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What makes my opinion about addiction relapse treatment prevention any more meaningful than those on workers at rehabilitation centres? I've been there. I'm an alcohol abuser. I've been sober since July 10th, 1985.

That anniversary means more to me than my tangible birthday. And I am pleased with my 25 years of sobriety, but each time I prefer to think of that achievement, every time I tell vodka you are just a part of my past, part of me feels downcast. Downcast for the mates that went through rehabilitation with me and are now not here to share mutual joy and tremendous relief for getting that devil of a monkey off our backs.

Yes, even today those stinking thoughts still struck 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 still happen, albeit less often, and I now know those thoughts will always crop up. It is simply the way in which it is.

When I went thru rehab, twelve of us were going to graduate inside days of one another. We felt a standard bond, a friendship that we all wanted to have continue past our stay at the rehab. Inside months, literally, 10 of those graduates stopped communicating with Debra and me. Two had died, eight reverted to their old techniques. Just after, Debra disappeared, having kept her return to alcohol a secret. I was the only remaining sober graduate. What made me the lucky graduate? What forced me to succeed when all my beloved rehab companions failed?

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

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

iLightz Pro by Mind Gear
It is time to put as much stress 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 may help manage addictive behaviours, to help establish the base for a positive psychological and emotional approach, and for giving the rehabilitating addict fast access for conquering that stinky thinking thought pattern that strikes at any point, anywhere. Put stronger accent on relapse prevention and you'll see less failure rates among rehabilitation graduates, which in its turn improves the reliability 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 probably pronouncing that is a single example. Phooey! I went through it, have you? What of all of the others I've met since my graduation who also experience addictive behaviors? Be it for sex obsession, cocaine, downers, meth, you say it. They have all brought to using light and sound mind machines because it personally helps them cope. So the next time you are sitting in a staff meeting, deliberating how to improve your success rate and raise your funding, look no further than Mindmachines.com. You will find a very cheap and highly beneficial tool that will enhance your program’s success rate, which will help when submitting bureaucracy for further funding, and oh yes, actually give your graduates a decent chance at staying clean and sober for quite possibly the rest of their life.

Over time I have been involved with several rehab centers as a expert for getting neurofeedback and/or light and sound programs initiated (learning /. Relaxation). Essentially, I might show them what these mind machines look like and the way to employ them how they can be incorporated into their existing methods of treatment, and indoctrinating them on the way to maximize the sessions for the advantage of their patients. Why I select to try this is to open the eyes of therapists and administrators to the cost- efficacy and benefits that mind machines offer. Especially when many rehabs are facing extreme cutbacks and even closure. But more importantly, I do this because as favourable as the treatment patients receive while staying at a rehabilitation center are, most rehabs have a tendency to turn their patients loose after fulfilling their time at the center, enlightening them good luck and to call if they feel setbacks approaching. Shouldn't graduates be given tools to take home with them for forestalling relapses from happening?

Once out, patients find themselves in a world that has not modified. Only they have changed. Granted the sole way an addict can truly stop their addiction is to really want to quit, to change their routine once back in society, and to abstain from visiting the places they frequented before checking into a rehabilitation. But it is so hard for an addict to try this without mental and emotional support. Here is where I believe most rehabs fail. They put so much emphasis on treatment while the patients are attending the rehabilitation, and seemingly have little time to maintain a record of what happens to their patients once they graduate.

I've seen too many individuals fall into their addictive behaviours because such psychological and emotional support groups aren't available in time of need. Is that a cop-out reason to revert to old techniques? Sure. Not having the ability to make new friends who are clean and/or sober causes them to search out old buddies that shared the same obsession? Yes, that too is a pretty lame excuse. But when the urge to revert to old ways is powerful, 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 price of rehabilitative treatment being so astronomical, and the time necessary to stay at these facilities lasting from several days to several weeks, even months, I'd think more rehabilitation centers would put a better emphasis on relapse prevention; meaning once an individual graduates, greater significance should be put on helping them re-integrate into society, re-integrate with themselves, and make available more tools for the graduate for speedy utilization of conquering that ‘stinking thinking ‘ urge that can pop up at any time, for any basis. Those thoughts just happen out of nowhere, and when they happen, it is an concerned and frightening experience for the recently clean/sober individual. They do not get these thoughts because they want to, they get these thoughts because addictions are waking nightmares. Stinking thinking, in my judgment, falls short by describing just how horrible these urges and thoughts can be.

It isn't my design to upset the directors of rehabs, but with lots of rehab counselors and doctors themselves once being hooked on ‘their favourite friend ‘, and often experiencing personal relapses themselves, rehabs must awake to the increased need of having tools accessible for their graduates. Tools that may help overcome those unexpected urges quicker than calling an advisor and being told they will get back to you after they finish their in-house group counseling 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 people I have met since beginning my own recovery, and it can work for today’s addicts trying despairingly to quit the very obsession that's murdering them. It is time you give this modality major thought , that is, if you are serious in helping your patients remain clean/sober.

Michael Landgraf is a EEG Neurofeedback and mind machine expert and has a long history of working in the domain of relapse prevention