized by obsessive viewing, reading, and
fantasizing about pornography to the point of causing impairment to
one’s life. Some backers of this hypothesis suggest that porn addicts
should experience similar types of symptoms to those involved in
physiological addictions to drugs or alcohol, such as physical and/or
psychological problems when they attempt to quit, and desensitization to
the “substance”, creating a need for larger or stronger “doses”.

Porn addiction, like other addictions is a treatable illness. The
psychological foundations of porn addiction require behavioral and
recovery group therapy as a part of rehabilitation treatment and can
also require the administration of medications to lower the sex drive.
Marriage or relationship counseling is also a common part of the healing
process, as the damage porn addiction causes to a relationship can be
devastating and require extensive mending.

Recovery from porn addiction should involve continued participation in a
12 step or recovery type group, as well as continued avoidance or
pornographic materials, places, and situations likely to trigger a
relapse. Creating nurturing family and romantic relationships is also a
part of the recovery process for porn addiction, the building of healthy
romantic and social relationships is a strong defense against the
loneliness and objectification of porn addiction. With the proper
treatment and the learning of coping and relationship skills, porn
addiction can be overcome and a healthy romantic and personal life
reattained.

Methamphetamine, a thrill-drug, known on the street as “speed”, “meth”, “chalk” or, in crystal form, “ice”, “glass”, and “tina”, has become the low-cost drug of choice in many communities, supplanting even crack cocaine and heroin for cheap thrills. It is relatively easy to make, broiled in saucepots and cookers, from readily available items. All one needs is the reckless will to do it, and presto.

Why would a person take the risk? Well, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, the user, “experiences an intense sensation, called a ‘rush’ or ‘flash,’ that lasts only a few minutes and is described as extremely pleasurable.” The downsides to this precipitous spike in mood are: long bouts of wakefulness, frenetic behavior and restlessness, a decrease in appetite, hypothermia, and insomnia. There are other effects: users may experience confusion, anxiety, paranoia, tremors, and even seizures. Methamphetamine also leads to an increased heart rate and can cause high blood pressure. Use of the drug can also damage brain cells, potentially causing strokes. Often damage to the brain is not immediately detectable, only becoming manifest months later. In fact, Meth causes damage to the brain similar to that caused by Altzheimers or epilepsy The long and the short of it is – one way or another, Meth hastens death.

With such information out there, one would imagine people staying away from the drug in droves, but, in fact, recent studies showed upwards of 6 percent of all high school seniors had tried Meth at least once, with upwards of 5 percent of juniors trying the drug. The drug seems to be particularly popular in the American Southwest. In Phonenix, over 40 percent of arrestees tested positive for Meth. In Los Angeles, over 28 percent tested positive. It has also caught on in the urban gay scene, doing the work that used to be done by amyl nitrate “poppers”; except people are doing it in injectable form, putting themselves at increased risk for HIV and a host of other blood-borne pathogens.

The production of Meth is itself a dangerous habit. People are often burned, even blinded, when the household materials they are using to cook Meth, such as ammonium chloride, explode. Because it is cheap to make, and is made with available household items, user desperate for the drug will often try to concoct it themselves. This is only one of many tertiary horrors associated with the drug.

Once, outlaw motorcycle gangs controlled the production and trafficking of methamphetamine in America. Nowadays, Mexico-based operators dominate the current market. They are aided by the accessibility of the chemicals needed to cook Meth, as well as their access to elaborate smuggling routes and clandestine border town drug rings. They also run a number of “super labs”, which can produce Meth in enormous quantities over a short period of time. It has become virtually impossible to keep up with the rapid production of Meth by these groups south of the border. DEA agents are getting more and more vigilant, however, and initiatives are now in place to stop the smuggling rings which had gone unrecognized for years as more attention was directed to traditional sources of the drug such as biker gangs.

Authorities have woken up in recent years to the precipitous climb in Meth production, as well as use. The institution of Meth as a “party drug” is particularly alarming to drug enforcement agents across the county. First-time users have no realistic idea of how the drug will affect them, making the casual use and ease of availability even more frightening.

In a ten year span, from 1994 to 2004, the number of people admitting themselves to treatment programs for methamphetamine addiction increased from 33,443 in 1994, to the astronomical figure of 129,079 in 2004. This is both alarming and encouraging, for people – including the users themselves –are waking up to the need for treatment.

September, 2006, was National Recovery Month. Although that attention is welcome, Sunset Malibu would like every month to be National Recovery Month, and we encourage individuals experiencing the torment of Methamphetamine addiction to seek treatment in our luxurious and beautiful facility overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Contrary to popular opinion, there are long-term effects to short term use of any drug. Meth is particularly potent, even more so in liquid form; and it is now more important than ever to address your use of the drug. We are a private facility, and you need not be ashamed to walk through our doors. We respect confidentiality. Meth use, as crack did in the ‘80s’s, has a particular stigma nowadays, and we fully understand the embarrassment people often feel at the thought of their addiction to the drug. At Sunset Malibu we know Meth use cuts across all race and class lines. We encourage you to take the step of entering our facility, and make a positive change in your life.

Approximately 100 years after cocaine entered into use, a new variation of the substance emerged. This substance, crack, became enormously popular in the mid-1980s due in part to its almost immediate high and the fact that it is inexpensive to produce and buy.

Crack is a highly addictive form of cocaine that is typically smoked. The term “crack” refers to the crackling sound heard when the substance is heated, presumably from the sodium bicarbonate that is used in the production of crack. Smoking crack delivers large quantities of the drug to the lungs, producing effects comparable to intravenous injection. These effects are felt almost immediately after smoking, are very intense, but do not last long. For example, the high from smoking cocaine may last from 5 to 10 minutes, while the high from snorting the drug can last for 15 to 20 minutes.

Cocaine is a powerfully addictive drug. Compulsive cocaine use seems to develop more rapidly when the substance is smoked rather than snorted. A tolerance to the cocaine high may be developed and many addicts report that they fail to achieve as much pleasure as they did from their first cocaine exposure. Sources say that crack cocaine users can become addicted to the drug as early as the first hit. Many who have become addicted say that kicking the habit may be the hardest thing they have ever had to do.

Alcoholics Anonymous was founded by William Griffith Wilson (William W.) and Dr. Robert Holbrook Smith (Dr. Bob) in 1935. In 1939 the fledgling organization published its basic textbook, Alcoholics Anonymous. This book, affectionately known as the Big Book, remains the primary text of the group today.

Through their travels, William W. and Dr. Bob, both former alcoholics, learned to treat alcoholism as a disease. They realized the necessity to counteract the hopelessness of the affliction. The conversion of AA lies in the transition from drunkenness to sobriety more than a state of not drinking. The two found that the conversion must move the alcoholic into a life that has no need for drinking. Bill W. and Dr. Bob went to work at the Akron City Hospital in Ohio and converted another drunk to sobriety. These three converts formed the first fellowship that would follow the parameters now followed by present day AA members.

These days AA boasts 2,000,000 recovered alcoholics worldwide. Many say such success lies in the famous AA 12 step program. The parameters of the program lie as follows:

1.One must admit to be powerless over alcohol — that their lives had become unmanageable.
2.Believe that a Power greater than themselves could restore them to sanity.
3.Make a decision to turn your will and your life over to the care of God
4.Make a searching and fearless moral inventory of yourself
5.Admit to God, to yourself and to another human being the exact nature of your wrongs.
6.Be entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7.Humbly ask Him to remove your shortcomings.
8.Make a list of all persons you have harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9.Make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10.Continue to take personal inventory and when you are wrong promptly admit it.
11.Seek to improve your conscious contact with God as you understand Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for you and the power to carry that out.
12.Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, try to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all affairs