At what price soberity..

antrim | miscellaneous | opinion/analysis Tuesday April 13, 2004 23:41 by nightnurse

Does Alcoholics anonymous/narcotics anon work, and at what price?. Why is it so hard to kick an addiction the Alcoholics anon/Narcotics anon way?. It is so hard because AA/NA insist you abandon a way of life which brings you into contact with drugs/alcohol/having fun, or a rebellious lifestyle which may cause depression, leading to drug dependency.

Most rehab institutions/methods require you to adopt a set of engrained moralistic spiritual guidelines, substituting the craving for alcohol/drugs with spiritual happiness which will hopefully act as a barrier against full blown addiciton.

Addicts/alcoholics are broken down, laid bare and rebuilt up again through the couselling process, into a clean shiny new person, who must resist the cravings of their demon addiction forever more.

These rehabilitation practises are not perfect, because they do not empower the human being, at the heart of most rehab theories they believe the human being is weak, so weak it cannot control addiciton. The fact of the matter are human beings when empowered are masters of their own destiny, and placed in whatever environment will resist the temptation to succumb to full blown addiction and uncontrolled self abuse.

Mainstream rehab requires that if you are into eg the punk scene, and a heroin addict, you must abandon your interest in the punk scene/music/environment for fear of being tempted back into self abusing yourself by jacking up ect.

Even though you are a more likely to encounter hard drugs in mainstream society and everyday life, rather than in the punk scene. Or maybe it is the fact that rebellious, punk music is depressing, thus causing weak self pitying humans to turn to smack for happiness and relief from the worlds harsh realities exposed by punk music.

At the end of the day, heroin addiction/uncontrolled alcoholism is self abuse, an extension of the abuse the system dishes out to us, as we grow up in this society, in the end, people decide to abuse themselves through alcohol/drugs, so saving the system the necessary expense of having to grind them down and abuse them itself. One truth the AA/NA will never confront an addict with.

Many people turn to alcohol/drugs as a buffer and comfort against the ills of the world. There is another way other than addicton and self abuse to achieve a similar high to that of the oblivion of drugs and alcohol.

Our own bodies are capable of producing naturally similar endorphins to those artificially produced by drugs. A high we can all achieve,WITHOUT exotic meditation, and spiritual mumbo jumbo.

A champion kickboxer who became a heroin addict explains it simply, when asked why he became an addict, he says 'it was easier to achieve the same high, from heroin, than to achieve a similar high produced naturally in the body through extensive kick box trainnin'.

The same high experienced through heroin addiction, can be experienced and achieved through extensive kick box and martial arts trainning, or even trainning for football, which is the theory behind certain rehab institutions in Scotland, which substitute the self abuse of drugs/alcohol, with the self abuse of punishing physical football trainning regiemes in order to combat addiction.

Surely it would be better to empower addicts with realistic practical tools to combat addiction, and allow them to embrace their former lifestyles confidently rather than continually have to shy away from an environments and situations which may trigger relapses.