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What makes my opinion about obsession relapse treatment prevention any more suggestive than those on employees at rehabilitation centers? I've been there. I'm an alcoholic. I have been sober since July 10th, 1985.

That anniversary means more to me than my tangible birthday. And I'm proud of my 25+ years of sobriety, but each time I like to think of that achievement, each time I tell vodka you are just a part of my past, a part of me feels sad. Miserable for the pals that went through rehabilitation with me and are now not here to share mutual joy and incredible relief for getting that demon 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're 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 that it is.

When I went through rehab, twelve of us were going to graduate inside a few days of each other. We felt a typical bond, a friendship that we all wanted to have continue past our stay at the rehabilitation. Inside months, literally, 10 of those graduates stopped talking with Debra and me. Two had died, eight went back to their old ways. Soon 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 rehabilitation companions failed?

It was not the rehabilitation center! My advisor related I’d receive a follow-up call in 6 months, again at my one year anniversary, then again after two years. She never called, nobody from that center called. It made me feel like they did not care. They appeared only to be engaged with in-house patients because this is where the money is. Heck, at least with a follow-up phone call I could have been a statistic. And a positive statistic at that!

So what did I do differently than my companions after we were back in society, making an attempt to build a new life? I was the only one who utilized a light and sound instrument. An InnerQuest IQ-III actually. Bless the late Rob Robinson for having his products for sale! I resolutely believe having a light and sound mind machine at my fast 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 utilize a mind machine out of our graduating class of twelve, and I am the only one still sober, still alive. I do not care how administrators or specialists feel about that statement, because I know it, forcefully believe it as the one variable that helped me maintain my sobriety whereas my friends, who did not have light and sound mind machines at their disposal- failed.

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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 can help to control addictive behaviors, to help put down the base for a positive psychological and emotional approach, and for giving the ex-addict fast access for conquering that stinking thinking thought pattern that strikes at any point, anywhere. Put stronger emphasis on relapse prevention and you'll see less failure rates among rehab graduates, which in its turn improves the trustworthiness of rehabilitational programs.

Think about it: I was the only one to use light and sound after graduating and I'm the only one still sober. I used binaural beats for brainwave entrainment.

So you are likely asserting that's only one example. Phooey! I went thru it, have you? What of all of the others I've met since my graduation who also experience addictive behaviors? Be it for sex addiction, cocaine, downers, meth, you name it. They've all taken to using light and sound mind machines because it personally helps them cope. So the next time you are sitting in a staff meeting, debating how to improve your success rate and raise your funding, look no farther than Mindmachines.com. You will find a very cost-effective and highly beneficial tool that may enhance your program’s success rate, which in its turn will help when submitting paperwork for extra funding, and oh yes, basically give your graduates a reasonable chance at staying clean and sober for probably the remainder of their life.

Over the years I've been involved with several rehab centers as a advisor for getting neurofeedback and/or light and sound programs began (learning /. Relaxation). Basically, I would show them what these mind machines look like and how to employ them how they can be incorporated into their existing techniques of treatment, and instructing them on the way to maximize the sessions for the benefit of their patients. Why I choose to try this is to open the eyes of specialists and directors to the cost- efficacy and benefits that mind machines offer. Especially when many rehabs are facing acute 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 satisfying their time at the center, informing them good luck and to call if they feel reversals approaching. Should not graduates be given tools to take home with them for preventing relapses from occurring?

Once out, patients find themselves in a world that has not changed. Only they have changed. Granted the sole way an addict can really stop their addiction is to actually need to give up, to modify their routine once back in society, and to abstain from visiting the places they frequented before checking into a rehab. But it is so hard for an addict to do this without psychological and emotional support. Here's where I think most rehabs fail. They put so much stress on treatment while the patients are attending the rehab, and reputedly have little time to keep track of what happens to their patients once they graduate.

I have seen too many individuals fall into their addictive behaviors because such psychological and emotional support groups aren't available in time of need. Is that a cop-out reason to revert to old strategies? Sure. Not being able to meet new buddies 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 desire to go back to old tactics is powerful, when that old addictive ‘friend ‘ is beckoning for their return, the addictive cycle rears it’s repellent head. A major proportion of ex-patients become new patients once again. With the cost of rehabilitative treatment being so astronomic, and the time necessary to stay at these facilities lasting from a couple of days to several weeks, even months, I'd think more rehabilitation centres would put a better accent on relapse prevention; meaning once an individual graduates, larger importance should be put on helping them re-integrate into society, re-integrate with themselves, and make available more tools for the graduate for immediate function of overcoming that ‘stinking thinking ‘ urge that may pop up at any time, for any cause. Those thoughts just happen out of nowhere, and when they occur, it's an concerned and horrifying experience for the recently clean/sober individual. They don't get these thoughts because they'd like to, they get these thoughts because obsessions are waking nightmares. Stinky thinking, in my opinion, falls short by describing just how nasty these urges and thoughts can be.

It's not my intention to upset the administrators of rehabs, but with lots of rehabilitation counselors and therapists themselves once being dependent on ‘their favourite friend ‘, and frequently experiencing private relapses themselves, rehabs must wake up to the increased need of having tools accessible for their graduates. Tools that will help conquer those unexpected urges quicker than calling a counselor and being told they're going to get straight 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 dozens of people I have met since beginning my very own recovery, and it can work for today’s addicts trying desperately to quit the very addiction that's slaughtering them. It is time you give this modality major thought that is, if you're actually serious in helping your patients remain clean/sober.

Michael Landgraf is a EEG Neurofeedback and mind machine expert and has an extensive record of working in the field of relapse prevention