The criteria for determining alcohol abuse include failure to complete work or home obligations, using alcohol despite the fact that something hazardous will be done (like driving or using heavy equipment), and causing legal, social or interpersonal problems due to alcohol abuse. If these criteria are met and the person continues to drink, they are said to be abusing alcohol.

If they develop a tolerance – that is, they need to drink more to get the same effect – and routinely drink more than intended, experience withdrawal symptoms if they quit or cut back, are unsuccessful in trying to quit, spend excessive time thinking about, planning, getting, drinking or suffering the effects of drinking plus the effects listed above, they are alcohol dependent.

There’s much more language that goes with these diagnoses, of course. A psychologist or psychiatrist might prescribe medication, lengthy treatment, even stays in mental hospitals. Drugs that could be used include Acamprosate, Antabuse or Vivitrol. Benzodiazepines are also frequently used with recovering alcoholics.

But really, the entire subject of recovery from addiction to alcohol is much simpler than that.

Any Family Member of an Alcoholic Can Tell You What Alcoholism Is

A wife who has to deal with an alcoholic husband, a teenager who has to leave the house when mom or dad comes home drunk, the parent of a grown or teenaged child who can’t stop drinking are all experts on alcoholism. They may not have degrees or credentials but they know exactly what happens to an alcoholic’s life when he or she can’t quit drinking and when consuming alcohol becomes a ruling passion for the alcoholic.

They know about neglect, tirades, abuse, an uncertain future when jobs are lost or when money goes for alcohol rather than food. They know what it is like to hear the lies and justifications year after year and to suffer when the alcoholic refuses to admit that there’s a problem.

Rather than more drugs or long analysis of one’s problems, all that is needed is a drug rehabilitation program that results in most of the graduates living sober lives after treatment. This is what you can find at Narconon Arrowhead, a long-term residential drug and alcohol rehabilitation program in Southeast Oklahoma.

For more than a decade, the Narconon Arrowhead program has been enabling seven out of ten graduates to live sober, productive and enjoyable lives. This is without the use of drugs as part of the treatment. For most people, the program takes three to five months. Each graduate is monitored for a two-year period after they go home, resulting in the stated success rate.

There are a few separate phases of the recovery program. While some use NA, the first phase of Narconon includes a humane withdrawal made more tolerable by generous nutritional support and one-on-one work with the Narconon staff as well as Narconon meetings. Those in recovery are helped to be more comfortable with gentle physical assists and re-orientation exercises that improve their awareness of a new, safe environment. This is followed by learning and practicing basic communication skills. These two steps prepare a person for a positive recovery experience to follow.

The next step has everything to do with reducing cravings. It’s a sauna-based detoxification that uses more nutrition and moderate exercise along with time in a low-heat sauna to flush out old stored drug toxins. These residues, lodged in fatty tissues, have been shown to be involved in triggering cravings. As these residues are flushed out, one’s attitude brightens and most say that cravings reduce or even go away entirely.

At this point, a person is ready to learn the life skills that enable him or her to recover personal integrity, make drug-free decisions even in moments of stress and challenge, and pick those associates that will enable sobriety, not enable drug abuse.

In just a matter of a few months, a person can be ready to pick up a healthy, sober life again, restore relationships with family and friends, and return to productivity once again. This is the result for the majority of people who use Narconon Arrowhead for their recovery from alcohol.

Find out how Narconon Arrowhead can help someone you love recover from alcoholism. Call 1-800-468-6933 today for details.

References:
http://www.fpnotebook.com/psych/exam/AlchlAbsDsmIvCrtr.htm
http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/alcoholism/overview.html

But addiction to prescription drugs something a lot newer. It sort of crept up on us. First, the number of prescriptions for addiction drugs began to skyrocket, climbing between 200 percent (Vicodin) to 1000 percent (methadone) between 1997 and 2005.

Then stories began to emerge of some well-known people who were addicted to prescription drugs. Winona Ryder was arrested while in possession of several painkillers, Matthew Perry of the Friends television series became addicted to Vicodin and checked into rehab.

Jamie Lee Curtis also became addicted to prescription drugs when she took painkillers after a surgery. Her therapeutic use progressed to a dependence on the drugs to help her cope with life, a phenomenon many people go through. Some simply need the drugs to cope or feel “normal” and others may progress to using the drugs to get high.

But when one’s tolerance increases, creating a need for higher and higher dosages of the drugs to create the desired effect, it becomes hard to achieve that high. Then an addict may be just keeping the pain and sickness of withdrawal away, essentially maintaining his or her dependence and nothing more.

There are many other examples of prescription drug addiction: Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, Anna Nicole Smith, even Rush Limbaugh. Unless a physician is honest with a patient about the addictiveness of pain medications and monitors their recovery from a surgery or injury carefully, the result can be addiction for a person who would otherwise never become addicted to a substance.

Treatment Rates for Prescription Drugs Illustrate the Change

In late 2011, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration released a summary of statistics for addiction treatment admissions between 1999 and 2009. These new numbers revealed the effect on America as a whole – not just Hollywood figures – that has been created by prescription painkillers.

In 1999, 10 out of every 100,000 population for addiction to opiates other than heroin (which includes all the synthetic opiate painkillers). But by 2009, this number had risen to 53 per 100,000 population. In essence, the result was prescription drug addiction up 430% in the past decade, a phenomenal jump that was not matched in any other drug category.

Perhaps even scarier were the regional differences in treatment admissions. In four states, prescription opiates were the top illicit drug use habit that sent people to rehab: Kentucky, Maine, Vermont and West Virginia. Tennessee would have made this list as well but their recording system includes heroin and prescription painkillers in the same category. The highest region of the US for admissions to treatment for painkillers was New England.

Opiate Addiction Recovery is Not Accomplished by Giving More Drugs

When an opiate addict looks around for treatment, he or she may actually wind up at a facility whose primary purpose is harm reduction. The idea behind harm reduction is not to try to get people completely off drugs but rather to reduce the harm done by their drug habits. While this is a helpful gesture, it is a last resort, only useful when a person will never be able to achieve sobriety.

Harm reduction uses methadone or buprenorphine for a long term to keep a person from using prescription opiates or heroin. Some people may eventually be weaned off the drug and counseled on how to achieve sobriety, but this may not take place for some years, if ever. As methadone and buprenorphine are both drugs of abuse now, a person may be in one of these harm reduction programs, sell the drugs they receive and continue abusing heroin or prescription opiates.

The best choice for recovery is the Narconon drug and alcohol rehabilitation program. Narconon has many locations including Narconon Georgia and others with the largest center being Narconon Arrowhead; the flagship of Narconon. This long-term, drug-free residential program offers a comprehensive approach to sobriety, taking each person through all the components needed to repair the damage done by addiction and to build a new, sober life. The recovery starts with a tolerable withdrawal process, using generous nutritional support and plenty of one-on-one work with the staff that stabilizes mood and helps orient a person to recovery and future sobriety.

Recovery continues with a deep detoxification program called the Narconon New Life Detoxification Program. More nutritional support plus time in a low-heat sauna and moderate exercise enables the body to process and eliminate residual toxins left behind after drug or alcohol abuse. These stored toxins have been shown to be involved in triggering cravings, even years after the last drug or drink were taken.

After this detoxification, when a person has a brighter outlook on life and better perception of the present, they take part in Narconon Objectives and then they are ready to start developing the correct life skills that will enable them to make the right decisions to stay sober.

When graduates go home after this program, seven out of ten stay sober, one of the best success rates in this field.

If there is someone you want to help recover from an addiction problem, contact Narconon Arrowhead today at 1-800-468-6933.

References:

http://www.samhsa.gov/data/DASIS/teds09st/teds2009stweb.pdf
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/PainManagement/story?id=4307488&page=1#.Tx4yaZhA9SU

The grade can be pieced together by reviewing the Monitoring the Future annual survey of schoolchildren, their drug abuse statistics and attitudes toward substance abuse. At the University of Michigan each year, a sampling of all teens is surveyed and these numbers are extrapolated into an estimate of drug use by our teens across the country.

It is possible to find some improvements among these statistics. But it might be possible to become accustomed to these numbers so that we end up overlooking the fact that many millions of our teens are getting drunk or high, in some cases risking their lives, and they see nothing wrong with doing so.

Alcohol Use Numbers Decline, Especially Heavy Use

For instance, alcohol use is going down. It’s actually been going down very gradually since the late 1990s. From a high of 54%, alcohol use by 12th graders is now down to 40%.

There’s no denying that this is an improvement. But there are still those 40 students out of every hundred who are drinking who need to be reached.

Fewer students were reporting binges of drinking as well. Binge drinking consists of having five or more drinks in one short sitting (four for females). Since this is the most damaging and dangerous type of drinking, it is a separate subject for survey. Among seniors, this type of drinking has declined to almost half its 1981 figure of 41%.

Still Marijuana Use Statistics are On the Increase

Given the fact that state after state is categorizing marijuana as a medical substance, it should not be any surprise that more students are abusing this drug, maintaining the gradual rise that has been seen in recent years. From 2007 to the 2011 survey, the use of marijuana in the past year by any high school student has increased from 21.4% to 25%.
It must be noted, however, that the rate of daily or near-daily marijuana use is increasing more significantly. By 2011, one in every fifteen high school seniors was smoking pot on a daily or near-daily basis, the highest rate since 1981.
Surveyors also ask students about “perceived risk” – do the students see different types of drug use as dangerous? The perceived risk of using marijuana has been falling sharply for the last five years or so. This is usually a predictor of higher use figures to follow.

Prescription Drug Abuse Numbers Not Rising but Not Improving Either

The Monitoring the Future report notes that the non-medical abuse of prescription drugs climbed through the 1990s and into the 2000s but then have leveled out in the last few years. The report makes this sound like good news but it really means that 22% of our high school seniors have abused a prescription drug at some point in their young lives. That’s more than one out of five seniors abusing a drug that is addictive and many of which can result in fatal overdoses. That’s a fairly good indicator that the prevailing drug education methods used in most schools are not working.

What Do These Numbers Really Mean About the Job We Are Doing?

More important than anything else is to remember that these are not just numbers, these are human beings getting started out in life, with their entire futures waiting to be created. These are the moms and dads of five to 15 years from now, our nurses and teachers and policemen and salespeople and landscapers and waiters. It is due to their contributions that our future businesses will sink or rise, on their votes that out future governments will be decided. They deserve to be fully educated about the real dangers of drug abuse, educated with accurate information that takes into account that they are going to make the final decision in this matter no matter how much adults might try to scare them into some kind of compliance.

The drug education curriculum from Narconon Arrowhead, used by many Narconon’s including Narconon Vista Bay, provides this kind of accurate information for teens. In the decade since Narconon Arrowhead was opened in Southeast Oklahoma, hundreds of thousands of students in Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas and Texas have gained an understanding that in many cases has changed their minds about whether or not to abuse alcohol, marijuana, prescription drugs or other substances.

And for those who already had drug habits they could not leave behind when they wanted to, there is the long-term, residential rehabilitation program at Narconon Arrowhead. Narconon meetings are not involved in the treatment however with a 70% success rate; this is the program that returns Americans to their homes, businesses and jobs with the tools to remain stably sober.

If you would like more information on the Narconon Arrowhead drug education curriculum or the drug rehab services of this facility, call 1-800-468-6933 today.

If you’re a scientist, I’m sure it’s logical to spend millions of dollars breeding forty generations of mice with alcoholic tendencies. But if you’re the parent of a person struggling with alcoholism, it just might not make so much sense.

Recent reports told the story of researchers who found that some mice had a tendency to prefer a dilute alcoholic drink to plain water. When these mouse were bred with others of a similar tendency, it was possible to develop a reliable strain of alcoholic mice.

Making the jump from mice in the lab to the real world of alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction treatment may be a very long and difficult jump to make.

A person who has developed alcoholism can lose everything to this condition. Spouse, children, job or business, self-respect, even his or her own life as alcohol plays a role in many suicides. What matters at this point is not whether or not mice can be bred for their alcoholic tendencies but whether or not this person can repair the damage done by alcohol consumption and can learn alcohol-free life skills.

More than forty-five years of experience offering the Narconon drug and alcohol recovery program has proven that alcohol recovery can occur outside the lap, without reference to a person’s genetic makeup.

In a Long-Term, Residential Program, Narconon Reviews Indicate that Narconon Helps Alcoholics Achieve Lasting Sobriety

The only result that matters is that a person learns to overcome the condition of alcoholism because they are now in control of their life and choices. And for 70% of the graduates of the Narconon Arrowhead program, this is the case. This program proves that this improvement can take place in the real world, without any use of medications or drugs, without genetic analysis.

It happens by teaching a person communication skills that enable him (or her) to re-engage with those around him so he can start to restore relationships that may have been damaged by years of alcoholism.

It continues by guiding each person through a thorough detoxification phase that uses only generous nutritional supplementation, moderate exercise and time spent in a low-heat sauna to bring about improvement. Since drugs are fat-bonding, residues from past drug or alcohol abuse tend to lodge in the fatty tissues of the body where they are harder to dislodge. This detoxification, called the Narconon New LIfe Detoxification Program, flushes out these toxins and results in clearer thinking, a brighter outlook on life, more energy and for most people, reduced or even eliminated cravings.

With this improvement accomplished, each person in recovery is more able to recover the life skills that will help them stay sober in the future. These include a process that helps each person recovery their personal integrity and self-respect, the ability to change adverse conditions in life, knowledge of which associates may tend to cause one to relapse in the future and how to handle them, and a non-denominational moral code to guide one’s choices and activities.

At the end of this program, which runs from three to five months for most people, it is possible to live a drug-free life without attending a long string of daily or weekly meetings, without medications and without constant worry. Narconon graduates often say that as they approach graduation, they feel good about themselves for the first time in years, sometimes decades, and that it is the first time in a very long time that they thought about something other than acquiring drink or drugs and getting drunk or high.

Drug and alcohol addiction very often destroy the dreams of artists, parents, professionals and people who would simply be good citizens if they could recover from alcoholism or addiction to drugs. At Narconon Arrowhead, they have this chance.

Helping Someone Choose Recovery and Life

One of the problems with helping an alcoholic family member or friend is that denial of condition is part of the package. With any alcoholic, there are normally appeals by spouse and family to stop drinking, cut down, or gets help through NA or treatment. When these actions fail, it may be time to bring in an interventionist. A professional interventionist has the experience to work with an addicted person and bring out that person’s desire to get clean and sober, even though it may be deeply buried under all the cravings, guilt and problems.

By choosing Narconon Arrowhead for the recovery of your loved one, you also have access to Narconon’s network of experienced interventionists. The Narconon Intake Counselors can help you resolve the situation of addiction or alcoholism from where things lie now all the way to getting the person in the front door of the rehab facility.

Find the help you need by calling Narconon Arrowhead today at 1-800-468-6933.

References:

http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/PR_display.asp?prID=1160&template=Today
http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh21-2/169.pdf
http://www.science20.com/curious_cub/breeding_alcoholic_mice-85685

Click here for information on Narconon Reviews.

In 2007, these laws began to be moderated somewhat to make them more equitable with other drug crime laws. When this change went into effect, many people had their sentencing reviewed. The implementation of changes and the early release of some prisoners is still being implemented and will go on for some years. It is thought that more than a thousand people will be released due to this change.

In federal jails, nearly 60% of all prisoners are incarcerated for drug charges. While some will be gang members and violent offenders, many will be non-violent offenders guilty only of selling small amounts of drugs or possession of illicit substances.

The drug court is an effective way that the judicial system can divert people from incarceration but still ensure that they receive rehabilitation help.

A Life Does Not Need to be Ruined Because of Drug Abuse

It pays to try to keep people out of jail, when possible. Being incarcerated is traumatic and takes a parent away from children, and an individual away from the ability to maintain a job and a life. Association with harder criminals is damaging for some people who have no criminal tendencies other than the possession of drugs. So a legal system began to be established state by state that would divert people out of the jails and into a monitoring, reward and penalty system.

Every state in the U.S. and the territories of Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands have drug courts now. Those non-violent offenders sent to these courts will be drug tested frequently and given a chance to get their lives straight.

There are now drug courts that specialize in particular segments of the population. Youth, veterans, Native Americans, parents, students and other groups now have their own specialized versions of drug courts.

The Narconon Program Complements the Drug Court Purpose

The purposes of the drug rehabilitation program at Narconon Arrowhead and the drug court are the same: To create lasting sobriety in all citizens who have become trapped in drug or alcohol abuse. Along with sobriety is the chance to hold a good job, raise one’s own kids, and enjoy what life offers without the threat of arrest and time in prison.

Narconon Arrowhead is a non-profit, long-term, residential drug rehabilitation program with one of the highest success rates in the industry. Seven out of ten graduates remain sober after they go home, verified by contact for two full years after they leave the facility.

The program is composed of a thorough detoxification phase that removes drug residues from the body, helping with cravings, and life skills training that enables people to undo the damage addiction creates. Most people complete this program in three to five months.

Narconon Arrowhead is Completely Drug Free

One of the best features of the program at Narconon Arrowhead is the fact that it is completely drug free. No methadone, no Suboxone, no antidepressants or anti-anxiety drugs. Adverse effects of recovery are dealt with holistically, using nutrition, guidance on ethical or moral matters, personal counseling or perhaps help with outside factors like family problems. The goal is a life completely free of reliance on drugs or alcohol. (Of course, some people need medication for physical conditions which is a different matter.)

Individuals who have not been drug-free for decades either through Narconon or NA find themselves feeling good about life for the first time in a very long time. Former addicts say it’s the first time they have not had their focus on getting and using drugs in many years. It’s remarkable to note that most of the people who come to Narconon Arrowhead have been to other drug rehabs before, often several of them.

One young man who had spent several years addicted to prescription opiates or heroin said that as he neared the end of the Narconon program, “I started having a natural happy feeling — I hadn’t felt that in so long.”

A forty-four year old woman recovering from years of alcoholism who had received benzodiazepines in her earlier trips to rehab said, “I’ve been struggling with this problem for ten years. I wish I had found Narconon much earlier.”

For a person going through a drug court so they can get clean, Narconon Arrowhead offers even more hope. This rehabilitation center offers an effective program that puts addiction behind one and a clean, sober life in front of one. This means that a person completing this program has an extremely good shot at compliance with the orders of a drug court. And a long, sober future ahead.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crack_cocaine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Sentencing_Act
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/basicfax17.htm
http://www.nadcp.org/learn/what-are-drug-courts

For more information on Narconon meetings click here.

One of the newest trends showing the desperation of addiction is vodka soaked tampons. There are actually both males and females who are using these as a way to get a high by saturating women’s tampons in vodka and other alcoholic substances and actually inserting them into the body.

According to an article written on the Huffington Post, vodka soaked tampons is supposed to produce an effect that is similar to the “ultimate body shot” which is described as an intense buzz that comes on very fast. The other reason so many are attracted to it is because there is said to be no way to detect the alcohol through the breath. However further research indicates that this process can not only not work but can be damaging to the body in many ways.

When an individual is so desperate to engage in using a vodka soaked tampon it can indicate that they need immediate help for an addiction. Many will offer meetings as a solution but due to the nature of the addiction inpatient treatment would produce the best result. In most cases if someone is desperate enough to try this means to get high, they have already gone down a path that calls for help.

Narconon has a very specific way to handle substance abuse; including the abuse of drugs and alcohol as well. It is built on focusing on both the physical and mental aspects of the problem.  The physical part is handled through sweating in a dry heat sauna while the mental is handled with life skills therapy.

Life Skills courses at Narconon are not Narconon meetings. Each client uses the information to handle their own specific problem and gain tools to help them stay sober permanently.

Even though vodka soaked tampons are the new trend, they are part of a bigger problem which is addiction. If you know someone that needs help call Narconon at 800-468-6933.

It can be difficult to reach out for help for drug and alcohol addiction, but it is the first step towards lasting recovery from addiction. But now that you are here, we want to get you the help that you need! Our drug rehab program has a 70% success rate with it’s graduates and an extremely different approach to alcohol and addiction treatment and recovery.

The Narconon program consists of 8 courses of treatment that when combined achieve full physical detoxification, self-realized root causes of the individual’s addiction and a reformed ability to identify and solve problems and change unwanted conditions for the better his/her life. The Narconon Program is one of the pioneering programs of “manualized treatment.” The treatment method addresses the 3 Barriers to Successful Recovery physical cravings, lingering depression and/or guilt from past misconduct connected to drug or alcohol addiction.

The first barrier for any addict wishing to kick his addiction is overcoming the mental and physical cravings for drugs or alcohol. Cravings are strong, uncontrollable urges to use drugs or alcohol that drive the addict to once again use addictive substances. Narconon Arrowhead handles these cravings with three actions: a completely drug-free withdrawl from drugs that dries the person out and makes them start feeling better physically. The Therapeutic Training Routines that brings the addicts more into present time and out of past problems and upsets and the New Life Detoxification Program removes the drug residues that trigger reminders of doing drugs or alcohol.

Depression is another factor that keeps an addict harnessed in his addiction. Depression is the source of a constant and significant amount of discomfort that prompts continued drug use. It is also the second major barrier to recovery for those seeking treatment for their addictions. The remaining depression is dealt with by completing the Communications and Perception Course and the Ups and Downs in Life Course which puts the person more in control of their life, teaches them how to have positive, pro-survival relationships and stops them from creating new and more addiction related problems in their life. All of this raises the person’s morale which significantly decreases, or eliminates all together, the depression that follows after a person stops using drugs or alcohol.

The third and final barrier to recovery is guilt. Guilt acts as another strap in the harness that keeps the addict trapped in his addiction. The addict feels guilty because he has committed dishonest deeds against the people he cares about. This is an integral part of the life cycle of addiction. This barrier, guilt, is addressed through the Personal Values and Integrity Course, the Changing Condintions in Life Course, and the Way to Happiness Course.

Therapeutic Training Routines
Most drug and alcohol dependent people tend to withdraw from family, friends and loved ones. They lose their ability to communicate and relate to people around them. Addicts tend to think and focus their attention inward on problems, discomforts or self perceived emotional disabilities. Drying a person out alone doesn’t correct this situation for the users. In fact, once individuals are taken off the drugs or alcohol they can find it even harder to relate and communicate with people in their environment than when they were using. The first step to successful recovery must include a method to extrovert the addict’s attention from their past drug or alcohol related problems and teach them to be comfortable in their present treatment surroundings while at the same time improving their communication skills.

The Therapeutic Training Routines are a series of communication and exercises and drills that are done in a classroom setting. In this book, addicts learn a series of communication exercises that are drilled with another person in recovery and supervised by a trained Narconon counselor. These exercises and drills are done until each individual has accomplished a renewed ability to face and comfortably communicate with another person with eye to eye to contact. Additionally, these drills begin to help the addict exercise his ability to control his attention span and focus on the here and now rather then wandering back through drug or alcohol related memories, problems or misdeeds.

The New Life Detoxification Program
The first major barrier that one encounters when starting the rehabilitation process is the physical and mental cravings for drugs and alcohol that can overwhelm and completely distract the individual in recovery from the treatment process. Physical and mental cravings for drugs and alcohol are the most common cause for people in recovery leaving treatment before they have completed it.

There is a biophysical condition that triggers cravings that can reoccur repeatedly long after a person withdraws and dries out from drugs or alcohol. Any toxin that is ingested in the body undergoes a digestive and filtration process that will eliminate most of the toxic substance but not all of it. That portion of the toxin that remains in the system is converted into a protein based molecule called a metabolite.

Once the body has converted drugs or alcohol to these protein based molecules some of these molecules will exit the body through sweat and urine however, a portion of these metabolites will remain in the body and attach themselves to fatty cells. Fatty cells are also comprised of protein molecules and so are compatible with the drug or alcohol metabolites. This is similar to placing a large drop of oil into a bottle of water. The two elements separate, they won’t mix together. If you shake that bottle of oil and water, the oil will break up into many smaller drops of oil that spread throughout the entire bottle of water. If you slowly pour ½ the contents of the bottle out you have water with small drops of oil leaving the mouth of the bottle while the smaller oil drops that remain in the water in the bottle will begin to connect together. Eventually all the remaining oil drops left in the bottle will rejoin as one element and separate from the water again. Much the same thing happens in the body during the elimination process of drugs or alcohol that a person has ingested. Some of the metabolites leave the body through sweat and urine and some of the metabolites join to the fatty cells of the body and remain physically there.

Metabolites are like finger prints in that each metabolite contains a minute amount of the original toxin that the body digested and filtered through the liver and kidneys. A cocaine metabolite has a traceable amount of cocaine in it. A heroin metabolite has a traceable amount of heroin in it, and an alcohol metabolite has a traceable amount of alcohol in it. Each is different and identifiable from the other. It is the drug metabolites that are exiting the body through the urine that are identified when a drug screen is performed that can provide a read out on what types of drugs an individual has taken.

The drug metabolites that remain in the body act as a physical level reminder of drugs or alcohol taken in the past that can also stimulate memories or feelings related to past drug or alcohol use. This is the origin and physical mechanics of drug and alcohol cravings.

The New Life Detoxification Program addresses this physical aspect of addiction. The program consists of a combination of light aerobic exercise, sweating in a dry heat sauna and a specific vitamin regimen. A full physical and medical OK to do the program by a licensed M.D. is required before a person can begin this portion of the program. the individual will undergo 20 to 30 minutes of light aerobic exercise (usually jogging or fast walk outside or on a tread mill) ,15 to 20 minute intervals of time sweating in a dry heat sauna with rest breaks in between sweating periods. Concurrent with the exercise and sweating a specific regimen of vitamins are taken which include cold-press polyunsaturated natural oil, which help free the drug metabolites from the fatty cells. The New Life Detoxification program is designed to assist the addict’s body in breaking down and eliminating the stored drug and alcohol metabolites. The daily program runs for about 5 hours a day and can take from between 2 to 6 weeks to complete the entire process. The program length differs from individual to individual. Body weight, extent of drug taking history and medical history influence the length of this program and will program length will vary from person to person.

Once the physical cravings for drugs or alcohol have been addressed through this process the individual is ready to proceed with the next step of the program. Drug and alcohol usage tend to make one mentally dull and impair a persons ability to read, study and comprehend information. Therefore the next step of treatment is to rehabilitate the addict’s ability to comprehend and apply information they are studying.

Elements of the Detoxification Program

Learning Improvement Course
This is a course delivered in a class room setting with a trained NN Supervisor. This Course gives the student the ability to acquire and retain knowledge by recognizing and overcoming the barriers to study and comprehension. These study principals are tools that they can use for the rest of their lives when studying any subject and are used by the person through the remainder of the Narconon program.

Communication and Perception Course
Drug and alcohol abuse affects an individual’s ability to focus on goals and objectives long enough to accomplish them. Addiction also greatly impairs the ability to communicate effectively and to use communication as a tool to identify and solve problems in their environment. Without focus and the ability to relate to environment addicts lose their self control. This then is followed by a lowering of self esteem and a lethargic state of mind. As a result, they tend to live in the past and to some degree disconnect mentally from the present.

The Communication and Perception Course consists of two segments. The first is another series of communication exercises and drills that further improves a person’s ability to confront tough situations and increase their understanding of, and ability to communicate. The individual learns to use communication to help and counsel another in this segment. Once the individual has accomplished this ability, he then co-counsels with another addict and guides him/her a series of exercises. These exercises increase a person’s awareness of his/her present-time surroundings while at the same time increases self control and focus. The end result of these exercises is and increased ability to set goals and a renewed which increases the recipient of these exercises ability to set and achieve goals.

Both sections of the Communication and Perception Course are done in a course room setting under the direct supervision of a Narconon staff member trained in these procedures. The supervisor oversees the delivery of the exercises and is there to correct as needed each counseling session so the processes are properly completed. In addition to helping the individual regain and build their focus, self control and ability to set and achieve goals, their responsibility level is also improved through the co-counseling that occurs in this phase of the program.

By co-counseling the exercises in this section of the program addicts in recovery are helping each other improve their lives as they are working on improving their own. Addicts are generally self-centered and focused primarily on themselves ignoring others in their life. Helping another addict to begin to regain control of his/her life over addiction begins to break this pattern of behavior and install a higher level of responsibility in the individual.

With a heightened awareness of the person’s present time environment and life, a renewed ability to remain focused long enough to start and complete cycles of action and an increased level of personal responsibility, the addict in treatment is now able to clearly and rationally look into their life and begin to identify the positive and negative influences and relationships that exist there. They then move on to the Ups and Downs in Life Course.

Ups and Downs in Life Course
Part of the life style that develops during the addiction process is the tendency on the part of the addict to develop some anti-social behavior. These individuals are in most cases basically good to start with. Because of the misconduct associated with drug and alcohol addiction, however, they begin to develop negative attitudes towards people they know and love and to some degree become aggressive towards the authority figures in their lives. As these negative attitudes develop addicts will pull away from the “good honest people in their lives. They begin instead to associate with negative people who are usually those in favor of, or in agreement with, the life style of drug or alcohol addiction. Once addicts sober up and begin to get back in touch with reality, it is important that they be able to identify social and anti-social characteristics in people and be able to differentiate from people who will support their sobriety and people who want to drag them back into the life of addiction.

The Ups and Downs in Life Course is a life skills training course that is delivered in a class room situation by a person trained in the Narconon technology that teaches an individual how to identify social and anti-social human characteristics in people. Once they learn these characteristics, they will have a workable system to identify and develop positive relationships with people who will be supportive to their continued recovery and know what type of people and relationships will jeprodize their sobriety and quality of life.

Personal Values and Integrity Course
Unethical behavior and repeated misconduct go part and parcel with an addicted life style. Addicts become trapped in committing transgressions against people in their lives and against society at large. They get into the vicious circle of committing transgressions in an attempt to hide or continue their drug or alcohol use. This then puts them in situations where further transgressions are committed in an attempt to solve the problems that the earlier transgressions have created. As this cycle continues, these individuals begin to individuate from the people in their lives who love and care about them and may become antagonistic toward them. They hurt the people they love most and as a consequence they become ridden with guilt. This in turn makes them so uncomfortable they will use more drugs or drink in an attempt to cover up or medicate away these negative feelings.

The Personal Values and Integrity Course is delivered in a classroom setting under the supervision of a person trained in this Narconon procedure. This course teaches addicts a system that will help them alleviate the guilt that is associated with their drug or alcohol related misconduct. In this course past misdeeds are inventoried one at time in a very specific manner. This procedure helps the addicts identify transgression when they occurred, where they happened, who was involved with them at the time and the harm which resulted because of the misdeed.

Through this confessional procedure, addicts expereince a tremendous relief. They also become aware of the damage they are responsible for in their environment that they need to repair. This opens the door for the individual to be able to start the process of repairing these negative conditions. Once this process is completed, they individual’s integrity is restored, along with the understanding that true happiness can only be achieved through living an ethical life style.

Changing Conditions in Life Course
As addicts confront their misdeeds and the damage these actions created in the various areas of their lives is realized, they are now ready to begin to repair relationships and situations that exist in their lives because of their addiction. This course is delivered in a course room setting and supervised by a person trained in the Narconon program technology. In this course the person is taught that there are separate compartments of one’s life that together make up the whole of an individual’s existence, (one’s self, one’s relationship with family, one’s job, living in the material world, what one’s personal belief spiritually etc.) This course also teaches individuals simple formulas that can be applied to any situation in life, if these formulas correctly followed will help the person preserve those things that are going well for him in life or repair those areas that are damaged. It is through this course that individuals develop their individual discharge plan of what actions need to be taken to ensure they can live a sober ethical life style.

At this stage of treatment individuals going through the program have made significant progress towards repairing the mental and physical effects of addiction and have begun the process to repair the damage in their lives that addiction has created. They also have developed a plan of actions that they will need to follow to ensure a sober and responsible life style. They are now at a point where they have to evaluate and develop some stable rules of conduct for responsible living. The last book of Narconon’s treatment series addresses this issue. It is called the Way to Happiness Course.

The Way To Happiness Course
This is the final in the Narconon rehabilitation program. The course is delivered in a class room setting and supervised by a person trained in the Narconon program technology. This course teaches individuals 21 precepts that cover a common sense moral code of conduct that when followed will help them become productive contributing members of society by living an ethical life style.

At this point the entire Narconon rehabilitation line up is complete. There is a final review step which consists of counseling that helps each graduate of the program design their individual plan of action that addresses the situations that may still exist in the person’s home environment. In addition goals are set in the areas of family, work, relationships and any other situations unique to the individual along with a specific plan of actions that will be taken to achieve these goals.

When individuals complete the entire Narconon program they have a written plan of action of which a copy is kept on file at the Narconon center. Each graduate of the program is contacted after they are released and the progress on the individual plans are assessed. Additionally if a graduate runs into problems that are distracting them from their plan a Narconon staff member will help them to resolve this or to improve the plan so progress in accomplishing these set goals is achieved.