The industry for alcohol rehabilitation has come a long way since the days when most people considered alcoholics possessed by the devil. Although some of the lingering stigma of those times carries into today—particularly in the pernicious application of the “ disease ” label—psychologists have come to far more enlightened conclusions about the nature of addiction and what drives people to sue. If you want to get into a program of lasting effectiveness, you'll want to look for treatment centers that employ these modern notions.

First things first. Addiction is not something visited upon our brains from somewhere else; it is the result of very fundamental beliefs, traumas and other emotional attachments we have made throughout life. Physical dependency is hardly related at all, as evidenced by the great many addicts who switch substances throughout their lives.

But if addiction has an emotional basis, how do we ever come to understand what's at play? The answer is as simple as it is reassuring: good, well-informed talk therapy . The top alcohol rehabilitation programs in California and around the country usually offer dozens of hours per month of individual therapy with the people who understand this subject best.

Of course countless other features may come into play as well, from gourmet meals through daily massage. The point is to get on board with a treatment center that creates individualized programs of therapy for its clients and brings to bear modern science's latest tools. With the right center, you could easily come away with a deeper understanding of yourself than you have ever experienced in the past.