The Basic Element of Rehabilitation

In a day and age that has created illnesses to make money on the symptom remedies or frighten mass populations at the thought of possibly having one of them, the fundamental ability of an individual to survive, flourish and prosper seems to have been forgotten. 

The false datum of having to adjust to one's environment negates self-determinism and puts the individual at an effect point in his or her life.

In the case of substance abuse, the goal of rehabilitation should not be to have to learn to live with a disease, but to acquire the knowledge, tools and skills to be cause over one's environment, thus continually improving the conditions in the former addict's life.  Setting standards and having goals to attain working toward an ideal scene is an optimal state of living. 

A person trying to overcome drug addiction usually has lost a great deal in life because of the drug use and behavior, so goals may include having a good job, repairing broken relationships and of course living drug-free.  This is part of controlling the environment and making the necessary changes. 

Change the surrounding environment based on the new ideal scene instead of adapting the ideal scene based on the surrounding environment.  For example, hanging out with the same old drug-using friends and trying to cope with the situation will inevitably return them to old habits, so that is definitely not ideal.

Quality of life is very key in drug rehabilitation, for if a person is simply not using drugs but still has all of the other problems in his or her life the conditions will typically worsen in time.  One must improve all areas of life to ensure success and happiness, simply focusing on one or two things doesn't fix the whole problem, but it can be taken on a gradient approach by accepting more responsibility as time goes on. 

Luke Catton is the president of Narconon Arrowhead and president-elect of the Oklahoma Substance Abuse Services Alliance.  He has personally lectured to tens of thousands of individuals across the country, been featured on dozens of radio and television interviews and his articles have appeared in hundreds of papers across the country.  E-mail questions or comments to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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