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Narconon Drug Rehabilitation: Is Addiction a Disease?
You may have heard some people state that addiction is a disease. Is it? If addiction
were a disease, one might then reason that the only way to recover would be to take medication.
But in the nearly fifty years the Narconon program has been saving lives from addiction,
we have never found it necessary to use a single drug as part of the drug rehabilitation
process.
Instead, Narconon uses rehabilitation tools like nutrition including vitamins and minerals,
followed by cleansing the body of drug and other residuals, and extensive life skills
training to bring about recovery that lasts.
Back in the 1960s, the founder of Narconon, William Benitez, took a unique approach, based
on a book he read by humanitarian and researcher L. Ron Hubbard. Benitez said, "What impressed
me the most about Mr. Hubbard's materials was that they concentrated not only on identifying
abilities, but also on methods (practical exercises) by which to develop them. I realized
that drug addiction was nothing more than a "disability," resulting when a person ceases
to use abilities essential to constructive survival."
Going through other treatment progrrams, I was taught or told that I had a disease, that
I had to live with this disease for the rest of my life. But going through Narconon, it
was extremely empowering. There was no disease concept or talk about that. Really, it was
just a way to live my life successfully that works without drugs.
The majority of the Narconon program is dedicated to increasing an individual's abilities to
function successfully in life.
These abilities include learning to make correct decisions.
The ability to work toward productive goals. The ability to maintain positive relationships
and to avoid destructive ones. The ability to love and to accept full responsibility
for oneself and those one loves.
When a person's abilities increase, he or she no longer needs to hide or escape into
drug or alcohol abuse. He is better able to create an enjoyable, productive life once
more. That is far, far better than drugs.
And that is recovery.