Addiction to drugs or alcohol is a complex problem for the addict, his or her family, and the society around them. Evidence supports it being a difficult problem to solve. But is it a disease? Or, more specifically, is it a chronic, relapsing disease without a cure, as it is described by the National Institutes of Health?
The answer is this: If you understand the makeup of addiction and address the real causes, then addiction can be eliminated for a lifetime.
Prescribing drugs such as methadone, Antabuse or similar medications will never address the real causes, meaning addicts never experience a real solution so may stay on these drugs for years. So what are the causes and what is the remedy for addiction?
The causes: The three major factors that make up the trap of addiction are cravings, depression and guilt. A rehabilitation program, to be successful, must help the addict himself or herself eliminate each of these factors in a fundamental, lasting way. No one can do it for him or her, no evaluation or analysis by an outside party can hope to change a person’s world like they themselves can.
Cravings must be handled at a physical level by drawing out the residual drugs and their by-products that can still trigger cravings years after a person stops taking drugs. Depression must be addressed, at a physical level by remedying the nutritional deficiencies that have been shown to contribute to depression, and at a mental level, both by teaching social skills and by helping an addict repair the destruction that drugs have wreaked on his life. Guilt is relieved when an addict learns the root cause of guilt and then uses that new knowledge to face and take responsibility for his past misdeeds. The result is restored personal integrity and moral values.
Every region has rehabilitation programs that hope to assist addicts in recovery. These three factors are addressed in a thorough manner at the drug and alcohol rehabilitation program at Narconon Arrowhead, one of the country’s premier rehabilitation centers in Canadian, Oklahoma. A young man who graduated from the Narconon program described his accomplishment like this: “I was an addict for nine years of my life. I had tried programs that told me I would always be an addict, I had tried state-run hospitals that gave me other drugs to replace the ones I was on. Then I was given a chance to go to Narconon Arrowhead. I learned that I really was a good person who made some poor decisions. I learned how to take responsibility for those actions. My body was freed of toxic drug residues. I now have the tools I need to stay clean. I have not used any drugs, at all, in over a year. This program saved my life.” J. S.
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