Unresolved Personal Issues and Problems

Factors of Relapse: Problems

woman with unresolved problems

Every person who enters rehab has suffered damage as a result of addiction. He (or she) is not the same as he was before the drug abuse started. Every family member sees the change. Some of these changes are heartbreaking, adding up to the destruction of a once proud, ethical person.

In some cases, a person was never able to develop his better qualities because he began abusing drugs long before he matured into an adult. To stay sober, he will have to make up for this lost growth and missing education.

The personal issues and problems commonly found in those who have been addicted include:

  • Muddied perceptions
  • Destructive relationships
  • Guilt
  • Loss of integrity
  • Lack of self-respect or respect of others
  • Past failures such as education, career, divorce
  • Lack of goals or ambition
  • Lack of moral compass

If a person does not learn how to repair this damage and get the right kind of support to restore his true personality, this kind of personal decay can lead him right back into drug abuse. SAMHSA notes that drug-related personality issues, if left unresolved, can be definite barriers to future success.

How Does the Narconon Program Address Unresolved Personal Issues?

By the time most people arrive at a Narconon center, they have already struggled with addiction for more than five years, and sometimes for decades. It will take the entirety of the Narconon program to help him (or her) rise up out of this kind of damage. But it can be done.

Muddied perceptions

When life looks dull and dim, it is hard to get excited about anything. But this is the situation for many people who have spent years abusing drugs or alcohol.

Many people completing the New Life Detoxification on the Narconon program state that colors look brighter and their perceptions, in general, are sharper. This change may be related to the elimination of drug residues from the body. Over the years this step has been offered by the Narconon rehab program, it has shown to help people see life in a much brighter light.

After completing The Narconon New Life Detoxification, each person moves on to the Objectives, which includes improving communication skills and a series of unique exercises intended to put a person’s body, mind, and life back under his control. They also assist in improving his awareness of his immediate environment, rather than being stuck in the past. This is rehabilitation at the most fundamental level, working directly with an individual’s senses and ability to be in the present, instead of being stuck in past failures and miseries.

Destructive relationships

aggression in a relationship

Following the Objectives a person moves on to the Life Skills portion of the program, starting with the Ups and Downs in Life Course. This is an education in the different kinds of people one runs into in life—the social and the antisocial. If a person in recovery can’t detect the difference, he will run into serious trouble that leads directly to relapse. On this course, a person learns the characteristics that differentiate the social from the antisocial and how to handle each type. He then applies these lessons to his own life to review his past problems and find out how he could have protected himself from harm. As he does so, he sets new patterns in place for the future.

Guilt/Loss of integrity

The Personal Values Course provides an avenue for relief from guilt over the harm one has done to oneself and to others in the past. First, one learns the basics of ethics, morals and personal survival. He then learns how to examine and confront past actions he feels guilty about, with the specific result of achieving relief. It’s not just one’s personal life that one examines in this way, it is every part of life, from self through family, one’s friends, groups they belong to and society at large.

It is very common for a person to talk about “weight being lifted from his shoulders” as she finds relief from harm done in the past.

woman feeling burdens lifted

She now has more freedom to create a new, fresh, sober future. With this freedom comes a renewal of personal integrity.

Lack of self respect or respect of others

Families see the loss of self-respect early in the drug abuse pattern. They soon see that the drug user’s respect for parents, spouse, authorities, employers, everyone erodes as well. Once respect for others is gone, the addicted person may feel that any action is justified, as long as it keeps the drugs and drinks coming. This moral decline—even collapse—is part of the horror of addiction. With the relief brought by the Personal Values Course, a person in recovery begins to build up his self-respect again.

shaking hands

Then, he learns how to repair the harm he has done to others during the Changing Conditions in Life Course. It is likely that he will both regain the respect he had for others as well as begin to win back their respect, too.

Past failures such as education, career, divorce

On the Changing Conditions in Life Course, each person learns how he can rebuild parts of life that were damaged by neglect or harmful actions. The student gets real-life tools that can be put to use immediately to begin these repairs.

man planning for future

Hope begins to dawn, and despair over past failures is replaced by making new plans and setting new goals. Marriages may not always be restored, but animosity can be replaced by friendship and understanding. Educational and career goals are often renewed. Families can come together once again.

Lack of goals or ambition

During the time spent doing drugs or drinking to excess, it was pointless to dwell on goals. One’s days were primarily spent getting money for and using drugs. But as life is restored to the recovering addict, it is usual for him to start thinking about the future again. He learns how to align his efforts with future accomplishments of his own choosing. Before he graduates, he works with an experienced Narconon staff member to devise a personal plan to apply what he has learned to his new life, including laying the groundwork for new goals and accomplishments.

Contents of Factors of Relapse

Reference:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23216245