Alcoholism can destroy an alcoholic's life and devastate his or her family. But it also has enormous consequences for society. Consider these statistics from the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence: *In 1988, alcoholism and related problems cost the United States approximately $85.8 billion in mortality and reduced productivity; *Fetal alcohol syndrome, caused by alcohol consumption during pregnancy, affects five thousand newborns a year; treating infants, children, and adults with FAS costs approximately $1.4 billion per year; *More than twenty thousand people die each year in alcohol-related car accidents. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay (Institute of Medicine, 1989) Clearly alcoholism harms society in numerous ways, and it is in society's best interests to find effective treatments for alcoholics. The main goal of all alcoholism treatments is to convince the alcoholic to stop drinking and refrain from alcohol abuse in the future. The paths towards this goal are different. Several factors – biological, social and psychological – influence why an individual becomes an alcoholic. Therefore treatments vary depending on why the alcoholic drinks and what the doctor or therapist believes is the best method for recovery. Some treatments focus on the physical dependence of alcoholism. Others emphasize the alcoholic's social or psychological cravings. Alcoholics Anonymous and Rational Recovery are two support groups that help alcoholics recover. Other alcoholics benefit from individual therapy with counselors, who can help patients understand alcohol use and change their behavior. Finally, for some alcoholics, the most effective treatments are those that combine medical treatment with counseling. Such treatments allow the alcoholic to more easily break the physical dependence on alcohol while evaluating the social and psychological reasons for drinking. Two of these treatments are: Nutritional Therapy and Network Therapy. Nutritional Therapy"Alan Dalum was 37 years old and absolutely convinced that he would soon die. Dalum was not dying of cancer, heart disease, or any other disease from which one can walk away from the world with dignity. Dalum was dying of alcoholism. " (Ewing, 1978) Just when he had lost all hope of recovery, Dalum discovered a center that emphasized the importance of biochemical repair in recovery from alcoholism using nutrients and herbs. After learning that Minneapolis, where he lived, had one of the few programs in the country using such methods, Dalum decided to try the Center's six-week outpatient program. The Health Recovery Center (HRC) in Minneapolis claims a 74 success rate (patients still sober a year later) and differs from conventional programs in several significant ways. First, it focuses on discovering and treating physiological imbalances that might be causing alcohol cravings and throwing your entire body out of whack. For example: Hypoglycemia is a common imbalance found in about three-quarters of alcoholics. The center's philosophy is simple: "Until the body begins to receive the essential nutrients it needs, recovery cannot begin." (Ewing, 1978) They believe that no amount of talking will stop the craving, anxiety, depression, brain fog, and fatigue that result from the biochemical and neurochemical damage of alcohol. "There's no time to obsess over past traumas when you're dying of a serious illness. Because peoplecontinue to believe that the damage caused by excessive alcohol ingestion can only be reversed by psychological methods?" (Ewing, 1978) The Health Recovery Center is dedicated to restoring bodies, minds and spirits that have been ravaged by alcohol. That reset begins the moment a new patient walks through the door. After the staff doctor takes a thorough history and performs the initial physical exam, the patient is hooked up to an intravenous solution, dripping high doses of acid. ascorbic acid (vitamin C, a powerful detoxifier), calcium, magnesium, B vitamins (which help eliminate withdrawal symptoms), evening primrose oil (a natural anticonvulsant), and a full spectrum of amino acids including glutamine (an alternative form of glucose which significantly reduces appetite). While conventional programs often numb new patients with drugs like Librium and Valium to facilitate withdrawal (and later have to wean patients off them), HRC's formula is all-natural . “The sum of all this is that people go from consuming half a liter of alcohol a day to not consuming any alcohol at all, without drugs.” (Ewing, 1978) After the IV, HRC patients are given bottles of the vitamins and minerals they have been deficient in for so long and are placed on a diet free of sugar, salt, caffeine and, most importantly, nicotine. This is because tobacco is cured with cane, beet and corn sugars, which not only can cause intense cravings in people with hypoglycemia (and make them unable to keep the condition under control), but can also stimulate allergic/addictive reactions in people sensitive to hypoglycemia. sugar and corn, two of the most common hidden food allergies. “Sensitivity to corn, yeast, barley and other foods commonly found in alcoholic beverages is the reason some patients can't stop drinking.” (Ewing, 1978) Over the next six weeks, HRC patients meet once a week with a nutritionist, once a week for individual therapy with one of HRC's five certified counselors, and daily for group sessions, during who talk openly about topics such as anger, humor and insecurity. Such sessions are purposely not like traditional twelve-step meetings, where participants are expected to talk about the power they believe alcohol has on their lives. Rather, both group and individual sessions focus on the here and now. “We call it rational management therapy. We first make a list of the client's goals, long-term and short-term, and plan ways they can achieve them. We decide together what they need to work on and try to get them to do things this way. It will make you feel good about yourself." (Ewing, 1978) In stark contrast to the AA approach, HRC counselors seek to instill in patients the belief that they are in control of their own destiny, that they have power over alcohol rather than the other way around. Network Therapy Twenty years ago, Marc Galanter was named a career educator in alcoholism and drug abuse by the National Institute of Mental Health. Galanter found nothing about the technique for solving an alcohol or drug problem for a patient who came to the doctor's office. Since then, addiction researchers have begun to develop a systematic understanding of how drug and alcohol addiction causes their effects on thinking and behavior. But there are still very few descriptions of a comprehensive approach that the therapist can apply to addicted patients. "Few therapists venture beyond recommending that alcoholics attend AA or take a long break from work and family and go to a hospital for.