Perfect Holiday Gifts for an Addicted Person: Responsibility, Gratitude, Honesty and Integrity

These four qualities are critical points in the recovery from addiction: responsibility, gratitude, honesty and integrity. They were lost as the burden of addiction settled around a person. These qualities slipped away in increments until no trace of that person you love seemed to exist.

Then, as a person climbs out of that deep dungeon of addiction, these four qualities return in increments until one day, the individual you know and love can once again build a healthy life on a strong foundation.

In their hearts, the return of these qualities are improvements any addicted person wishes for. But the bleakness of addiction may make it seem like they can never be recovered. The Narconon drug rehabilitation program can finally make that wish come true.

For the family who fears for the addicted person’s life, when they see responsibility, gratitude, honesty and integrity beginning to return, that’s a sign that finally rekindles hope for a better future.

Why These Qualities Disappear

Most people who lose everything to addiction were once honest, loving people. That makes it all the more mysterious to spouses, parents and other loved ones as why they lost that person completely. Here’s why it happens.

Heavy drug and alcohol use covers over a person’s basic personality with a thick layer of craving. The person’s compulsion to use more drugs overwhelms and buries their native intentions to do right and care for family and friends. It’s hard for a person who has never been addicted to understand that compulsion. It’s as strong as the overwhelming urge to eat or drink after being stranded in the desert for days. Some people say they feel crazed by that need for drugs when it hits.

That’s why a mother can overdose in the front seat of a car while her child sits in a car seat. Or why a father can steal all his children’s Christmas presents from under the tree and sell them to get more drugs.

Many addicted people will have a moment where they desperately want to leave drugs or drinks behind. They may say “this is the last time I’m taking a drink” and they mean it. But when the cravings hit, they may not even remember that decision.

Eventually, this person is not only overwhelmed by the cravings, he’s also overwhelmed by the lies he’s told and the loved ones he’s manipulated and stolen from. He knows he’s harmed himself and neglected his kids, family and work. The guilt from all this harm buries him even further. Only drugs or alcohol dull his pain.

But this doesn’t have to be the end. With the right factors of addiction being addressed, it’s possible to come back from this desperation and rebuild the lost responsibility, gratitude, honesty and integrity.

The Narconon Program and True Rehabilitation

How do you help a person recover their integrity? Or find relief from their guilt so their honesty can shine again and their responsibility can once again guide their decisions? Each person must find relief from these burdens for sobriety to last. Actually, it’s a lot like taking off the layers of an onion. Each step of the Narconon program prepares a person for the next phase of rehabilitation.

• It starts with helping a person get the drugs out of his (or her) body. A drug-free withdrawal with plenty of physical, nutritional and emotional support followed by a sauna-based detoxification help put a person back on his feet again. Many people completing this phase of the Narconon program talk about how much it helps them overcome cravings. After all, if someone is being maddened by their cravings, it’s hard to focus on building a new sobriety.
• Next, each person regains a brighter perception of the world around them and regains also control over their actions, choices and even thoughts. This improvement further brings an end to drug-driven madness. It’s at this point that the terrible trauma of the past begins to fade away and be replaced by the person’s true personality.
• Finally, it’s vital for each person to learn how to use their own skills to deal with life’s challenges. The three-part life skills component of the Narconon program puts an individual back in charge.

This statement from one of our graduates sums up the kind of change our clients experience: “My life was back in my control, my family trusted me again. I cared about me again and I cared about my family and I wanted to be alive.”

As a person comes back to life and gains control of himself and his choices again, a return of his native responsibility, gratitude, honesty and integrity just comes naturally. That’s why the parents of our graduates often make comments like these: “It just blows my mind the difference in her every time I see her. She’s just back. She’s back and she’s better than she was before. And I mean, it’s been two years. It’s just a miracle.”

Give the Best Gift of All

If someone you love is losing everything to addiction, give them the very best gift they can ever receive—sobriety and the return of responsibility, gratitude, honesty and integrity. They will thank you forever. And watching the return of the person you love can make these holidays the best ones yet. Call us today to learn more: 1-800-737-5250.