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Summary:
For any recovery program to be of value, it must make sense to the addicted individual. The Rational Recovery Monitor Program (RRMP) is an AVRT-based approach focusing solely upon abstinent outcome, without the discouragement of arcane recovery doctrines. RRMP provides the most cost-effective means to insure public safety, complying with the ethical and legal mandates of informed consent to recovery group participation and addiction treatment services.
Problem drinkers/users document their diligence and learning of AVRT® using an online discussion forum, thus reducing utilization of costly addiction treatment
services. In an ideal society, independent recovery through planned,
permanent abstinence will be a viable option for all addicted people
and other substance abusers, the first expectation when substance abuse
is identified, and the last resort when other avenues have repeatedly
failed.
Dear Public Servant,
In recent decades, our social service system has become
organized around the beliefs and values of the recovery group movement,
most notably upon the 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Consequently, millions of men and women are sentenced, mandated, or
otherwise coerced into recovery group participation and addiction
treatment services based upon the 12-step program of Alcoholics
Anonymous.
In 1992, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism conducted one of the largest surveys of substance use ever, sending Census Bureau workers to interview more than 42,000 Americans about their lifetime drug and alcohol use. Of the 4,500-plus respondents who had ever been dependent on alcohol, only 27 percent had gone to treatment of any kind, including Alcoholics Anonymous. In this group, one-third were still abusing alcohol.
Of those who never had any treatment, only about one-quarter were currently diagnosable as alcohol abusers. This study, known as the National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey, indicates first that treatment is not a cure-all, and second that it is not necessary. The vast majority of Americans who were alcohol dependent, about three-quarters, never underwent treatment. And fewer of them were abusing alcohol than were those who were treated.
Coerced addiction treatment programs are controversial, and of doubtful value as a
means of protecting the public against the negligence and antisocial
behavior of substance abusers. Two notable examples are found in
California, where the prison addiction treatment industry has been a colossal failure in cost-effectiveness, (Prop. 36) and the recent collapse of the California Medical Board’s impaired physician diversion program.
Because of the pandemic conflict of interest
and suppression of informed consent in the addiction treatment industry, with practically all treatment and
monitoring personnel being members of AA/NA, it is little wonder that
our addiction treatment industry is a well-documented failure as
measured by abstinent outcome and protection of highway safety and
protection of the general public.
Forced family participation
The disease concept of addiction, codified in the 12-step
program, is a comprehensive inversion of universal family values, shifting responsibility for past and future self-intoxication upon the family. The anti-family nature of 12-step recovery is
evident in these important respects:
1. Your addiction was genetically transmitted to you by your ancestors.
2. Your addiction was aggravated by your original, dysfunctional family.
3. Just when your family is wisely withdrawing all support, respect, tolerance, affection, and insisting that you cease and desist from self-intoxication, the recovery group provides you a new primary support group, providing you an abundance of emotional support, tolerance of self-intoxication, respect, and affection (often including sex), plus a new philosophy of life completely at odds with your own original family values.
4. Your family must help you stay sober. They must be highly
tolerant and supportive of you, and accept the inverted concepts of
12-step recovery.
5. Your native beliefs and values, which were based upon the culture and traditions or your ancestors, are wrong.
6. Your ancestral heritage must be replaced by the beliefs and values of addicted people, as found in substance abuse counseling and the 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous.
The United States of America
was founded by a number of families who sought freedom from
state-sponsored indoctrinations of all kinds. Freedom of conscience has
been at the core of the American experience until recently, when our
entire social service system has surrendered to the moral authority of
the 12-step program, as though the 12 steps are more fit for public
consumption than the Ten Commandments. It is not surprising that forced
participation in recovery groups aggravates rather than mitigates mass, runaway addiction to alcohol and other drugs.
The Common Good
It is in the public interest that problem drinkers and other
substance abusers permanently abstain from alcohol and other drugs. It
is in no one’s interest for anyone to be forced to attend recovery
groups, especially when they are willing to forego any future
consumption of alcohol and other hedonic drugs. For example, there are
two licenses involved in every drunk driving offense — a driver’s
license and a drinking license. Why would we deny an problem drinkers with a good driving record his means
to independent, productive living, but refuse to accept his own
revocation of the drinking license granted him by the state?
Permanent abstinence is a very reasonable standard that any
addicted person can meet, and is actually a far more common outcome of
addiction than tentative abstinence outcomes resulting from social
services.
Rational Recovery Monitor Program (RRMP)
RRMP was instituted in 2005, when court-directed agencies
recognized the need to protect the public from the many offenders for
whom existing services are inappropriate. For example, 93% of repeat
drunk drivers have already been through AA and 12-step addiction
treatment programs. A growing number of traffic courts, departments of
motor vehicles, family courts, employers, and licensing boards are
accepting the Rational Recovery Monitor Program (RRMP) in lieu of
recovery group participation and addiction treatment services. The
result is a sterling record of success among a population from whom
society expects the least.
The highest standard: zero-tolerance.
In cases of drunk driving, child custody, employer disciplinary
action, and impaired professional diversion/monitoring, the RRMP can
provide the highest standard of protecting the public against continued substance abuse — zero-tolerance.
To qualify for RRMP, one must be referred by a court counselor
or representative, by an attorney, or by any other licensed
professional. Subscriptions are by the semester, renewed
according to the requirements of the monitoring authorities.
Participants must indicate agreement with the principles of AVRT-based
recovery, freely available at this website, and undertake a personal
commitment to lifetime abstinence from alcohol and other illicit drugs.
We urge referring agencies to impose the standard of zero-tolerance,
meaning no “relapses” at all, and to consider any further use as cause
for the maximum penalties and sentencing possible under the law. Terms
are detailed here.
Some county governments provide RRMP as part of informed consent to recovery group participation and addiction treatment services. In those localities, the minimum subscription is for one year, and participants are exempted from forced participation in recovery groups and coerced addiction treatment services.
The RRMP gives access to a large database of articles and other
information on AVRT-based recovery, as well as to the Advanced Crash
Course on AVRT®, which is a more sophisticated, potent version of the Internet Crash Course on AVRT®.
Of greatest importance is the Rational Recovery Discussion Forums,
where participants may look in on others learning AVRT®, and post their
own comments and questions. Participants may create a running printout
of their dated, time-stamped entries in order to satisfy the referring
agency’s need to document diligence and abstinence. When it becomes
apparent that a participant has used any amount of alcohol or other drug, the moderator will report
that to the referring agency. We urge referring agencies to exercise the harshes penalties and sentences against RRMP participants who have “relapsed.“
RRMP is a no relapse, zero-tolerance program. What could be
more in the public interest, more dignified, more in keeping with the intent of laws against substance abuse and drunk driving, more pro-family, and more American than that?
Jack Trimpey, LCSW
Licensed Clinical Social Worker
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