Drug Use

Drugs are used in an attempt to handle pain, be it emotional or physical or both. The person decides to use a drug or alcohol to reduce discomfort derived from the problem or pain and finds only limited relief but now assigns value to the drug. Thus he returns to the drug or alcohol for more and more use. At best the drugs simply mask the symptoms of emotional or physical pain. As time goes on the drug or alcohol is used more and more and tolerance for the drug increased the quantity needed to achieve the same results. Often before the person is really aware of it he now addicted and craves this relief all the time and will do whatever is necessary to obtain the drug or alcohol. The debilitating effects of the drugs can and do create more and more mental and physical problems and pains which often leads to the use of other addictive drugs in an endless downward spiral.

Three of the drug effects in any type of addiction that must be fully resolved for any chance of lasting recovery are cravings, guilt, and depression. Cravings can be mental or physical and are strong, uncontrollable urges to use drugs or alcohol despite the consequences. Depression is the source of constant and significant amounts of discomfort that prompts continued drug use in an attempt to alleviate the depression. Guilt is the feelings resulting from dishonest deeds and harm caused to the people closest to and most important to the addict. With unresolved feelings of guilt the addict is very prone and quite likely to continue using drugs or relapse to drug use in a misguided attempt to escape the feeling of guilt. In what seems an endless cycles this goes on and on with the addiction and the cravings, guilt, and depression going in a downward spiral towards death or jail.

Effective drug or alcohol rehab starts with really understanding exactly what rehabilitation is. Rehabilitate in its broad sense means to restore to a previous condition. Any rehab to be effective needs to address the three factors which lead up to and cause addiction to continue. These are mental and physical cravings, quilt, and depression. Drug and alcohol abuse stems from mental or physical pain an individual does not wish to confront or deal with. The drugs or alcohol only appear to alleviate these conditions and after a time contribute to them as well as creating new sources in and endless cycle and trap known as addiction. Confronting and effectively handling the conditions brought about by cravings, quilt, and depression allows the addicted individual to truly ‘rehab’ him or herself and so be restored to a previous condition or at least as close as possible. Narconon Arrowhead is much more than a detox center where the individual simply quits using for a period. Narconon Arrowhead drug rehab methodologies fully handle the above factors allowing one to truly rehabilitate a previous condition and so remove the need for further drug or alcohol use as a false solution to living the life they want.

Cravings are extremely powerful urges to use drugs or alcohol again. When triggered,they often cause a person to imagine all kinds of reasons they should begin using drugs or drinking again. Once he or she has relapsed, the addict is now trapped in an endless cycle of trying to quit, craving, relapse and fear of withdrawal. In many drug rehab programs, these cravings are addressed by administering medications that prevent the onset of withdrawal, and that replace the body’s need for the original drug with a substitute substance. The problem with this approach is that the body’s cravings are masked by the substitute drug and are not eliminated and the individual is not learning to build a new drug-free life. If the medication is dropped, the cravings show up and the person is very likely to lose the battle to stay off his or her drug of choice.

At Narconon Arrowhead rehab treatment center we recognize depression as a factor the locks an addict into his addiction. Depression is a source of significant discomfort that prompts continued use and is a major barrier to recovery. Some traditional medical and psychiatric-based programs treat the depression as the cause of addiction with further drugs and medications which only serve to mask the symptoms. Once these additional drugs wear off, depression returns, often worse. This makes the recovery process more difficult, if not impossible. In most cases depression actually manifests itself after the person becomes addicted, not before. The cause of the depression is linked to the drugs themselves.