This book provides a unique framework for understanding, assessing, and treating multiple addictions simultaneously. It introduces the "Poly-behavioral Dependence," diagnosis and provides an integrative multidimensional treatment- progress measurement and tracking system for practical clinical utilization. It also provides over 25 clinical and practical assessment tools and instruments to assist care providers.

When considering the enormity of our nation's substance and behavioral addiction problems (e.g., just considering nicotine addiction, obesity, and alcohol/drug abuse alone, the U.S. has well over 800,000 deaths annually costing the U.S. tax payer well over 300 billion dollars annually, etc.), it is common knowledge that our present treatment resources are grossly inadequate and under funded.

It is also well known that treating people with substance use disorders and behavioral addictions (e.g., alcohol/drug abuse and dependence, pathological gambling, eating disorders, sex addictions, and religious addictions, etc.) with such inadequate support is often emotionally challenging, frustrating, and unfair to providers and patients alike. Consequently, when patients get poor results, in part because they may have gotten poor care, and treatment programs have no system in place to measure their performance and outcome effectiveness, arguments for expanded resources are under minded, no matter how unfair that may be.

When we consider that addictions involve unbalanced life-styles operating within semi-stable equilibrium force fields, the Addiction Recovery Measurement System's (ARMS) philosophy promotes that there is a supernatural-like spiritually synergistic effect that occurs when an individuals' multiple life functioning dimensions are elevated in a homeostatic human system. This bilateral spiritual connectedness reduces chaos and increases resilience to bring an individual harmony, wellness, and productivity. The ARMS takes an objective perspective on spirituality by assessing an individual's positive and/ or negative spiritual/ religious dimension with the Religious Attitudes Inventory (e.g., the RAI is capable of identifying extremely unhealthy cult-like spirituality with the rigid, and intolerant religious and militant orthodoxy, practiced by some religious terrorists, etc.).

The ARM's approach is a step in the right direction for getting clinicians to change the way they practice, by changing treatment facility systems to incorporate evidence-based research findings on effective interventions. The challenge for those interested in conducting outcome evaluations to improve their quality of care is to incorporate a system that will standardize their assessment procedures, treatment programs, and clinical treatment practices. By diligently following a standardized system to obtain base-line outcome statistics of their treatment program effectiveness despite the outcome, they will be able to assess the effectiveness of subsequent treatment interventions.

In order to bring about a restructured treatment system for poly-behavioral addictions that can measure performance and outcome effectiveness with the most cost-effective interventions, and incorporate short- and long-term research strategies that are flexible and sustainable, this book introduces the Addictions Recovery Measurement System (ARMS). This model is based on a non-confrontation recovery point system, which serves as a blueprint for a coordinated, comprehensive approach to establishing an integrative multi-dimensional patient progress tracking system for coordinated continuity of care.