Part One
Narconon of Georgia
There have been different types of addiction treatment for individuals for a very long time. It seems that some of the most successful treatment plans for an individual involve getting support from a group. This article compares two of the most successful treatment centers for addiction; Alcoholic Anonymous and Narconon. Alcoholics Anonymous has many support groups located through out the world and there are many Narconon drug rehab centers located throughout the world as well.
Alcoholics; The First Real Addicts
The first substance that was heavily abused was alcohol. The reason for this is because alcohol was the first substance that could be easily abused. Alcohol was the first substance that was strong enough to get someone heavily inebriated.
People have always used plants that contained intoxicating substances in them to achieve an altered state of mind. The difference is however, it was not until the 1800s that the active chemical that caused the inebriation in a person was extracted from plants. Before this period of time, moderation of these chemicals was pretty much impossible not to practice because people were not able to ingest enough at one time to really be able to get addicted.
Alcohol however, has always been easier to ingest to a greater degree to a get a greater sense of inebriation. This may be why most of the first treatment centers and addiction treatment options were aimed at alcoholics only. One of the first alcohol treatment groups were started by and for Native Americans in the late 1700s and they were called sober circles. They were support groups for people who were suffering from alcoholism.
Twelve Steps
The Twelve Steps Program was started originally by two alcoholics named Bob and Bill starting on Bob’s first day of permanent sobriety which was June 10th 1935. It is called Alcoholics Anonymous and was made for alcoholics.
The twelve steps encourage to the alcoholic seeking sobriety to first admit the fact that he or she is powerless to his or her addiction and that they need an outside source or G-d or the Supreme Being to help them get their life right and good again. They are then encouraged to do a personal inventory on all the misdeeds that they committed in their past and make an effort to make amends for these past misdeeds. This is the whole of the program. It is thought that one of the reasons that some people do not make it through the twelve step program is because the physical aspect of addiction is not addressed.
The Twelve Steps program has worked very well for many alcoholics. Because of this factor, when more and more people became addicted to narcotics it was thought that the twelve step program would work for these folks as well. Unfortunately, the statistics for Twelve Steps working for a narcotic addict are not as high as they are for an alcoholic. The theory of why this is because narcotic addiction has very physical aspect of it. Alcoholism does as well, but the physical aspect to alcoholism varies greatly from that of a narcotics addiction.
Alcoholism vs. Narcotics Addiction
People usually use drugs and alcohol for very similar reasons. Most of the time it is because there is something in their life, be it mental or physical, that is causing them some kind of pain. Drugs and alcohol both act as a pain killer and temporarily makes the person feel better about whatever it is that is causing them problems. This is where the similarity ends however at least physically.
The chemical that get a person high from a substance is usually a fatty soluble substance. This means for the person using it, it will eventually get stored in the fatty tissue. This happens over a period of time when the person has been using heavily for a while. The drugs that the person has been ingesting slowly get built up in the fatty reserves of the body and cause the person to continually have physical cravings for a period of many years after the cessation of the drugs. This will continue to happen until the body’s fatty tissues have completely regenerated as all tissues do eventually. Narconon has a procedure that speeds that process up by a considerable amount. That is one of the reasons why Narconon is so successful in treating narcotics addiction.
When a person drinks heavily, it affects the body in markedly different ways. Two things happen when a person drinks heavily. The first thing that happens is the person is most likely going to
begin to suffer from vitamin deficiencies. There are two reasons for this. The first one is that the consumption of alcohol burns up the vitamins in the body. It especially burns up the vitamin B1. Part of the good feeling that a person gets from drinking is an accelerated burn up of vitamins. Once the person comes off of the alcohol, the vitamin stores are usually depleted and that’s one of the reasons that the person will feel so terrible. The other reason that alcoholics get vitamin deficiencies is because alcohol serves as an appetite suppressant. A person who drinks heavily most likely is not going to feel like they need to eat. Their body then becomes dependent upon the alcohol even more and the person becomes physically addicted to it.
The other thing that happens is that their liver function begins to be compromised. Because of this factor, the body of the alcoholic does not have the ability to rid it self of toxins as well as it originally did. This sets the alcoholic up to have other toxins that are fatty soluble begin to be stored in the fatty tissues. These toxic buildups begin to make the person start to really feel physically unwell. Unless the person stops drinking so their liver can begin to heal and function better, the person can become very sick. Typically, alcoholism takes many years to reach its peak, and success rates for short term treatment are pretty awful. This one reason why Narconon long-term drug rehabs are so effective in treating alcohol problems.
In Chinese medicine, it is said that a person who has poor liver function often will suffer from anger issues. These could very well be true, because most alcoholics, especially when they stop drinking, suffer from anger issues. It may be due to liver problems.
Continued in Part Two…
