For most of the public at large, the reason for substance abuse, whether drugs or alcohol, remains a mystery. There are an abundance of theories as to what causes a person to turn to drugs, but the test of those theories is their workability and results. Ultimately, the goal is to help the drug addict to get sober, and maintain their sobriety, able to live a good and drug-free life.
Why Does Someone Engage in Drug Abuse
The truth isn’t necessarily found in complex scientific experiments or hard-to-understand books filled with hard-to-understand words. The truth just is. And those who battle addiction, the addicts who are imprisoned in its trap, and the families and loved ones who suffer right along with the addict, would be greatly helped by understanding a rather simple, but vital truth. There is what is called empirical evidence, evidence found by direct observation, or experience, or situation. The evidence is real and it is believable because it is shown to you, and you yourself can see it. From a more scientific point of view, it is evidence that is objective and not dependent on who it is that is doing the observing. It is evidence that is observed to be the same, regardless of the observer. If you look, you can see what is true, and what is true for you.
There is a cycle of drug abuse. The use of drugs is preceded by unwanted physical, mental or emotional pain. It is the reason a person starts using drugs or alcohol. The cycle is as follows:
- Drugs numb the body for a short period of time. As a result, the person does not then feel the unwanted physical, mental or emotional pain while under the influence of the drug.
- Next, the drug wears off, and the unwanted physical, mental or emotional pain returns, oftentimes much more intensely than before taking the drug.
- As a result, the person needs the drug again to eliminate the pain.
- With the ongoing use, the drug is destroying the nutrients which are needed to keep the body healthy.
- The resulting destruction of the nutrients can cause new physical, mental or emotional problems.
- As the cycle of drug use continues, the person needs more and more of the drug to eliminate the pain.
Unfortunately, the actual source of the physical, mental or emotional pain the person is attempting to escape by taking drugs or alcohol in usually not accurately identified by the person during this drug us, due to the fact that the source—the actual cause—is covered-up by the drug itself. Sadly, this cycle is can be the trap that many people find themselves caught-up in.
Steps To Stopping Drug Use
There are many professionals and people of goodwill working tirelessly to resolve the problems of substance abuse and all its disastrous consequences. To celebrate recovery on a national level, the month of September is the annual observance of SAMHSA’s (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) National Recovery Month, now in its 24th year. It spotlights the people who have reclaimed their lives, now living as happy and healthy individuals in long-term recovery.
National Recovery Month broadly forwards the message of hope that recovery in all its forms is indeed truly possible. And in Narconon Arrowhead’s 2013 celebration of National Recovery Month, they will be disseminating Drug-Free World Kits to the schools, a kit created exclusively for educators and law enforcement officers. It is also for the use of other drug prevention specialists, those who are educating young students in classroom, group instruction or community learning settings about the dangers of drugs and drug use.
Most importantly for those still seeking recovery, at Narconon Arrowhead, the reasons why someone uses and abuses drugs is fully understood, and their alternative, holistic and drug-free approach to rehabilitating the drug addict produces long-term and proven results.
For more on this see our Narconon video.