Narconon, a Drug and Alcohol Treatment Facility with a treatment center near Watsonville, CA, receives thousands of calls per year. A remarkably large percentage of those calls come from people who are desperate to get their loved ones off drugs.

“Frequently, the last person to admit they have a problem is the addict,” Mike Dipalma, CCDC, RASi at Narconon, said. “It usually takes the influence of an intervention, or even just the concern of a family member, to initiate the rehab process.”

DiPalma said that the caring telephone counselors at Narconon are very good at putting callers at ease.

“We know that rehab is not a pleasant experience for anybody,” DiPalma said. “We’re trying to save somebody’s life here. So we’re quick to analyze that situation and help to get the addict into treatment.”

DiPalma added that callers to Narconon are usually surprised by both the program’s unique approach to rehab, as well as the established effectiveness of Narconon treatment.

Since its founding in Arizona State Prison in the 1960s, Narconon has promoted a non-drug, educational approach to rehab. When a person is admitted into Narconon, he does not become a patient. He becomes a student.

“Narconon is all about learning,” Dipalma said. “It’s about learning how you got to be an addict in the first place, how to keep from being an addict in the future, and most importantly, how to break your habit now and forever, without the use of ‘replacement drugs’ or 12-step programs.”

Indeed, it’s these programs that frequently defeat the entire purpose of rehab. DiPalma said that 12-step programs, for example, force the addict to admit that they’re weak and will never truly overcome their problem. Drug replacement methods, such as methadone treatment for heroin addicts, frequently just create another addiction for the addict to overcome.

“At Narconon, we believe you can overcome your addiction for good. You can live without drugs when you understand why you started taking them in the first place,” Dipalma said.

The Narconon program was established to help people suffering from substance dependencies, with the goal of freeing them and their families from the devastation of drug or alcohol abuse. Narconon of Northern California opened its drug and alcohol rehabilitation program in 1992, in Bonny Doon, California. Launched by “word of mouth” publicity, ongoing success resulted in the relocation of the residential treatment program to a larger campus in Santa Cruz, CA. The Narconon treatment facility of Northern California program now graduates 150 clients annually. It includes a center in Placerville and a new center in South Lake Tahoe, CA.

Via EPR Network
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