Various postulates along such lines have been put forward over the years and debated within the scientific and chemical dependency communities. That this has produced no truly effective solution to drug addiction, VERY poor recovery rates and a WORSENING drugs epidemic tells us the aforementioned communities may have been barking up a very wrong tree.

Another school of thought and another wrong tree, advocates the “disease concept” of drug addiction, which postulates that addiction is an inherited disease and the individual is permanently ill at a genetic level.

In other words, “nothing can be done about it” because the problem is imprinted in the DNA the classic psychiatric method of explaining away tax payers’ billions wasted on abject failure to effectively resolve…well, anything!

No conclusive proof for the “gene” theory of addiction has been produced incidentally, although the false datum has crept into the society. One will often hear addicts describing themselves as having an “addictive personality” usually because that is what they have been told by a therapist who had no real answers. Think about the message hidden in that false datum: “there’s nothing you or WE - can do about it because you are inherently flawed. You’re stuck with it pal!” This theory, while it “scientifically” explains away failures has yet produced no successul strategy or workable methodology for actually helping human beings beat drug addiction. If our goal is to do something effective to actually help people, then it has been useless.

Another philosophy argues that addiction is a double-stranded problem consisting of a physical and mental dependency on chemicals, compounded by a pre-existing mental illness that needs to be treated first as the primary cause of the addiction. Such a mental illness would be so-called clinical depression, bipolar disorder, or some other piece of elastically defined psychobabble.

As for psychiatry’s lack of diagnostic criteria or actual evidence for any of the “illnesses” listed its Diagnostic Manual and the quackery that accompanies its diagnosis and “treatment,” please don’t get me started…..I’ll cover psychiatry’s Great Diagnosis Con in a later article.

Suffice to say here, the “mental illnesses” purported without evidence to underlie drug addiction usually require drugs to treat them. The stupidity of using drug to cure an addiction to drugs should be obvious and needless to say that approach has produced surprise, surprise not just failure but a deepening drugs crisis!

Yet another philosophy subscribes to the idea that drug dependency leads to permanent “chemical imbalances” in the neurological system that must be treated with psychotropic medications after the person has withdrawn from their drug of choice. Again, a lovely way of milking the addict’s misery of every last drop of profit but only a partial truth.

Yes, extensive abuse of some drugs can cause permanent damage, but PSYCHOTROPIC MEDICATIONS ARE THE WORST OFFENDERS.

The degree of damage that would necessitate, say, tranquillisers to enable the person to function is rare and almost never resuts from abuse of street drugs. In my experience most addicts, although they have harmed themselves through the long-term imbibing of chemical poisons and asssociated malnutrition and so forth, can and do make a very good recovery with the right treatment, such as that provided on the Narconon program. And harmful psychiatric poisons are the very last thing they need.

None of the above, at best partial, truths have paved the way for an effective solution to the drugs problem.

There is another way of looking at the problem that DOES open the door to a much more effective handling of the problem.

The addict is NOT mentally ill, does not have a brain disease and is not genetically defective:

Addiction begins with pain.

I will cover this more fully in part three of this essay; “Addiction Begins With Pain”

The older method employed by rehab centers would tend to focus more on utilizing transition drugs to curb the addiction and wean the patient off of their substance abuse. This method, however, sets the addict up for failure as they always feel that there is an acceptable level of drug usage and may never become clean. While most rehab clinics state that they want to see the client succeed, the truth is, they are more interested in the repeat business as it allows them to constantly charge gullible, desperate people for a broken service.

Newer drug and alcohol programs revolve around the individual with a goal of permanently curing them of their illness. By creating a rehabilitation curriculum that incorporates physical drug-free detox, to remove all of the toxins from the body, with mental therapy, to help solidify the willpower of the individual, these California drug rehab centers pave the way for spiritual relief and a reunion with ones life. This allows the addict to clean their body, focus their mind, and reconnect with the loved ones whom they’ve hurt during their abusive phase.

While there are still many drug and alcohol rehab programs in circulation that don’t truly care about their patients, a little research and investigation will goes a long way in avoiding them. In the end, finding help that will build a solid for a recovering addict to never have to relapse should be the ultimate goal of ever rehabilitation clinic, and it should be the wishes of anyone who has ever had to endure loving an addict.