TREATMENT METHODS OUTDATED

A recent letter-writer said it is a misperception that alcoholics and
addicts can get government benefits. In reality they are being denied
access to medical benefits and are being warehoused in a "vast new
prison-industrial complex."

Last fall, I read two books from the Gundersen Clinic library in La Crosse.
The first was on Alcoholics Anonymous, written more than 50 years ago. It
was deeply immersed in philosophy with quotations from St. Thomas Aquinas.
The author believed the organization has helped "many," but it wasn't known
how many. He wrote that doctors who had examined alcoholics reported that
alcoholics were the most "selfish" people they had ever seen. (Keep in mind
that this was written more than 50 years ago.)

The second book was written with today's knowledge of drugs and their
effects on people. Each chapter was devoted to a different drug with an
explanation of the drug and its effect.

The book covered drugs both legal and illegal, everything from alcohol to
ecstasy. The author expressed in the introduction of the book that it is
better to be "in the know" then to "just say no."

I have read more than once that addiction is a brain disease. Alcoholics
are still being treated 1940s style. Why must an alcoholic be anonymous?
Why isn't his disease treated like any other? Alcoholics certainly aren't
anonymous when they are in the news as drunken drivers.

I would like to see the treatment of alcoholism placed in the hands of
medical doctors who have scientific knowledge and realistic treatments. We
need more than philosophy, spirituality and talk therapy. We need a better
treatment for addiction.

ELIZABETH M. PAMPUCH

Independence