Overview

The Awakening Recovery Center program has been developed by Dr. William B. Duke, a respected leader and innovator in the substance abuse treatment field for more than 20 years. Awakening is committed to helping people change their lives by helping them overcome their addictions and develop the necessary skills to prevent relapse.

Awakening provides a supportive, real-life program that assists each person in their quest to learn a new way of life, free from the bonds of addiction. The program is designed to help individuals whose addictions have rendered them unable to stop the alcohol or drug use that is threatening to destroy their family, is placing their job in jeopardy or has created legal problems. We have years of experience working with EAPs, SAPs, and Company HR persons as a part of a team to get the addicted person back on track to be a productive member of society once again.

Awakening understands that addiction can be managed when cravings are reduced, motivation for change is enhanced, techniques to manage cravings and urges are developed, and a healthy lifestyle is maintained through exercise and proper nutrition. At our Center, we utilize motivational enhancement and cognitive-based therapy to help each person moved through the Stages of Change necessary to begin to develop a new way of living.

The following five stages of change have been conceptualized for a variety of problem behaviors:

1. Precontemplation – the stage at which there is no intention to change behavior in the foreseeable future. Many individuals in this stage are unaware or underaware of their problems.
2. Contemplation – the stage in which people are aware that a problem exists and are seriously thinking about overcoming it but have not yet made a commitment to take action.
3. Preparation – the stage that combines intention and behavioral criteria. Individuals in this stage are intending to take action in the next month and have unsuccessfully taken action in the past year.
4. Action – the stage in which individuals modify their behavior, experiences, or environment in order to overcome their problems. Action involves the most overt behavioral changes and requires considerable commitment of time and energy.
5. Maintenance – the stage in which people work to prevent relapse and consolidate the gains attained during action. For addictive behaviors this stage extends from six months to an indeterminate period past the initial action.

We also encourage each person to utilize available 12-step sober support systems such as AA, NA or others to develop a safety net for them to use following treatment. Our entire program is designed to help the addicted person develop solid relapse prevention skills. We utilize a similar relapse prevention approach as the one developed by Gorski.

In addition to utilizing cognitive therapy to change destructive thinking and to learn to manage life’s problems in a more effective manner, we work closely with Dr. Amit Vijapura, a board-certified psychiatrist, to assess the need for craving-reduction medications (sometimes called anti-addiction medications). The medications that Dr. Vijapura may recommend reduce cravings associated with early abstinence.

Many patients have reported a reduction in cravings within a few hours a beginning medication. In addition, we strongly recommend a variety of nutritional supplements that address the nutritional improvements necessary for early recovery.