The Marshak Method: Merging Traditional 12-Step and Holistic Methods

Written by Dr. Jacob Marshak

Tuesday, 22 July 2008

In the early 1990s, after the break-up of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), the newly established Russian Federation faced a fast growing heroin epidemic, created by two factors: veterans returning from the war in Afghanistan; and the dramatic impact of a diet that consisted primarily of high-glycemic processed foods and fast foods, rich in sugars and corn syrup. In the USSR alcohol and drug abuse was officially minimized by the government, and addicts were neglected — the worst addicts, mainly alcoholics, were sent to forced labor camps.

Only after Mikhail Gorbachev’s 1986 economic restructuring, known as perestroika, were U.S. activists allowed to introduce 12-Step philosophy to Russia for the first time. I was personally invited to spend a year in the United States as a guest of American addiction professionals. When I returned to Russia as a certified addiction professional, I opened the country’s first private practice specializing in addiction medicine in 1991. My practice began with six heroin addicts. I combined the 12-Step program with a methodology I had personally developed 10 years earlier to stop myself from drinking. It is a holistic method, which allows an addict to quickly achieve sobriety without the help of pharmaceutical medications, and to rapidly improve his or her mood, so as to remain happy, positive and sober long term. A few years later the Marshak alumni “club” included about 30 sober, happy and creative members.
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