The Jude Thaddeus Program - Introduction

This program should not be confused or classified in any way with conventional alcohol or drug treatment programs. When you study this text in the following chapters, you are not being treated or rehabilitated - you are being educated. You are being given the tools to make sensible and well-informed decisions regarding your alcohol and/or substance abuse problems, as well as life in general.

This text will enable you to determine the seriousness of your substance abuse problem, and then help you to overcome the problem, permanently. It is important to understand that the Jude Thaddeus Program ™ does not judge people's use of substances. The authors of this text were once diagnosed as hopeless alcoholics and drug addicts, and recovered permanently. Thus, this book was written to help people, not judge them.

In this text we will discuss controversial and emotional issues. You may disagree with some of the content. Based on our experience helping more than 2000 (as of 2/07) substance abusers at the Retreat Houses, it is clear the methods outlined in this text work. The Jude Thaddeus Program ™ has maintained a success rate 10 times greater than that of conventional treatment and 12-Step programs for more than a decade, so it is important to keep an open mind and feel comfortable in the knowledge that this program can and will work for you.

Some people may feel they want to expand their knowledge on the topics covered in the initial six week course. If you do, we offer our Jude Thaddeus Program, Session II as an option after successful completion of the six week course. In Session II there are several different programs from which to choose, and the program can be personalized to address what you feel are your specific needs or goals.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Too often, substance abusers are pushed into a one-size-fits-all, grand American, 12-Step, disease-based treatment facility, often to their detriment. Belief in the powerless, diseased state is the single greatest reason conventional treatment programs fail to achieve high or even moderate success rates.

Happiness

Happiness is the most effective motivating factor in the human condition. The substance abuser continues to drink and drug for one simple reason: that first drink or hit is temporarily worth the consequences, regardless of severity. They (meaning the substance abuser) choose the feeling of euphoria that drugs and alcohol can provide over deferred gratification that may be more sustaining in the long run. The Jude Thaddeus Program gives you all the information you will need to stop abusing substances permanently. Items such as this discussion on choice, the synopsis on the origins of the erroneous disease concept, (Appendix) and the realization that you have power, are usually enough to help people to overcome their substance abuse problem; but, the JTP does not stop there. In the following chapters this program will teach you about the successful process of joyous living.

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