James13, Thanks for your post and the link. And best of luck to you.
I am interested in this topic for various reasons. My sister's serious addiction and her 3 kids who have had a rough life. If there is a way to understand the cause of addiction and stop certain behaviors then I hope to be able to eliminate my nieces and nephew from growing up to follow in their mother's footsteps.
As for my sister, I am lost. I don't think the methadone is helping and I don't know if she will ever be ready to get off drugs. I do have one solid belief and that is that a person has to enter recovery willingly and has to be ready themselves. She was forced when she was younger and that seemed to make her worse afterwards.
I am familiar with NA and AA and I have nothing but respect for that type of treatment because it has always seemed to help people, from my perspective. I don't know if it is good to force people into these programs though. I have seen this and I have seen these "court ordered" people go into the meetings high or drunk. I think voluntary is the only way to go if you want any long term, positive effect.