Have you heard of FleaHab? It's a new exercise-based recovery program track at the Providence Recovery Center in Santa Cruz, California, run by Darryl “Flea” Virostko, a big wave surfer and three-time Mavericks champion. Now, before you get too cynical about this as another addiction treatment gimmick combining a 'tangential' but attractive consumer activity with the market cache of a noted sports figure, consider the emerging science.

Mr. Virostko hopes that FleaHab will be his anchor in the dry terrain of sobriety. Addicts in the program will replace the high of drugs with the endorphin rush of strenuous physical activity, he says. He recently took a group surfing to try his hand at teaching. “It’s like I’m learning to surf again,” he said. “Seeing them so excited reminds me of when I first started...” according to a quote in "Surfing as Rehab for Those Fighting Addiction".

As you may remember from some of my OPEN MINDS live reporting earlier this summer, I spent a fabulous week at the "State of Mind" conference held at the Chautauqua Institution, where we explored "the techniques and current research findings related to mental health disorders and brain injury..." One big takeaway was learning that there is only one way to generate new brain cells—through extreme physical exercise—and to 'turn them on' requires extreme mental challenges. Another interesting takeaway was that almost all psychotropic medications perform better for consumers when combined with an exercise program. These findings are all the more relevant for consumers who can now use new brain scanning technology to watch their brain change as they recover from mental illness, progress in recovery from their addiction, or work to improve cognitive functioning.

I left my week in New York with some distinct thoughts about the future of behavioral health treatment programs. In a decade, it will likely be considered malpractice to provide behavioral health treatment without a rigorous exercise program. And, the programs that provide consumers access to the technologies that allow them to 'see' their brain recovery are the programs that consumers will select. To that extent, FleaHab is on the right path.

August 21, 2009

In the sea of press releases that I read every day, very few settle into my grey matter. But, today, there was a flash of something happening—though it's a bit early to tell what. The first piece that passed my desk was notice of the first inpatient treatment program for Internet addiction. Just opened outside of Seattle, the reSTART Internet Addiction Recovery Program will help people unplug from the wired world for 45 days for $15,000 (check out their site).

There is nothing particularly new about specialty addiction treatment programs—a quick search of the OPEN MINDS archives and you will find treatment programs for addictions to sex, gambling, shopping, and host of other activities. But, only a few minutes later I was watching a YouTube video from Sony's viral on-line marketing campaign for ending social media addiction. (I was also signing up to learn more about the Social Media Addicts Association.) Trend or data point in the addiction treatment world? Too early to tell.