We see the party line forwarded in articles, books, TV, movies, celeb meltdowns and of course at the local AA and NA meetings. The concept has become so engrained that even those who do not wish to agree find themselves ostracized and unaware of any other way to get help. It’s a constant drum beat and the message is overwhelmingly everywhere.
The mantra: Addiction is a disease.
But where did this idea of drug and alcohol addiction as a disease come from? Most evidence points toward the psychiatric fields in medicine that lobbied over many years to gain equal mental health funding. Documents show a long and insidious campaign of using PR campaigns and redefinition of words in books, articles and other texts in order to put a new label on addiction.
With that in mind, an indoctrination of addiction as a disease starts to make a bit more sense. If other aspects of medical treatment in America have fallen for “the money is in the treatment, not in the cure”, why not drug rehab – right?
And calling the abuse of drugs or alcohol a disease opens a floodgate of funding from government aid, disability, insurance and other sources. This means billions of dollars are going toward mental health and pharmaceutical providers that otherwise would have never seen such revenue streams.
Non 12 step drug rehab centers are working to change all that.
Non 12 step drug rehab programs routinely document success rates that are somewhere in the neighborhood of 75-80%. The most powerful thing they provide is a reminder of the power of the mind. It can be trained. Just as we learn to do things that work to dull the pain of emotions, problems and upsets (alcohol and drugs), it can be taught new habits, patterns and techniques for living and confronting all aspects of life. Non 12 step drug rehab programs offer cognitive therapy to ‘unlearn’ addictive behaviors. And once those behaviors have been addressed, additional non 12 step therapy teaches precision skills and tools that shape new, pro-survival patterns, habits, attitudes.
Rather than succumbing to the belief that our failings are due to an incurable disease, non 12 step rehab treatment shows us why this happens. And after understanding why, these rehab programs provide their patients with the ability to change their mind on all of that.
You could say that many of the old timers in our families were right when they said we could just “change our mind” and decide not to drink or use drugs. There has always been such a kernel of truth in that and I am happy to know that there are rehabs that exist to help one achieve that success.
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Great Job. Thank you for the information.
“A weak mind, a faltering will,
Both blown away like summer’s dust
And settled onto the dark pond
Of drugs, alcohol and sex.”
I just wanted to share that because, yes, any form of “negativity” in one’s life can be overturned with willpower and an informed or enlightened mind. On the other hand, anyone who has a problem and then surrenders to its dark forces, would be swallowed whole slowly by it. This is how addiction works – it always has been that way, and it will always be. So it’s unfathomable why people think it’s a disease. It’s not, not, not a disease. It’s something that calls for everyone to look into the “problems” or “root cause” so that it could be directly addressed. If not, slowly, slowly, one loses all strength, and gives in like a puppet to the master. It’s a mind’s game, it’s a contest of will. Only sick people with even sicker minds like us to believe it’s a disease so that they can capitalize on that dreaded belief of people.
“A weak mind, a faltering will,
Both blown away like summer’s dust
And settled onto the dark pond
Of drugs, alcohol and sex.”
Bloody hell! That’s a very rousing poem, Lakeisia!
And yes I agree with you on all counts. Drug addiction is no way a disease of the physical kind. But its a society disease that many ignore, like its symptoms and effects and even the causes.
Lets all consider it that way and we can finally agree that drug addicts are not bad persons. They are just in pain and need help, like love and rehab could get them better. Not the disease of uncare, ignorance and keeping them away.