C.E.P.T.A.
The CAMPAIGN for EFFECTIVE PREVENTION and TREATMENT of ADDICTION.
4a WHY D.I.Y. IS LIKELY THE
ONLY EFFECTIVE TREATMENT FOR DRUG ADDICTION
TRAINING DRUG ADDICTS TO CURE THEMSELVES
On an international
basis there is an attitude being increasingly sponsored which promotes drug
addiction as an untreatable condition.
In the psycho-pharmaceutical world this manifests itself in
the form of a defeatist “drug addiction is basically incurable” stance, which -
‘fortunately’ for those industries - then permits the claim that addiction
therefore ‘needs’ to be ‘managed’ and that this is best achieved by prescribing
methadone, buprenorphine, naltrexone, disulfiram and / or other pharmaceutical
drugs, basically throughout the lifetime of each addict or alcoholic.
In fact the word “cure” has very carefully and
advantageously been re-edited in the psycho-pharmaceutical dictionary as being
something which only quacks, optimists or those without ‘benefit’ of
psychiatric or pharmaceutical training would attempt, and addiction is now most
strongly, widely but falsely claimed by psycho-pharm practitioners to be
a form of mental illness requiring ‘dual diagnosis’ and therefore treatable only
with psychiatric prescription drugs.
However, out of listening to service users and the seeking
of their greater involvement there has now also arisen an expanding school of
thought amongst ‘hands-on’ drug rehabilitation workers which holds that, BECAUSE OF ITS VERY NATURE, drug addiction
is not a condition capable of being treated or changed by anyone other
than the dependent individual himself.
Their extremely compelling basic
argument is that the fundamental effect
of drug use is to take away an individual’s self-determination – i.e. it
takes away the control of himself by his own decision and
intention. Therefore because an addict
“must-have” his addictive drug, his life becomes determined by that drug and
by the wishes of others in his environment and he loses the power to choose his
own destiny, the intentions of other people becoming increasingly capable of
being imposed upon him by his overwhelming need for that drug or drugs.
‘Cure’ basically means ‘relaxed and
comfortable abstinence for life’, and the essence of a cure for drug addiction
is therefore now seen - not as the doing of something to
a user - but as the recovery by an individual of his power of choice
over his own life, and so it follows that any system in which another
person or group seeks to ‘treat’ an individual will normally fail to cure.
This is because the only sure route out of addiction is the lessening and eventual
eradication of control of the individual by a drug and by other persons
doing something to or for him.
As a result, medical ‘interventions’ seldom if ever claim to
produce cures. This is because
interventions by definition are themselves further attempts by others to
by-pass the individual’s own personal intentions and his responsibility for (and
control of) SELF, and so are doomed because they ‘intervene’ between the
individual and the drug he is determined to confront and wrest control from.
It follows that no-one can withdraw another individual from drug use.
He himself is the only person capable of withdrawing himself. Consequently only truly viable route is TO TRAIN that individual in a workable
method of withdrawal which he may then - of his own volition - apply to himself
and his condition.
As a result, there are now numerous
rehabilitation centres which offer users
1) training in how to comfortably
withdraw themselves from drugs, along with
2) education in those modes of
rehabilitation and living necessary to aid them in their abandonment of drug
use, and
3) training in how to recover from the
residual effects on their lives and livelihood of their earlier addiction, plus
4) training in the avoidance and
prevention of future drug use by themselves and others, with the goal of
becoming contributing & productive members of society.
In other words,
these programmes stand completely outside the fields of care, counselling,
use-advice, treatment by others, habit management, therapy, needle-exchange,
substitution prescribing, nursing, medical detoxification and other
interventions, etc., and stand solely and only in the field of training and
education which supports the drug user’s own abstinence intentions and
goals.
This is, adult
learning, self-improvement and development with a view to achieving knowledge
about, responsibility for and control of themselves and their own lives, plus
the taking of responsibility for and the adoption of respect for the lives of
others in their environment.
One programme about which the author
has the most experience has established charitably based residential training,
rehabilitation and personal development centres for adults in some 40
countries.
These training centres introduce
students to a world-wide programme which was first established in the Arizona
State Prison System in 1966, and which over the last 39 years has been further
developed and improved by continuing experience with thousands of recovering
drug users of both sexes, various nationalities, backgrounds, ages and usage
patterns.
The work of these
charities is essentially socio-educational, and students spend 8 to 12 hours a
day quietly studying in both theory and practical course rooms. Reinforcing this study is a healthy regime of
guided nutrition, physical exercise and some use of a local sauna to cleanse
and tone-up the body, and their study covers training and education in
literacy, social skills, learning skills, life and working skills, ethics and
morality (but not religion).
The charities rehabilitate (i.e.
return to a former preferred condition) selected recent and former drug dependants
of both sexes in the age range 18 to 65 years and the programme they deliver
takes from 16 to 22 weeks or slightly longer.
It is currently delivered at over 150 centres (including prison units)
in some 40 countries and, first time through the programme, helps 69+% of
students achieve relaxed and comfortable life-long abstinence from the
addictive substance(s) they have earlier been using.
On a second time through parts of
the training programme, about half of the 31% of students who did not graduate
the first time, will normally return and complete their training and its
self-application in a shorter period.
Because of this programme’s
specialist nature and in order to avoid confusion with other practices it is
necessary to clarify certain nomenclature.
For example, there are two main and
very distinct uses of the term “detoxification” covering quite different
intentions and actions.
The original
meaning as given in the World Book Dictionary is: “to deprive of toxic or
poisonous qualities”, and for decades has meant the act of removing already present poison from a substance or body.
More recently
however, in the field of psycho-pharmacological drug abuse treatment, it is
most frequently used to describe the process of reducing the current intake of a toxic substance into the body of a
drug user. For example, someone
undergoing methadone withdrawal treatment based on dosage reduction in the hope
of eventually achieving cessation of use.
However, for over
half a century it has been known that if a human body has been intoxified by
drug usage over even a short period of time, when such drug use is abandoned
there still remains (stored mainly in the fatty tissues) deposits of toxic drug
residues which, if disturbed by physical work, sport or exercise, can trigger
‘flashbacks’ and a resurgence of desire for the drug.
They can also
cause lethargy, a feeling of despair and a lack of interest in the person’s
life and work.
As a consequence,
even for an addict who has not used drugs for some months or years, it is
advantageous to flush out these toxins so that they can no longer impinge upon
or threaten to adversely affect the former user’s life. Because the programme here discussed utilises
no drugs whatsoever, it is this latter more basic meaning of detoxification
which is utilised at the training centres and handled with exercise and
sweating.
In training centres, where the term
“rehabilitate” is used, this activity is carried out as per the definitions in
both the Oxford English Dictionary: “to restore to a previous condition; to set
up again in proper condition” and in the World Book Dictionary: “to restore to
a good condition; to make over in a new form; to restore to former standing,
rank, rights, privileges and reputation, etc.”
A large number of
former drug users are lacking in literacy, so these centres rehabilitate their
knowledge and use of English. To help
them become more employable, they also rehabilitate their learning skills and
general education.
To enhance their
social skills and their ability to interact with the environment, the
community, their family, employers, colleagues and others, centre training
rehabilitates their ability to communicate, to observe, to judge the motives of
acquaintances and thus to choose the ‘right’ friends.
Their own
personal values and integrity are normally also in need of rehabilitation, as
is their sense of personal worth and their ability to undertake
responsibility.
Under the previous influence of
their drug(s) they had no freedom of choice and were controlled by the
circumstances of their dependence.
As a result, they
need to rehabilitate their ability to be able to change conditions in their
life and that of their family etc., so as to improve current and future living and
earnings.
Because the onset
of drug use is often undertaken to solve a specific problem or to ‘escape’ in
order to attain some vague ecstatic life-style, it has also been found
necessary:
i) to sometimes rehabilitate the former user’s
concept of easy, pleasant
living – for themselves, and for and with
others - and,
ii) to show
students how this may be responsibly and happily attained.
Studies show that
most drug users make numerous decisions to stop, but fail time after time
because of a lack of the technical knowledge and skills required to
succeed.
On the training
centre and in-prison programmes, once individuals set themselves on the road
towards a new life, by deciding and acting to renounce bio-chemical stimulation
of their mind and body, such training becomes the means of speeding and
smoothing his or her passage along that road.
The foundation of successful
rehabilitation is the clear recognition that an individual is responsible for
his own condition, and that only he himself can improve that condition IF . . .
. he (or she) is trained in a workable way to do so.
That training –
in the ‘workable way’ indicated here - is free and is delivered charitably by a
trained, experienced and dedicated staff, many of whom are themselves former
addicts now saying “thank you” in the most meaningful way possible.
As a result, the
only financial contribution required from the student is that needed to cover
normal daily living and study costs, i.e. accommodation, heating, maintenance,
cleaning, insurance, food, drink, laundry, personal hygiene, equipment, books
and other study materials, etc.
Fuller details of the organisation and its centres are
available from
(+44) (0) (1342) 811099.
© Copyright
C.E..P.T.A. and E. Kenneth Eckersley, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 &
2005. All World Rights Reserved
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