ANR Treatment Review – A Year Post-Treatment Review

By  //  March 15, 2023

Accelerated Neuro-Regulation (ANR) program claims to restore the brain to a pre-dependency state by regulating the endorphins hormones and their receptors in the brain and preventing relapse and cravings.

Allow me to share my experience through my process after getting my treatment in 2021.

Let’s start by saying that I am 13 months opioid-free. ANR treatment does work. After five days in Florida, I came back to North Carolina without dependency or even cravings for opioids. But was it really an overnight miracle cure?

I was addicted to opioids for six years. Like most of us who are struggling with this, I tried to quit cold turkey so many times. The withdrawals would be too severe, and I would fail each time. Sounds familiar, right?

Eventually, it got to the point where I thought there was no way I could ever come off the drugs on my own and was doomed to a life of replacement therapy with Suboxone or methadone. I went to two different rehab centers (one of them was considered ‘the best in the country), and surprise, after a few weeks, I relapsed again. I just couldn’t make it. The cravings were too powerful, and I was just restless.

I continued researching other opioid treatments even outside the country; I was hopeless. I found Dr. Waismann and the ANR program after reading an article in an Australian newspaper. I continued to dig. Looks like Dr. Waismann came to Florida after many years of working in Europe to start educating medical teams and open a clinic in Florida to do his relatively new ANR treatment. After a few days of reading their website and watching many of the videos they have on their YouTube channel, I called the office in Tampa. To be honest, I was very excited, but with that, I had many doubts. It really sounded too good to be true.

A lady named Kristi answered. We had about a 10-minute-long phone call. She explained that I have a treatable disease and I should consider myself a patient with an illness and not a ‘lifetime addict.’ She also said that ANR is unique and different from any other treatment because they are addressing the root of the addiction while the rest are treating the withdrawals and the psychological effects of it – which are “secondary to the main problem.”

Being skeptical, I decided to do further research before moving forward. How come I had never heard about it before? Especially when it made a lot of sense. They claimed that the majority of psychological symptoms that most opioid treatments deal with are only secondary effects of the main illness – an imbalance in the chemistry of the brain inside the endorphin system. So once you restore the system to balance, there will be no psychological effects anymore, taking into consideration that the patient was mentally stable before their exposure to opioids.

Opioid Dependency Is A “Treatable Medical Condition”?

I was still suspicious that ANR is an expensive “too good to be true” kind of treatment. That question echoed again – how is it not everywhere?

I did extensive research about Dr. Waismann, and after reading further about his development of Rapid Detoxification treatment, I was intrigued.  Dr. Waismann appears to have been one of the pioneers of this treatment back in the 90s. But he wasn’t satisfied with the rate of long-term relapse of his old rapid detox. Based on what I read, equipped with the clinical experience from doing rapid detox, he redefined and changed his treatment. He also changed its name to  ANR, which stands for Accelerated Neuro-Regulation. With this new adaptation, he can individualize the treatment to each patient in order to restore their own unique endorphin system back into balance. Everybody is talking about addiction and the need to be “psychologically treated” in order to be “clean”, but what about the root of the problem – the brain?

If I take myself as an example, I know that nothing is really wrong with my behavior or personality. I am an honest man, and I respect the law, but when I feel sick from withdrawals, I will always try to heal myself. So, if that means getting pills out on the street, this is what I will do. I don’t need a social worker to focus on my past or a therapist to talk about my behavior when I have severe cravings. I just need a doctor to treat my dependency!

Dr. Waismann

The thing I liked the most about Dr. Waismann is that he is unapologetic in tackling misconceptions about opioid dependency head-on. He is very passionate about his work, even aggressive, but don’t get him wrong, he is acting like that because he is really frustrated with the system and the way it perceives and treats addicts.

All of us know that many experts in the field of addiction are hiding behind their published studies and academic papers, but how many patients have they seen and treated with their own hands, and what conclusions have been developed for their patient’s benefit? Nothing. If they call methadone and Subutex “a treatment,” they have failed miserably.

Many of the opioid addiction centers in the US are even criticizing Dr. Waismann’s approach claiming that opioid dependency is a chronic illness. In reality, they are just hiding behind a nice website and a pretty building but nothing else. Admit, treat, charge insurance, repeat.

Dr. Waismann has been fighting for a long time to get his treatment available to as many people as possible. His background in the field of opioid addiction and research is among the best in the world.

Dr. Waismann gave me the confidence I needed. I also talked to a person who did ANR, which I found on Facebook, which also helped me. I decided to move forward and schedule my treatment date.

The Actual ANR Treatment Review

The procedure itself was simple. Why? Because I was asleep and I don’t remember anything. Dr. Albert Kabemba, the clinic’s Medical Director who actually did the treatment, is very calm and pleasant. In general, I was nervous, but the staff was friendly, and they explained everything that was going to happen before the treatment.

I arrived at the hospital in the morning, and they started by doing testing and lab work. A few hours later, they started the IV medication, and that is all I remember. I woke up the same evening, overwhelmed with fatigue but not uncomfortable. I was discharged later the following afternoon. I was super tired. But in contrast to being dependent and in withdrawals, every few hours, I felt better instead of feeling worse.. Like Dr. Kabamba told me, which I thought was a joke, but it was so true, this treatment is too fast. Took me almost a week to understand that I’m not an addict anymore. But man, was I freaking tired and had a very little appetite the first few days.

Recovery From ANR

It took me four or five days to feel completely normal. I was very tired, had a lack of energy, and almost didn’t eat. The staff explained that the endorphin system has to stabilize after the procedure, and the more I move, eat and stimulate my brain, the faster the recovery will be. I didn’t move much, so I guess the recovery could be faster for other patients. But I was just super tired and had no desire to move around or exercise much.

ANR is not an overnight magical cure. But it is very close to it. After a week of recovery, I felt the magic. I am back at work, feeling great, feeling light, and full of energy and optimism about life. I actually cried a few times, and I couldn’t even understand why. The opioids mask everything. It’s crazy, but without them, I was feeling almost too exposed, to life, to feelings, to everything.

It has been a little more than a year since the treatment, and I am feeling fantastic. But once again, the question remains, why is this not everywhere?

The world is a crazy place. People are still giving out methadone left and right, still making people go through long rehab stays to vomit on the floors and go through hell… Trust me, I’ve been there. Hell.

I hope Dr. Waismann won’t give up his mission  – to make ANR available everywhere.