INFORMATION ABOUT NARCONON
Narconon is a non-profit organization. The purpose of Narconon is to offer people courses which will give them the tools which will help them solve the problems of life instead of using drugs.
The Narconon program was first started in an American prison where William Benitez, who had for years been struggling with his addiction, started it. He had read the book “The Fundamentals of Thought “ written by the American humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard and in co-operation with him he put together a program which was first delivered within the prison. After William Benitez was released he helped start the first Narconon in Los Angeles. After that he returned to Phoenix, Arizona, where he got a job in the prison where he was first an inmate. He continued to work there until he died in 1999. Now there are several Narconons in the United States, in Australia, Taiwan, various South American countries and in Europe in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Italy, Spain, Russia and Kazakstan.
The Narconon program is a social-educational program. We do not use substitutes such as methadone and/or other psychiatric medication.
The program consists of the following steps:
PHYSICAL WITHDRAWAL
The Narconon program is not medical, so people who will need a lot of medical attention during the physical withdrawal will be referred elsewhere. People who will not need so much medical attention will be given a program which consists of: good food, vitamins and minerals, physically relaxing exercises and exercises which bring the attention outward.
A doctor and the person responsible for the delivery of the program decide if someone may follow this part of the program.
COMMUNICATION EXERCISES
It is very often difficult for drug addicts and alcoholics to admit they have problems, let alone that they talk about them. When they are confronted with a situation whereby they have to honestly talk about their life, they will not be able to talk, become angry or just leave. But honest communication is what is the most important thing in life. The ability to communicate is the most important part of any relationship.
It is also very true that, if a person is not a able to talk about the mistakes he or she has made in the past, he or she will certainly make those mistakes again. In this part of the program the person learns to confront his or her problems and talk about them.
THE SAUNA PROGRAM
Very often former drug addicts suffer from very bad health. In this part of the program the students (we call the people doing the program students) learn a healthy way of life with vitamins, good food, physical exercises and sauna.
Also here a doctor decides beforehand if a person can do this part of the program. This is as follows:
Every day the person takes a balanced quantity of vitamins and minerals. Then the person runs outside for half an hour to increase the blood circulation in the body. After that the person spends between 2 ½ and 5 hours alternately sweating in the sauna and cooling off. The purpose of this is to get the toxins out of the body. This is done under the supervision of someone who has been specifically trained for this. In this program someone can achieve the following:
- Lessening or diminishing of cravings for drugs and alcohol;
- Lessening or diminishing of the many symptoms connected to drug addiction or alcoholism. These are amongst others: depression, irritability and tiredness;
- The ability to think clearly;
- Improved memory and concentration;
- More energy;
- The person starts to feel better;
- Enthusiasm towards life.
After that a person does a course in which he or she learns to study. This helps the person recognize and overcome the problems he or she has with study. After that the communication exercises are done again. Only they are now done with a clear mind and therefore they will be done better.
OBJECTIVE EXERCISES
The purpose of these is to take the attention of the person away from painful incidents which keep his or her attention fixated on the past. Many addicts have had disappointments and failures in life which brought about a lack of confidence, lack of self respect and a feeling of inferiority. These very simple exercises enable someone to start whatever he or she wants, continue with it and achieve a successful result so that he or she can achieve realistic goals in life and regain control over his or her life.
THE UPS AND DOWNS IN LIFE COURSE
This course gives on the knowledge needed to achieve more personal stability and happiness in life. The person learns to recognize the characteristics of the social and anti social personalities and how certain people can have a bad influence on someone. This helps the person to identify people better and therefore select better friends and acquaintances.
RESTORING PERSONAL VALUES AND INTEGRITY
A great man once said: “The truth will set you free”. Unfortunately it is true, that when someone becomes addicted to drugs or alcohol, he or she starts doing many wrong things, such as continuously lying, stealing, prostituting, betraying trust, just to mention a few. Unfortunately it is so, that when one is not able to confront his or her past and be honest about it, he or she will be haunted by it. Until the person face up to his past, he or she will:
- Not be willing to communicate;
- Withdraw from family and friends;
- Continue to feel hostile towards people who want to help him or her;
- Dislike authority;
- No longer feel at ease with ethical people;
- Not be able to have stable relationships.
In this part of the program a person looks back at his or her mistakes and misdeeds from the past, writes these down and takes responsibility for them so that he or she is no longer bothered by the past and regains his or her self-respect. This will enable the person to handle the problems in life without being bothered by a bad conscience. The Narconon staff are bound by a code to never talk to anyone about anything the students tell them.
CHANGING CONDITIONS IN LIFE
When someone is born he or she unfortunately does not get an instruction booklet on how to live life. For most people growing up can be a confusing process. But for drug addicts and alcoholics the lack of information can be fatal. How does one choose a partner? Handle stress at the job? What do you do when a friend confesses something? This part of the program is to stabilize the person and to take the correct steps and decisions in the future.
In this part of the program the following is done:
- Specific methods are learned to handle former failures and the disappointments which are the result of those failures;
- The student is helped to find the correct condition in the different areas of his or her life;
- the student learns to maintain and if needed improve relationships;
- exact plans are made to handle those areas which were once confusing or frustrating for the person.
Then the whole program is completed and the person is again stable. He or she now knows how to solve his or her problems and is able to do so,
