Chemical Dependency

Per the Encarta dictionary chemical dependency is addiction to a chemical substance or drug. Dependency can be further defined as the mental or physical need to use a drug or other substance regularly, despite the fact that they are likely to have a damaging effect. Chemical dependency knows no educational, class, race, or social bounds. Most chemical dependency starts out as an attempt to handle some sort of physical or emotional problem. Some do offer small relief in the short term. The problem enters as more and more use occurs. The very problems originally trying to be solved are now being perpetuated and amplified by the drug use. The individual can not confront perceived pain (emotional or physical) that he feels will come from not using.

Drugs, including prescription drugs, are essentially poisons. The amount taken determines the effect. A small amount acts as a stimulant, a greater amount acts as a sedative, and an even larger amount acts as a poison and can kill. This is true of any drug, including prescription drugs. Only the amount needed to achieve the desired result differs. Prescription drugs along with illegal drugs block off all sensations, the desirable ones with the unwanted. They may of short term value in handling pain, but they also work to wipe out ability, alertness, and muddy one’s thinking.

At Narconon Arrowhead we do no refer to our participants as ‘patients’ but rather they are considered ‘students’. Using the word ‘patient’ tends to give an erroneous impression of illness and disease, which is not the main thrust of our program. Certainly issues of health and nutrition need to corrected, especially in the withdrawal and detoxification phases of the program. The term student is used as we are educating the individual into the use of the tools and abilities needed to sustain a continuous drug free productive life and to confront and resolve the three main factors behind relapse and continued use. Addiction is not a disease of a lifetime. It can and is being ended on a daily basis here a Narconon Arrowhead.

Addiction clinics are generally out-patient facilities which offer various services to aid in addiction recovery. Some, such as methadone clinics, are actually involved in simply substituting one drug or another. This is misguided help as replacing one drug with another is never a long term solution to drug addiction. This is not to say that addiction clinics don’t offer some valuable services, most of them do. An addiction clinic can be a starting point in confronting addiction. Following up clinic services with a comprehensive long term, impatient drug rehabilitation program is the best insurance for a drug free productive life. Narconon Arrowhead is such a facility.

We can’t help but wonder what causes one person to become in drug or substance abuse while another person can walk away from it. Drugs or alcohol are use in an effort to handle a problem or physical/emotional pain of some sort. The drug is found to offer short term relief to the problem or pain. What happens in many cases is the individual continues to use drugs and alcohol to mask the symptoms and obtain relief rather than handle the actual source of the problem or pain. Most drugs used have a tolerance factor where it takes more and more of the drug more and more often to achieve the desired results. This leads to abusive and addictive use which adds additional problems and pains and yet at this point the person thinks there is no other solution or relief available. Thus the person enters the downward spiral of abuse drug and substance abuse and addiction.