New directions in addiction treatments

As we learn more about that most remarkable of creations, the human mind, we're finding out a lot more about what makes effective treatments for all sorts of things. So it is with drug treatment, just as it is for so many other things. The first and most obvious thing we've found is that there's no one treatment which works for everyone. There are different reasons for, different causes of, addictions and thus different treatments which work.

We've also found that the physical part of addiction is possibly the least important part of it. It isn't so much that the body craves a particular drug, although of course it does. It's what happens after the body is cleansed, after total sobriety has been achieved. What was it that first led to the addction? Was there, is there, some underlying problem that needs a solution before the desire for the drug can be banished? Drug treatment is therefore now regarded as an holistic exercise: we need to look at the whole person, not just that part craving one or another pharmaceutical hit.

Fortunately, while we've realised that addiction is more complex than we first thought (it wasn't all that long ago that it was simply put down to a lack of moral fibre) we've also found a number of treatments that help. There are those who respond best to medically drven drug treatment programs. Others better to ones based upon therapy. So the move now is towards completely integrated places like the Pat Moore Foundation which is able to offer all of the potential treatments and work with the individual to decide which is the best for that individual. To find out more click through any of the links.

2009 World Series MVP

And the 2009 World Series MVP is: Hideki Matsui.

Matsui is the first Japanese born person to win the Most Valuable Player of the World series award (and no doubt that will do wonders for the popularity of baseball in Japan!) and he basically won it on the back of his record breaking performance in Game 6.

It's appropriate that the 2009 World Series MVP went to Matsui as in that clinching Game 6 he drove in 6 of the Yankees 7 runs. That beats the previous (jointly held) record of 5 RBIs in a World Series clincher.

What might be a little more bittersweet is that this was likely Matsui's last game in a Yankees shirt: and the Yankees parade 2009 on Friday might be his last appearance in a Yankees shirt.

For this winter he becomes a free agent and so might not be with the Yankees next season.

Another way of looking at it of course is that he's certainly maximised his value on the free agent market with that performance, hasn't he?