Addiction to drugs or alcohol is absolutely one of life’s more difficult challenges. For a family member, it’s heartbreaking to watch someone lose their self-respect, their health and perhaps everything they own to addiction. For the addict himself or herself, addiction brings the danger of overdose, the threat of arrest, illness or accidental injury. To restore the addicted person to a sober, productive lifestyle, very often the only choice is drug rehab.

But what kind? Which one? There are more than ten thousand drug rehabs in America. They are all shapes and sizes, inpatient, outpatient, short term, long term and a hundred other varieties. How to choose?

Choosing the Right Kind of Addiction Recovery Program

There are almost as many answers as to what constitutes the “right kind” of addiction recovery program as there are programs. However, the US National Institute on Drug Abuse provides a place to start. Their article “Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment” states: “Generally, for residential or outpatient treatment, participation for less than 90 days is of limited effectiveness, and treatment lasting significantly longer is recommended for maintaining positive outcomes.”

Reference: http://www.drugabuse.gov/PODAT/faqs.html#faq5

This datum has proven true over forty-five years of delivering the Narconon drug and alcohol recovery program. Thousands of people have come to Narconon centers after short inpatient or outpatient drug treatment programs that failed. Rebuilding a life that has been completely destroyed by addiction takes time. In most cases, the addicted person must learn new life skills and must rebuild relationships. They must learn how to make drug-free decisions that protect them when temptations arise. These changes take longer than typical 28-day programs.

In every Narconon center around the world, each participant progresses at his or her own rate. When they have truly achieved each small milestone that means another step forward to real recovery, they move on to the next step. Recovery may take one person four months, it may take another six months. But done this way, lasting sobriety is carefully built.

Addressing the Guilt, Cravings and Depression that Result from Addiction and its Lifestyle

Addiction is driven by three major factors: Guilt, cravings and depression. If a rehab program does not thoroughly address and alleviate these factors, then addiction recovery may not occur. Unhandled, incessant cravings make life difficult for addicts who want to stay sober. Guilt over misdeeds related to a drug-using lifestyle and the depression that results from loss and an unhealthy lifestyle can drive a person to self-medicate with more addictive drugs.

The innovation of the Narconon program is to provide the precise technology that takes up the conditions that underlie each of these factors of addiction. When each is truly relieved, then real – and lasting – recovery can occur.

How Does the Narconon Technology Provide this Relief?

Each of these factors has a distinct cause that can be addressed. The best place to start is by reducing cravings. When cravings are under control or eliminated, each recovering addict has more strength and focus with which to face the life changes they must go through to recover from addiction. The Narconon technology includes the Narconon New Life Detoxification Program. This unique phase of recovery, available nowhere else, utilizes nutritional supplements, exercise and a dry heat sauna to enable the body to flush out drug residues. In tens of thousands of cases, drug residues lodged in the fatty tissues  have been shown to be involved in foggy, unclear, slow thinking. Those who complete this step routinely talk about reduced cravings for drugs and alcohol and clearer thinking. Some people even state that their cravings are entirely gone.

Then the person in recovery is ready to address the causes of guilt and depression.

Every person who lives an addictive lifestyle has misdeeds they regret and has lost things of value. It could be relationships, businesses, jobs, bright futures, homes, families, cars, careers – the list is pretty endless. These misdeeds and losses create guilt and depression. But even here, the Narconon technology has a way to provide relief that comes from the heart.

Some drug rehabs may suggest that the recovering addict take a benzodiazepine or an antidepressant to alleviate these feelings. Medicating a person may cover up the guilt or depression, but it does not make the feelings themselves go away. The Narconon technology guides each person through an understanding how guilt is caused and the process by which it can be overcome. Then the staff assist each person in recovery to apply these steps to themselves and their lives to achieve the relief that is possible. When the life issues that created the guilt are honestly addressed and handled, the result is a restoration of personal integrity. This paves the way for an honest and lasting recovery.

Depression has been found to be no match for the Narconon technology. As a person receives nutritional support in the withdrawal phase of the program, when the residual drugs acting like anchors to a drugged-out mental state are flushed out and when a person sees that they don’t have to suffer from guilt any more – depression routinely yields. Each of these benefits from the unique Narconon technology helps recovering addicts relieve depression.

With cravings, guilt and depression a thing of the past, a person in recovery can begin to face the future with optimism and new hope. This bright new viewpoint results in long-lasting success for seven out of ten Narconon graduates – a stellar success rate.