Our site contains valuable information and treatment for addicted people, loved ones of addicts and for substance abuse professionals. Our goal is to help you to better understand and treat addiction, which affects about one in ten Americans.

This site offers addicts and their loved ones information about addiction and its treatment and ERP.

Professionals can get information about ERP therapy, obtain an ERP Professional Kit, and get training and certification in ERP therapy.

Pouring a drink-in order to stop drinking. Rolling a joint-to kick a pot habit. Laying out a few lines of cocaine-to overcome the desire to snort it. These aren't oxymorons or acts of a fool. They are examples of a new form of therapy for chemical addiction called ERP.

ERP, or exposure response prevention, therapy reduces the cravings that trigger drug and alcohol relapses. ERP is a behavior therapy procedure that systematically exposes an addict to simulated versions of their drugs of choice and the equipment they use to prepare and consume. ERP exposes them in order to elicit powerful cravings. The addict is taught how to handle these cravings without giving into them. In this way they are exposed to their triggers but prevented from getting high. This leads to the extinction of their desire to use. ERP therapy increases self-control and confidence which results reduces the likelihood of relapse and makes relapses that do occur easier to recover from.

ERP can be done through photo cards (using our book Kill The Craving and this web site) or with a trained therapist using simulated substances of abuse and their paraphernalia (call 1-888-8-CARE-4U for more information about this version of ERP).

ERP therapy was developed at SLS Health; a New York based behavioral health care organization. Dr. Joseph Santoro, Robert DeLetis, CADC, and Alfred Bergman, MS researched and developed the ERP technique and have successfully employed it with their patients since 1993. We have documented its effectiveness in an outcome study.