Addiction and Environment
The most common thought about addiction is, “drugs cause addiction.” This thought seems plausible and completely accurate. In fact, there are multiple studies with rats that go as far back as the 1920s to support this thought. These studies typically involve rats, who are said to have very similar social interactions and constructs as humans. These rats were placed in individual cages with two water bottles. One bottle contains sugar water, while the other bottle has the same sugar water, but also includes an opiate, amphetamine, or some other drug. Almost every study found the same thing, each rat would use the water bottle with the drugs repeatedly until death. So with all of these experiments concluding the same thing, it must be a fact that drugs cause addiction, right? Maybe not…
A New Thought - Rat Park
In the late 1970s, a Canadian psychologist named Bruce K. Alexander and his colleagues at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada wanted to challenge this thought. They felt the biggest issue with the previous studies were the isolated cages the rats were placed in. So, they developed something called Rat Park. Rat Park was an intricate set of cages with tunnels, food, toys, and multiple other rats to interact with - a rat paradise if you will. They added the same two water bottles (one sugar water and one sugar water with a drug) from previous experiments to Rat Park - the results were amazing. They found the rats would pass up the sugar water with a drug and only drink the regular sugar water. From this two year study, they found that social interaction and environment were more influential than the actual drug. So, do drugs cause addiction or is it the cage we find ourselves in? Or is it both?
Therapeutic Milieu
What is a Therapeutic Milieu?
It is a safe, structured, group methodology geared towards Substance Abuse Treatment. It involves providing a supportive environment that models community interactions and real-life structure. It will build social interaction and human connections.
At Transitions Inc. we treat all aspects of addiction and take an individualized approach to everyone. However, everyone that enters treatment will be submerged into the Therapeutic Milieu (or different cage if we reference the study from above).
What are the benefits of a Therapeutic Milieu?
The therapeutic milieu has 6 benefits to treatment. Each area builds in social interaction and connections amongst other people. The benefits are:
Establishing and maintaining supportive and therapeutic relationships, these connections can last a lifetime in recovery.
Daily routine and structure, everyone responds positively to structure and having a purpose in life.
Continuous exploration of life events, by modeling the milieu with life responsibilities (bedtime, chores, work, free time, etc…)
Socialization, by providing connections to staff, family, recovery support in the community, and other clients experiencing the same social isolation.
A focus on self-care, through exercise, self-awareness,and nutrition.
A supportive physical Space, we pride ourselves on having a clean, well-maintained facility that can provide enough space for small therapeutic groups.
How does it work?
We believe that by walking into our building, the environment is the first and most critical step to successful treatment. It starts with a warm supportive welcome at the door to a successful warm hand off at discharge. We pride ourselves in knowing our facility looks like recovery, smells like recovery, feels like recovery, sounds like recovery, and even tastes like recovery (with excellent food).
We are here for recovery and are ready to help you or a loved one build a better environment through social interactions and human connections.
