WHAT IS ADDICTION?
‘ANYTHING WE HAVE TO LIE ABOUT’
‘THE SEARCH FOR LOVE IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES WITH ALL THE WRONG PEOPLE’
‘AN ILLNESS THAT SILENTLY DISORGANIZES EVERY HOUR OF EVERY DAY’
'A DESTRUCTIVE FORCE THAT DISABLES INDIVIDUALS, EVEN WHOLE CULTURES’
‘AN ILLNESS THAT WHISPERS TO YOU ALL THE TIME THAT YOU DO NOT HAVE AN ILLNESS’
At the Garden Route Recovery Centre our philosophy is based on the time proven 12-step recovery programme and the Minnesota Model of Treatment that continues to help addicts and alcoholics make essential changes in their lives all over the world. Added to this combination is the professional experiences of our multi-disciplinary counselling and medical team all of whom have extensive knowledge of addiction, recovery and after-care programmes. This combination of seasoned and modern counselling techniques supports an ever evolving approach that is essential in acknowledging and respecting the individuality of all our clients.
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Primary-phase- Garden Route Recovery Centre
Clients are not permitted to have lap-tops, cell-phones or personal music players. Access to e-mail can be arranged if necessary for people with business concerns for example.
This phase focuses largely on detoxification, medical and psychologists assessment and there is a 'cooling off' period of 5 days with no phone use after the client has spoken with family on arrival
Building up a therapeutic alliance with a focal counsellor, medical staff and care-workers
Introduction to ‘community living’ with ‘buddy’ support, sharing a bedroom, eating together, time management and daily therapeutic duties
Introduction to the daily programme of exercise, group therapy, lectures, videos, audios and written assignment work
Introduction to Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and Overeaters Anonymous
Introduction to ‘Step One’ based on the client’s recognised primary addiction; food, drugs, alcohol, co-dependency or gambling
The processing of family questionnaires (collateral) in individual counselling sessions and in group therapy (with the client’s permission only)
Individual counselling sessions, a minimum of twice a week or more if required
All clients heading towards the secondary phase have to find their own sponsor before being considered for the secondary phase and process their STEP 5 with that sponsor. No clients can enter the secondary phase without a temporary sponsor. Once STEP 5 is completed all clients complete a personalized critical evaluation of their time in treatment so far. This client feedback is presented to the multidisciplinary team as part of a team discussion as to whether the client is suitable to enter the secondary phase.
Extended primary- Garden Route Recovery Centre
This phase is an option for some clients who need sense of moving forward but are not deemed ready for the responsibilities that come with the secondary phase. This would come into effect for clients who have attended primary treatment before and are not experiencing a ‘repeat prescription’ regarding their treatment programme. Extended primary offers differing levels of responsibility that are not as extensive as those that automatically come with being in the secondary phase safeguarding the client from what for some clients feels like a big leap from primary status to secondary status. Extended primary would also be for clients who are stuck in their recovery process and require further primary-based treatment to explore primary-based issues that are always present during the earlier stages of recovery.
Some clients rush treatment riddled with personal high expectations and can be very manipulative. Some clients enter the wrong treatment stage such as a halfway house yet overwhelmed with primary based issues. Some clients were not emotionally capable of exploring certain personal issues during their original primary experience and sometimes need to revisit certain areas of their life. Unfortunately, some clients are deceived into believing that their recovery is going really well because they have been promoted to the next treatment stage! Primary, extended primary, secondary and tertiary phases must not be rushed but should be carefully monitored and explained to both the client and their families as to why the process is going in the direction that it is.
Secondary-phase- Garden Route Recovery Centre
Clients are given back their cell-phones so as they can be contacted at anytime and visa-versa. Clients now have access to internet cafes so will not need lap-tops and it is at the counselling teams discretion as to whether or not a client can have a personal music player as they can be a distraction.
The secondary phase programme operates in the same building allowing for primary phase clients to witness advancement of others and also, so as secondary phase clients do not advance so quickly into grandiosity or become dismissive of primary concepts.
All secondary phase clients must complete their weekly programme by arranging some of the structure themselves and recording the events on their individual planner. It needs to be clearly stated and counsellor approved all whereabouts when not on the premises.
Attending the Garden Route Recovery Centre daily programme as instructed by the focal counsellor.
Full attendance Mondays and Fridays remains compulsory each week as does a ‘review group’ on a Saturday morning.
Attend a minimum of 4 fellowship meetings a week at AA, NA, CODA or OA.
Voluntary work is compulsory all day Wednesday as a minimum, all clients get advise/support in finding appropriate voluntary work at Game reserves, Local primary schools, Children’s shelters, Community police support work, Disabled children, Senior citizens homes, Animal shelters……..
Arranging regular meetings with your sponsor
At least one individual counselling session.
The purpose of the secondary phase is to create opportunities to put primary based concepts into practice, monitor behaviour and approach to a new phase. We introduce life skills such as money management, social interaction and deeper levels of responsibility. All clients continue with step work which is individualized (another look at step one often takes place at the start of the secondary phase).The length of stay in the secondary phase is dependent on the client’s psychological and spiritual growth culminating in the counselling team assessing that the client’s overall recovery is aligned with the requirements needed to undertake, understand and adhere to the rules and regulations of the tertiary phase. Potential tertiary clients visit the tertiary cottage a week before transfer so as they have some idea of where they are moving to and how it works. All new clients have a buddy to support them through the first few tentative days.
Extended programmes are available for those clients needing longer term care.
Services we offer
Detoxification
Often referred to as detox, the more common reference to removing toxins from the addicts or alcoholics body with medical and psychological support. This process requires skilful, professional attention in order to make the experience as safe and as comfortable as possible for the client. To simply stop drinking alcohol can be extremely dangerous causing seizures and vomiting, either of which have proven fatal. Length of time the detoxification takes is dependent on the clients health and drinking history but the average is between 7-10 days of essential medication and counsellor support.
At the Garden Route Recovery Centre we also arrange detoxification for the following addictions:
Heroin addiction, heroin/crack addiction, heroin and benzodiazepine addiction
Cocaine, amphetamine and methamphetamine addiction
Should you want to discuss detoxification in more detail then please contact us
Specialist Intervention Service
Is a very important life saving service that can be utilized to help get a friend or family member into treatment in a safe and professional manner. In America, interventions take place all the time where-by a concerned family member will contact Alcoholics Anonymous, for example and a seasoned AA member will come to the family’s aid and ‘facilitate’ a conference with the family first and then with the family and the addict present as well in an attempt to help the addict to start to understand how their behaviour is truly affecting those around them. AA in America is particularly well organized regarding these matters but still it is necessary to involve an interventions specialist who has training in family therapy and knows how to handle a crisis situation in such a way that the family can get a sense of relief. When I say relief, this involves relief for a family that has been at war within itself, probably arguing a lot regarding what to do next for the family member. So when a professional gets involved it highlights for the family, and hopefully the addict too, that addiction is affecting the whole family financially, spiritually, physically, socially and psychologically!
This service usually involves an addictions counsellor coming to your home or place of work once an assessment has been done to discuss the ‘problem’ and create a plan of action. If the counsellor has any concerns about the client’s state of mind then a psychiatrist or a GP may also have to be involved. If required the counsellor will escort the client, or arrange an escort to an addictions treatment centre. Usually once the client is at the treatment centre there will be some level of surrender due to the impact of the intervention and the family standing together saying that “enough is enough” or possibly due to medication that will have been prescribed by a GP, psychiatrist or a clinical psychologist. It is not an easy process to undertake by the family, spouse or friends but often essential if the client is going to get the professional help that s/he needs. Unfortunately many families adopt ‘addict thinking’ in that the ‘problem’ will simply go away or that tomorrow will be better - Tomorrow never actually comes!
Free Referral Advice
Free referral advice means that anyone is welcome to phone the Garden Route Recovery Centre and talk with a therapist about treatment options. At the Garden Route Recovery Centre we are respectful of the fact that despite our low fees they are possibly still not in line with the family’s budget. Should, for any reason’ the Garden Route Recovery Centre not be the centre that you want your friend or family member to go to then we will happily advise you on other options available to you in South Africa.
Family Conferences
Family conferences are an important part of anyone’s recovery process. All clients and their families will have an opportunity to engage in a family conference at the centre. A family conference is a 3 tier process.
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The family member/s have a meeting with the client’s focal counsellor. This meeting is to reassure family members about the process they are undertaking and make clear that the conference is a start of family healing and that expectations must be kept to a realistic level. The counsellor will also advise what questions could be asked and support the family in going to depths that have seemingly felt impossible before.
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The client will join the conference and the counsellor will facilitate and reflect back how the family is communicating. Often families have got used to communicating in a certain way which is not productive and pointing this out can help the family to begin to improve their communication skills.
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The counsellor leaves the family to talk amongst themselves with the client. This offers an opportunity for communication that some family members felt was not possible with the counsellor present, such things as-“I love you”!
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I have been privileged in facilitating many family conferences and what I find exciting as a therapist is that no two conferences are the same. The variety of depth that a conference can go to is astounding and yet no matter how the family and the client feel afterwards the outcome is always positive. I think it is very courageous for families to attend conferences and can be extremely beneficial for the client’s recovery.
Addictions we treat
Alcoholism is probably the most widespread worldwide addiction and with this comes a lot of denial! There are a number of myths and legends about how to identify an alcoholic and many people still believe that an alcoholic wears a dirty raincoat and drinks on a park bench when actually this covers approximately only 4% of alcoholics. Alcoholism is ‘accepted’ because it is legal to purchase alcohol and society is not so heavily affected by alcoholism; most alcoholics do not have to engage in serious criminal behaviour in order to feed their addiction! Classic denial is ‘Fred drinks a bit too much but he works hard’.
Alcoholism thrives in differing forms: Daily chronic consumption (the alcoholic often isolates and has booze delivered) or daily chronic consumption in a public house following the same daily routine. Binge drinking is an interesting category and generates a lot of denial. A binge drinker who ‘only’ drinks hard and fast at weekends is still an alcoholic. A high percentage of people who drink this way engage in silent, anti-social behaviour during the week or over compensate trying to hide their ‘dark-side’ by being ‘nice’ all the time. Regardless of the behaviour during the week the alcoholic will also be preoccupied with the weekend ahead and so work, if they do work, is seemingly a means to an end! There are also alcoholics who drink excessively with longer gaps between binges but all too often this person might be cross-addicted and could also be obsessed with going to the gymnasium for example. To the uninitiated Fred seems to be living a reasonably responsible life style because he works hard, goes to the gym and drinks on occasion! Fred could easily be miserable inside and engages in constant external needs in order to feel better about himself. All too often this kind of personality struggles to maintain healthy relationships with anyone.
Cocaine addiction is alarmingly a steady growth industry that again is not always obvious to us that Fred’s constant cold is actually cocaine addiction! Cocaine abuse is on the increase and in some areas has become cheap enough to be more available to those who at one time could not afford it. Cocaine is highly addictive and I have come across many addicts who clearly describe ‘love at first sniff’. Cocaine debt is extremely common; dealers ‘enable’ addicts to get cocaine ‘on-tick’ to such an extent that the addict cannot pay the thousands of pounds owed so have to work off the debt by becoming dealers themselves whilst the dealer sits back and reaps all the profits. Unfortunately, cocaine violence is also on the increase whereby an addict is made an example of in order that other addicts ‘tow–the-line’ and pay their debts. Clearly, cocaine addiction promotes a considerable level of serious crime in order for addicts to accumulate enough money to pay for their addiction. What often happens too is that addicts develop a tolerance to the cocaine and have to take a lot more than they used to when they first became hooked which creates a deeper and more self-destructive cycle of insanity.
Commonly, many cocaine addicts believe they are sex addicts which is often not the case at all. Quite simply, cocaine heightens libido promoting sex urges and acts that one would not normally practise.
‘I bet no one owns up to this addiction’.
Gambling addiction is possibly one of the most unrecognised addictions (<>) yet is ruining thousands of people’s lives on a daily basis. The term ‘pathological gambler’ is used for the gambler who sees nothing wrong in what they are doing and cannot acknowledge either how the gambling could be affecting family, friends, children, etc. I saw a television show recently which chronicled a gambler’s visit to Las Vegas who could ‘afford to gamble and lose the vast quantities of cash he was losing! I am not aware of anyone who can ‘afford’ to gamble. All addictions involve the roll of the dice but gambling in its purist form is as tacky and as false and as toxic as any other drug. It is easy to imagine the similarities between gambling and taking drugs:
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The preoccupation and excitement of ‘using’
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The ritual of preparing to take drugs or buy money chips
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The ‘rush’ of anticipation as the drug flow through your veins and the roulette wheel gradually slows
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The realization of the drug wearing off and the need to get more drugs/money
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The gradually overwhelming fear of running out of drugs/money
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That sense of loneliness and despair when the drug/card dealer says –“no more credit”
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Heroin addiction is out of control and now more available in affordable sized packages all over the world. In Afghanistan heroin addiction is rife as heroin use takes away the hunger pains that many Afghans experience because there is more heroin than food! Heroin addiction is a very physical addiction as heroin addicts simply take heroin to avoid feeling sick (withdrawing). Heroin is deemed to be one of the most addictive drugs on the planet, right next to nicotine and is a difficult addiction to break. Over the years I have noticed that heroin addicts adopt an attitude of being somewhat ‘special and different’ and unfortunately develop ‘pride’ often known as ‘junkie pride’ based on their putting a grade ‘A’ poison into their bodies and surviving as something apparently to be proud of! So, psychologically heroin addicts need effective psychotherapy in order to reframe their belief systems which I have found to be based on a bad combination of arrogance and immaturity. Unfortunately, also many addicts, whether they are heroin addicts or crack addicts, often have too much access to money and are surprisingly ‘enabled to death’ by family members!
Crack cocaine addiction is not commonly found to be an isolated or single addiction. By this I mean that more often than not a crack addict will also be abusing other drugs(<>). Crack cocaine can work out to be highly expensive in that an addict could sit in a ‘crack-house’ (a ‘safe’ place organized by dealers where addicts smoke crack cocaine all day until such time as the addict runs out of money and then they are ejected) and easily spend R20,000.00 (£1,600.00). Seemingly, what is becoming increasingly popular is the abuse of heroin and crack cocaine at the same time. What happens is the addict gets an intense high from smoking crack and then uses the cheaper heroin to avoid the vile and sharp ‘come-down’ that comes with smoking crack. This means that the addict’s body experiences a highly dangerous combination of extreme highs and lows as heroin ‘slows’ everything down.
Enjoying good food is one of the pleasures of life, but people who live with a food addiction are not able to appreciate this in the same fashion that a non-addict can. Instead of savouring the sight, smell, and taste of what they are eating, they have periods where they binge on food. Here are some signs that you may have a problem with food addiction:
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You eat at times when you are not hungry, especially when you feel low or depressed
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You eat differently in front of people than when you are on your own
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You consume large quantities of food and then make yourself throw up (binge and purge)
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Do you feel guilty after you eat, either about the amount you have consumed or what you ate?
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Overwhelming, relentless need for perpetual thinness
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A food addict may be a normal weight, underweight, or overweight. The one thing they all share is an obsession with food and being in control in an attempt to gain control over unacceptable thoughts and feelings. Food addiction is psychological as well as a physiological in that the sufferer’s perceptions are distorted and the way the food addict lives is highly deceptive and manipulative.
Internet addiction is not all about pornography! Chat rooms, face book, twitter and many other sites take you away from reality. What is attractive to many is the mind boggling amount of information one can access from the privacy of your own home; this can easily turn once mild mannered people into addicts who need an internet fix! There are already treatment centres in China and America that focus purely on internet and video game addiction.
Sex addiction is a very serious soul destroying condition that is often misdiagnosed and quite misunderstood. A person in the depth of sex addiction will go to extraordinary, often dangerous lengths, in order to quell a sexual need. As I mentioned earlier, the sexual desire might have been exacerbated by drug abuse such as amphetamines or cocaine. Once the desire has been satisfied, then the need for more drugs surfaces very quickly, and so the cycle continues. A sex addict in its purest form may not necessarily use drugs and may be motivated by past sexual abuse or perhaps the need to control. The preoccupation and obsession around sex can debilitate a sufferer to such a degree that they are incapable of holding down a job, healthy relationships and could be prone to isolation.
Methamphetamine is often called meth, tik, tuk, speed, crystal on the streets. There is reported to be around 26 million methamphetamine addicts in the world today. Methamphetamine addiction typically occurs when a person begins to use the drug as a stimulant for its powerful enhancing effects on sex, mood, energy, alertness and ability to concentrate, and weight loss and appetite suppression. Methamphetamine comes in many forms and can be smoked, snorted, injected, or orally ingested. ‘Speed’ over the years has become harder and faster acting. When at one time it was the norm to ingest amphetamine and wait a few minutes for the effect, nowadays teenagers are either smoking ‘tik’ or injecting ‘amphetamine’ in order to get ‘high’ quicker and yet the dangers are endless especially as the addict never feels like eating anything. Typically a methamphetamine addict will be forced to eat eventually purely for the purpose of gaining enough strength to go and get more drugs!
Prescribed medication addiction is increasingly popular. Very much highlighted by the recent and unfortunate demise of Michael Jackson who was addicted to pain killers, benzodiazepines (valium) and drugs normally used by an anaesthetist in a hospital setting only! There is realistically a generation of GPs that were not taught anything about addiction during their 7 years of training to be a doctor. Naturally, certain practitioners are conditioned to find an answer in a pill and some of these pills are highly addictive. There is a growing circle of addicts in America that are addicted to Vicodin which is an opiate based pain killer and in the Europe Benzodiazepine addiction is epidemic. A very common introduction to pain medication is through an accident or surgical operation. As standard, hospitals will prescribe pain killers such as morphine or pethadine (<>) for pain management and all too often this can quickly lead to a dependence. Some patients are sent home to recover and without the support of a nurse to prescribe medication at appropriate times; the patient can decide themselves to take more pills more often and before you know it a dependency quickly develops.
Steroid abuse is not automatically recognised as an addiction by some people as it is generally thought that anabolic steroids are taken purely through individual choice which, lets face it, is how most addiction starts. In the case of steroids there maybe a curiosity to ‘see what all the fuss is about’ yet all too quickly, if experimentation takes place by someone with an addictive personality, then the troubles have only just begun. Anabolic steroid stimulates muscle growth and this means ‘ALL’ muscles including your heart! It can be widely ignored (denial). The more hardcore steroid abuser (full-time body builder or strongman) sometimes mixes steroids with other drugs like cocaine to help kill pain in their joints and muscles. There are many recorded incidents of well-known body builders suffering heart attacks and others having a series of medical problems after extended steroid use. Sylvester Stallone has had circulation problems and recently was caught having steroids with him when he travelled to Australia. ‘Roid Rage’ is well documented and is the term used to describe the aggressive behaviour generated by steroid abuse. All too often steroid abusers have serious body-image issues sometimes leading to serious distortions in thinking such as ‘I am not big enough’ although already weighing in at 250 pounds!
Cigarette addiction is the second most common self-destructive addiction next to alcohol. Historically the human race has become conditioned to deny that cigarette smoking kills thousands of people every month plus of course a lot of laboratory animals that they are ‘tested’ on for your safety! Personally, I found cigarette addiction the hardest to stop and have the utmost respect the power these revolting things had over me. One interesting fact that has dawned on me in recovery is the amount of ‘recovering’ addicts and alcoholics who smoke and usually heavily! Interestingly enough, Bill Wilson and Bob Griffiths who started Alcoholics Anonymous both died sober but of smoking related diseases! None of these addictions are doing anyone any good at all but I do feel that smoking should be taken much more seriously by all people whether they are recovering addicts or not.
Co-dependency is not about living but ‘existing’. A more severe co-dependent has to live through someone else because their relationship with themselves is so fragile creating what I call ‘emotional vampirism’, so once the victim is emotionally bled dry then the co-dependent will move onto its next victim. Again, I would say there is a lot of misunderstanding about co-dependency which is probably why many people joke about it! Co-dependency originally was the term used to describe the ‘spouse or partner of an alcoholic’. In other words, why would someone live with an active alcoholic, because the spouse or partner has ‘purpose’ in helping (actually, enabling) their emotionally wounded partner who ‘NEEDS’ them? Actually, the alcoholic and the co-dependent need each other to keep each other ‘sick’. Studies over the years have helped to acknowledge that co-dependency can actually stem from any family system whether or not there is an obvious addiction issue in the family. Co-dependency has become more recognised as an emotional illness brought about through a myriad of life experiences in differing environments from the time we are born right through to the present day. A broad description indeed, but if a person is not shown through words and action how to cope with life’s difficulties, such as feelings then they may well develop an addiction in order to cope. Classically, we use ‘people’ before we use or abuse anything else. We are always going to be co-dependent to some degree.