Understanding Addiction and The Cure

Community Living Centre for Substance Abuse Rehabilitation, Mumbai, India.

The DAIRRC community living centre provides a Luxury Rehab program that is a voluntary program catering to Drug addiction, alcohol dependency and behavioural disorders. It is a unique life management training program to help addicts successfully lead a better and more fulfilling life. It is a post treatment program that includes support and resources to help the addict cope with issues, triggers and cravings even after the program ends.

At DAIRRC we believe that follow up rehabilitation is a must.

We do not treat drug addicts through medicine or offer any medical treatment. At the community living centre we rehabilitate them through a community living process and help them to reintegrate in society with a healthy and sustainable coping mechanism.

Rehabilitation lasts from six to twelve months, depending on the prognosis of the patient and intensity of drug abuse. Substance abusers / Chemical dependents approaching the centre for rehabilitation are Polydrug abusers, including Marijuana and party drugs (35%) Alcohol (30%), Heroin (20%), Prescribed Medication abuse (9%), and others including Cocaine, Solvents etc (6%).

At the DAIRRC community living centre, parental participation is an essential part of the treatment process, as it ensures a better prognosis and a higher recovery rate. DAIRRC deals only with a limit of around 20 people a time (includes those suffering from depression as well as drug addiction). The process is highly personalised on an individual basis and has a success rate of 85%. Success rate for Drug addicts being defined by the following three criteria:

  • No intake of any mood or mind altering substance for more than 4 years.
  • No further interaction of the addict with law enforcement agencies.
  • Gainful employment.

DAIRRC has participated in the recovery of Alcohol, Heroin and other chemical and emotional dependents over the last four decades, and therefore believes that any addict can give up, and any person struggling with depression can develop the coping skills required to lead a normal and happy life.

The luxury community living program for patients of addiction and depression is a holistic one and helps the patient to improve on four planes, i.e. physical, mental, social and spiritual.

DAIRRC sees Chemical dependency (Drug Addiction) as a behavioural disorder, and encourages the addicts to bring about a positive change in their personality through its recovery program.

DAIRRC equips patients suffering from depression and substance abuse with the required skills set to cope with boredom, stress, anxiety etc by enabling them to deal with their day to day reality better.

DAIRRC believes that addicts have to change their world view and learn to cope with reality in better ways than they have known. The program ensures a change in the addicts’ threshold to cope with boredom and stress. The addicts do not need to come to the rehabilitation centre to stop taking drugs; they can stop on their own. They need the DAIRRC Rehabilitation and post program support to ensure that they STAY STOPPED. The main goal at DAIRRC is designed to get them to stay happy and drug/substance free for life.

Understand two words. Understand addiction.

To understand the alluring and secretive world of a “junkie”, we need to understand just two words, often uttered by chemical dependents.

The words are “HIGH” and “JOINT”

A ‘HIGH’ IS ANY PLACE, THAT IS NOT HERE.

An addict is perpetually on the run and wants to get away from where he is, sometimes the escape is geographical and sometimes he seeks to numb the throbbing void he experiences by existing as himself. He is uncomfortable in his ‘here’ (his reality). Any place; both internally and externally, other than his ‘here’ is a safe place.

People with a predilection to dependency usually also have low boredom thresholds and are exceptionally sensitive.
These characteristics coupled with their self-consumption, makes their ‘here’ very discomforting.

Treatments that merely focus on separating an addict from his substance, are seldom effective. In order to achieve success, a treatment process must facilitate making the ‘here’ of the addict comfortable.

WHAT IS A JOINT?

Humans are social animals and need to have connections with others, in order to live happy and meaningful lives.
Addicts suffer from a lack of connection with other humans. So when they experience a connection with anything, they latch on and get ‘joint’ to the thing.

They create false personas when they relate to others. At times, in order to protect and not to hurt the people they love, they masquerade as someone else and cloak the real person within. At times, they hide their insecurities, fears, guilt or shame with a facade of a robust projections.

A ‘JOINT’ IS A PLACE,

WHERE A CONNECTION TAKES PLACE.

Treatment methodologies have to include getting the addict ‘joint’ to other people. Till we can enable them to establish meaningful connections with other human beings, they will keep relapsing into their world of addiction. No man is an island and dealing with the chaotic ruckus in one’s head independently, is simply impossible.

A Cannabis or Heroin user rolls his ‘joint’. All those who smoke a ‘joint’, don’t get hooked. Only those who experience the ‘joint’ or connect with the drug do. Forming intrinsic connections or genuine emotional bonds is their path to salvation.

It is possible to be ‘high’ and here at the same time. Being positively ‘joint’ to friends, work, family, any form of art, meditation, prayer or music takes us to the same state of being “high on life”.

The Beatles got it right “all you need is love”

It would be correct to conclude that the opposite of addiction is connection.


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