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CUTTING EDGE THERAPIES AT THE HOLISTIC SANCTUARY
There are those who say the staple treatments for overcoming addiction are outmoded and ineffective. Johnny Tabaie-himself a long-time drug abuser who got dean, and someone who lost both his mother and brother to drugs-is a vocal critic of the system and believes he has found a better way to address the problems of addiction. He is the inventor of "the Pouyan Method" and owns and operates a five-star rehab facility in Baja California aptly named The Holistic Sanctuary. Alternative Medicine recently sat down with Tabitha to better understand his approach, and his differences with such dyed-in-the-wool programs as Alcoholics Anonymous.
ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE: Once you took on responsibility for finding your own path to recovery, where did it lead?
JOHNNY TABAIE: My path to recovery began with extensive research, and taking control over my own physical, emotional, and spiritual healing. Having lost my mother and brother to addiction, I refused to succumb to the ravages of this disease. After experiencing the treatment modalities of conventional drug rehab centers-and having suffered a great deal of pain at these so-called prestige facilities-I drew a number of quite logical conclusions.
One, every center I attended-and my guests have had similar experiences at other conventional drug treatment programs-labeled addiction an incurable disease. That statement is only half-true: Addiction is a disease, yes, but not an incurable one. Doctors and nurses, as well as the administrators of most rehab facilities, will differ with that assertion because they start from a false premise about the nature of disease itself.
If every medical condition has a treatment, so the logic goes, then there should be a treatment-or attempts to find one-for every condition. From cancer to the common cold, from AIDS to autism, there may not be a cure, but there are treatments aplenty. Again, there is nothing wrong with developing treatments for these conditions, both minor and major, but oftentimes the pursuit of a treatment subsumes the quest for a cure. All of which is a fancy way of saying that science is no less immune to politics, turf wars, and the fight for research dollars than any other profession.
Conventional drug rehab is a lucrative industry. But, and here I write...