The Right Step - San Antonio

Alcohol and Drug Treatment

12042 Blanco Road, Suite 101

San Antonio, TX 78216

 

 

Our Goals and Philosophy

 

Alamo City Treatment Services was formed to provide the San Antonio area with quality counseling services at the best costs and highest integrity.  In May of 2008 we developed an affiliate agreement with The Right Step. We have expanded from 8 insurance companies to over 40 in order to meet the treatment needs of the Bexar County area. We want people to receive the level of service we would expect for our family or ourselves.  We are one of the few treatment programs in San Antonio that treat teens and adults for drug and alcohol problems.  The Right Step - San Antonio believes that chemical dependency, to alcohol or drugs, is an illness as real as diabetes or cancer.  It is progressive and potentially fatal, but it is also a treatable disease.  Chemical dependency is also a lifetime disease and, even after successful treatment and years of abstinence, one can never "use socially" again.  The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous serve as a foundation for the recovery process.  It is our belief that people can become aware, identify and accept the consequences of their disease.  Our staff believes the abstinence model is a way to give clients the opportunity to change their behavior and emotional responses without the effects of mood altering chemicals.

 

Levels of Service

 

We have provided a link to The Right Step web page to provide you with the cost and types of services available for San Antonio (Hill Country).

 

Here is the link to treatment costs and insurance providers.

 

Here is the link to the levels of service available in Bexar County.

 

Our Intensive outpatient programs include individual/group/family therapy, education, and referral assistance when appropriate.  Clients will include those adults and teens referred for counseling in lieu of incarceration, those adolescents and adults who have had legal, school, work, family, emotional, physical problems or any other complication related to chemical use will qualify. We also have the capability to handle other mental health problems.  Use of medication is not a part of this treatment program.  For our adolescent participants, we address age-specific needs and issues.  Although we treat adults and adolescents, no conflict exists with our client population, the use of our staff, or use of our facility space.

 

 

 

Special Note

 

A few tips on selecting the program that will work best for you

 

  1. I have been helping people in recovery for 29 years. I want to let friends and families know this about addiction: you cannot make someone get into recovery, but you can expose them to the process. You can begin the process before they do.
  2. For the sake of understanding the concept of total sobriety I will be discussing alcohol and drugs as mind-altering chemicals. A drug is a drug is a drug. Whether you drink it, smoke it, snort it, plug it, shoot it, huff it or eat it. Whether you call the high: drunk, rolling, stoned, buzzed, wasted, tripping, or whatever, it is a drug.
  3. If the person with the alcohol or other drug problem is going to therapy 1 time a week or 1 time a month but they are getting high (or drinking) 2-7 days a week they will rarely become sober.
  4. If their therapist or doctor thinks one session a week will keep them completely sober they may not know how to effectively address chemical dependency problems.
  5. If you try to quit, cut back, slow down or, limit the amount of drugs or alcohol you are using, limit how long you stay out, come home late, spend more than you planned, use more than you promised, stay away from certain people to cut back on your partying or you know someone who has done these things, they need to get help for their problem. 
  6. If you have gone to therapy and have been prescribed medications, but have not told your counselor that you use drugs, you are missing the point of therapy. Please be completely honest with your therapist about your problems so you can complete therapy earlier. If you are lying to your therapist, you are giving someone money to believe your lies.
  7. If you continuously tell your doctor that you are having problems with alcohol or other drugs and they prescribe more medications, you might want to get another therapist.  If you have gone to therapy for more than a month to stop using and you still are using alcohol or other drugs or have switched to “something natural” or “just alcohol” you will continue to have problems in your life related to your addictive behaviors. If your therapist believes that you have reduced your drug problem to just alcohol, you may want to get another therapist. If you are attending therapy and are not sober, you are not doing therapy.
  8. If you are taking antidepressants or any other mood stabilizing medication and continue to use alcohol or other drugs you are defeating the purpose of managed, prescribed medications and self-medicating your problems.
  9. And yes, there probably is a deep underlying problem that may have caused the person to start using drugs in the first place, but you won’t find the answer in the alcohol or other drugs that you have been using.  You will not get benefits of therapy unless your head is clear enough to resolve and comprehend the solutions and apply them. You will either live in the problem or live in the solution.
  10. If you have lived with someone like this for six months or more and struggled with their addiction, you will need counseling.  This includes spouses, parents, children, family or a significant other.
  11. If you have problems in your life because of using mind altering chemicals you have a drug problem.  If it is affecting you as an addict or as a significant other at work, school, home, financially, legally, emotionally, what you do for fun, who you spend time with, what you do for leisure, spiritually or sexually (a few or all of these) you need help.
  12. If you have tried numerous ways to fix it yourself and it is still there, you might want to seek professional help.
  13. Do not be afraid to tell the whole truth about your addiction or someone else’s addiction. Sick secrets keep us sick.
  14. Keep seeking professional help until it gets better. If you find a professional you trust, listen to them and do what they say.
  15. You may need more treatment than you think. The addict or family member needs to remember: you did not get this way in eight weeks: do not expect it to be resolved in eight weeks. Recovery is a process that will take time and maintaining recovery may take the rest of your life.
  16. If your child is experimenting with marijuana, alcohol or other drugs, please realize there is an age limit for alcohol for a good reason. Many of us experimented with drugs when we grew up, but they are more potent than they were 20, 30, even 40 years ago. The other point is that they are ILLEGAL. Allowing your child to experiment may result in them finding their favorite drug and becoming addicted to it for the rest of their lives.  Experimenting happened the first 5 times they used a drug, then it became an escape, then abuse then it become a habit or dependency.
  17. In 2002, it was estimated that at least 70% of all teens in any high school in the U.S. are using alcohol and drugs on a regular basis. (Click here to see the report Malignant Neglect)
  18. If the addict does not want you (significant other) to go to any support group meeting, go anyway.  If the professionals you are talking to recommend twelve-step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous and Al-Anon or Codependents Anonymous for the significant other, please go. They work if you do what the programs teach.
  19. If therapists tell you twelve step programs do not work go seek another therapist. There are now over 500 twelve-step meetings per week in San Antonio.
  20. The final point is that addiction is a family disease. Everyone needs help. Whether you have been dating someone for a year, married for 2 years or they have been a part of your life for many years you will need help too.  To drop them off or let them do treatment themselves and not be involved only lengthens the pain and the recovery process. It is like dropping off someone you love at the hospital to get their chemo treatments and picking them up later = not being a part of the recovery, the solution, or the healing.

 

 

 

Homepage Personal Web Page Adolescent Adult Christian FAQ Impaired Links Meeting

Relapse Screening Training