Earlier this year, the news was announced that Narconon had made new inroads into Latin America, a development which holds great promise for a region of the world which is perhaps more closely associated with drugs than any other. Recently, a number of people from across South America, Central America and Mexico gathered for a series of workshops in which they were trained in the delivery of the Narconon First Step program, making it possible for them to return home with powerful solutions for drug addiction to help people in their own communities.
Attendees at the workshops included representatives from Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Guatemala, and they were eager to take in everything they could learn about how to help their compatriots find a way to turn their lives around in the face of struggles with substance abuse and addiction.
Learning Tools to Get & Stay Drug Free
In the course of their time at the workshops, the students learned a number of different subjects that play a role in the Narconon First Step program:
- How to use vitamins and minerals as a nutritional supplement for people who are trying to get sober and quit drugs or alcohol. Long-term substance abuse tends to cause severe disruption of the addict’s physiological systems, and suddenly quitting drugs or alcohol will often cause a major imbalance that can cause severe pain and discomfort. Administering specific nutritional supplements during and after the detox process can go a long way towards easing the person’s recovery process.
- Communication skills are another aspect of the recovery from addiction. A person who has become an addict can usually trace his or her problems back to a time when life became overwhelming and the person was having difficulty handling stressful personal or professional relationships. The Narconon First Step program includes drills for helping the person to gain more control over communication and interpersonal relationships, both for recovery and a stable life moving into the future.
- Exercises for increasing one’s awareness of present time also play a large role in the Narconon First Step program. A drug addict or alcoholic will usually be found to have much of his or her attention stuck in the past or turned inward on himself or herself. This is partly due to the uncomfortable physical sensations that a person often experiences during and after drug use, but also to the major emotional and psychological disruptions caused by most types of drugs. One of the steps in the Narconon program involves recovering this attention from being turned inward and turning it outward where it belongs.
The Narconon First Step Program
The Narconon First Step program is not the full Narconon program, and it is not adequate for treating more serious cases of addiction. All the same, it features some of the most powerful aspects of the full program, and it can prove to be quite effective for helping people with less severe dependence on drugs or alcohol. This version of the Narconon program offers hope and help to people who have gotten in over their heads with substance abuse and can’t seem to quit on their own. People who take part in the First Step program can make enormous changes to their lives and make a fresh start. Those who need the full Narconon program have options within Latin America, including two centers in Colombia, one in Argentina and two in Mexico.
With the recent series of workshops, Narconon has trained a team of people who will now be able to carry effective solutions for addiction treatment throughout one of the most populous areas of the world. Because Latin America has such enormous problems with drug abuse, there is a long way to go, but Narconon is making steady progress in expanding their reach throughout the region.