Why Alcoholics Need Rehab?
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Coping with a loved one’s alcoholism can be among life’s toughest challenges. Alcohol addiction often brings dramatic personality changes, where even trustworthy, productive people start lying about their drinking—even to spouses, parents, and closest family. Family members struggle right alongside the alcoholic, dealing with broken trust, constant worry, and the emotional toll of watching someone they love spiral downward.
Struggles can drag on for years, filled with repeated promises to control or quit drinking. These vows might hold for a day, a week, or occasionally two weeks, but they rarely stick without help. While quitting on their own is possible for some, it’s extremely difficult for alcoholics who've lost control of their drinking. Alcoholics have the best chance to achieve long-term sobriety in a structured rehabilitation program that provides strong, around-the-clock support.
Common Problems from Alcoholism
The destruction of alcoholism hits fast and wide. Effective rehab helps resolve these issues and restore a productive life, but only if alcoholics get help soon enough.
- Domestic abuse and divorce.
- Child abuse and children entering foster care.
- Loss of professional certifications or jobs.
- Business failures.
- Increased risk of accidents and legal problems.
- Poor job or school performance.
- Loss of income from missed work or poor performance.
- Loss of home, car, or other possessions.
- Alienation of family and friends.
- Isolation, guilt, anxiety, and depression.
- Blackouts and injuries from falls, burns, or assaults.
- Thoughts of suicide or other self-harm.
- Increased risk of cancer (mouth, throat, stomach, liver, and others).
- Increased risk of heart disease, pancreatitis, or brain damage.
With all this damage accumulating, there is no time to waste. An effective rehab program is vital.
Benefits of Long-Term Residential Rehab
Long-term residential rehab (often 90 days or more) offers unmatched advantages for alcoholics, making recovery far more achievable than outpatient or short-term options. By carefully choosing a rehab, an alcoholic can receive benefits like these:
- The individual lives in a safe, structured and predictable environment completely free from alcohol, old drinking buddies, or tempting ads.
- They receive 24-hour support whenever cravings or challenges hit hard.
- Medical monitoring and help stay close by for safe detox and health management.
- Full focus goes to personal recovery, without juggling daily responsibilities.
- Everyday stresses and problems wait until the person builds stronger recovery tools.
- Extended program duration allows deep work on addiction’s damage and even the root reasons drinking started.
- The program delivers needed structure and discipline.
In this safe, supportive clinical setting, working through all the changes needed to recover from addiction feels far less overwhelming—setting the stage for real, sustained sobriety.
It’s essential for a person who is addicted to alcohol to enter rehab at the first moment possible so that the damage doesn’t get any worse.
Narconon: Effective Help for Alcohol Addiction
The Narconon rehab program was founded in 1966 to help the addicted learn how to create new, sober lives. Over the last 60 years, tens of thousands have chosen this program for their recovery.
This program is based on the discoveries of L. Ron Hubbard, an author and humanitarian who dedicated his life to helping people. Mr. Hubbard founded the Scientology religion. However, Narconon is not a religious program. It is a secular, public benefit program that teaches or requires no religious principles or belief.
The Narconon Approach
At Narconon we know that alcoholism does not need to be a lifelong disease or burden. Also, nearly sixty years of experience has proven that no drugs are needed as part of rehab.
Lasting sobriety results from relieving the cravings, guilt and depression a person suffers after years or even decades of alcoholism and teaching a person the skills they need to get and stay sober.
Starting on the Road to Sobriety
Before starting the Narconon Drug-Free Withdrawal each person must receive a thorough medical evaluation. If the physician decides that it is necessary, the person is referred to a medically-supervised detoxification as a prerequisite to starting the Narconon rehab program. Because many people addicted to alcohol may require medical detox first, this will be done at a separate medical detoxification facility.
When complete they will start their actual rehab program at Narconon.
Narconon Drug-Free Withdrawal
Each person starts in the Narconon Withdrawal Unit where they are monitored and supported 24 hours a day where they receive intensive care and attention:
- Targeted nutritional supplementation to ease symptoms of withdrawal and stabilize the person
- Gentle physical assists to relax the body and help relieve aches and cramping
- Orientation exercises to assist focusing on the present
- Monitoring and assistance any time it is needed
This combination helps each person stay comfortable through this transition, providing definite hope of a successful rehab experience.
Addressing Cravings
Many people would tell you that cravings drive them back into drinking or drug use. If these are not alleviated, the daily struggle is likely to continue. The New Life Detoxification tackles this challenge. The combination of sweating in a low-heat sauna, moderate aerobic exercise and a carefully designed nutritional regimen helps to reduce the cravings.
This exact protocol routinely has a profound effect on each person’s recovery. It helps to flush accumulated drug and alcohol-related residues out of the body. Many people who have undergone Narconon’s New Life Detoxification say afterwards that they felt cleansed of toxins, energetic and brighter at completion. They often say they can think more clearly and their cravings are minimized or gone.
Restoring Objective Perceptions
Heavy alcohol consumption drives a person out of touch with the real world. For true recovery, they must restore their clear, objective perceptions. The Objectives consist of a series of exercises that gradually restore clear perceptions of the present environment and helps bring them out of the fog of alcohol abuse. Participants gain better control over thoughts, emotions, and actions as drugs lose their hold. Gradually, alcohol lose their grip on the individual.
Building Essential Life Skills
Real-world challenges persist after rehab. Each person needs strong life skills to make the right choices. The skills to overcome setbacks or upsets are taught on the Narconon Program before they successfully complete rehab.
Targeted courses provide tools for better decisions, relationships, and resilience:
- Ups & Downs in Life: Learning how to identify those who are positive and support sobriety and those who are negative influences and harmful to the person. Each student finds out how to look beyond appearances to people’s true intentions and actions.
- Personal Values: This course shows the path to feeling honest and ethical again. Once each student gains an understanding of how integrity is lost, it can be regained. Restoring a sense of self-respect and responsibility can be a profound relief.
- Changing Conditions in Life: Students equip themselves with the right tools for tackling challenges and overcoming obstacles. This course teaches the practical tools to improve life after rehab.
Preparing for a Successful Future
Before graduating, each person works with a Narconon Graduate Officer to map out a detailed plan for their post-rehab life—housing, jobs, education, and more. Once the plan is complete and they return home, the Graduate Office will be in contact with them regularly for up to two-years to ensure their after-care plan is being followed, that they are staying sober and to offer any guidance needed.
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Help Is Available at Narconon
When you need help for a loved one, don’t delay. Contact Narconon and learn how you or your loved one can arrive at a Narconon rehab and start on the road to sobriety. Sixty years of experience and our evidence-based approach has proven the effectiveness of this program.
Get answers to all your questions by calling Narconon today.
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