After 22 years of direct experience, researchers of the Saint Jude Program® offered at the St. Jude Retreats® have concluded that the conventional wisdom about “addiction” is misleading, and leaves people with a set of self-limiting culturally learned beliefs; such as needing on-going support or treatment for a reoccurring substance use problem.

There is a common belief in the treatment industry that an individual can't solve a substance use problem on their own without lifelong treatment and/or support group involvement. Reliable wide-scaled studies have routinely shown that 75 percent of people with substance use problems inevitably changed their habits for the better without ever seeking formal help.

The remaining 25 percent who changed and had sought help at some point, did not all receive specialty addiction treatment followed up with on-going lifelong 12-step involvement. Only 17% of people have been exposed to both specialty treatment and 12-step meetings. But according to the AA World Services, Inc. (Alcoholics Anonymous Headquarters in NYC) Triennial Survey, 95% of people who enter these support groups stop attending within a year. Meaning that only 5% of the 17% of the total, or 0.85% of people who successfully change their drinking problems do so by ongoing treatment and support.

The myth of needing on-going support is exposed by the figures; that being, less than 1% attend meetings and support groups. Additionally, for every one successful person that stays in endless “recovery” there are at least 99 more individuals who have successfully moved on with their lives past drug and alcohol use without ever attending treatment.

Individuals do not respond well to treatment professionals or even programs that use the ideology that states: once an addict always an addict, or ones that promote that addiction is an incurable disease. These teachings create a self-fulfilling, negative belief system and leaves the individual user without any hope of ending the drug and/or alcohol rehab cycle.

Unfortunately these diseased-based, 12 step treatment programs make up 78.8% of the care available to Americans today according to a 2009 SAMHSA study. The other 21.2% of programs use practices that include the basis of 12 step ideologies even though these programs may not directly advertise their treatment as being so.

Mark Scheeren, Chairman of Saint Jude Retreats® states, "the defining feature of the Saint Jude Program has been to teach that substance use is a choice, where people are in full control, at all times, and that they can change their habits whenever they want. We believe in them and focus on a positive future, which reinforces their belief that they can live without substance or successfully moderate their use."

Saint Jude Retreats® is a non-diseased based drug and alcohol program implementing proprietary methodology called Cognitive Behavioral EducationSM(CBE). The program is the only effective alternative to alcohol rehab and drug treatment centers in the United States. The program is endorsed by internationally acclaimed professionals and addiction research authors such as Prof. Emeritus David Hanson, PhD; Prof. David Rudy, PhD; Dr. Joy Browne and the late Joseph Vacca, PhD, among others.