Although drug and alcohol relapse are commonplace, relapse stems only from one of two causes. The first cause is physical cravings and compulsions to use drugs or alcohol and is broken down into two parts. The second cause of relapse is the accumulation of transgressions that form guilt, anger, and shame that have accumulated during the addiction and remain unhandled and burdensome to the person using drugs or alcohol.

Relapse stemming from Physical Cravings:

When drugs or alcohol are taken in excess day after day, week after week, and month after month the person forms a physical dependency on the drugs or alcohol, and the body and mind become conditioned to having the drugs or alcohol present. The addicted person's body and mind make changes and accommodations for the drugs or alcohol. Once the addicted person attempts to quit using drugs or alcohol the body and mind go into withdrawals. The first stage of withdrawals are what are called "active withdrawals" and are commonly associated with severe flu like symptoms, high anxiety, inability to sleep, mood swings and the like. Most addicts, families and treatment centers make the mistake that once the active withdrawals subside that the person is "Detoxed." This could not be further from the truth. The truth is once the addicted person decides to quit the drugs or alcohol, and does stop using; from that moment forward the person will have 60-90 days of constant thoughts, urges, craving, compulsions and dreams, to use the drug(s) or alcohol. These symptoms are messages being sent from the addicted person's body and mind, and this occurs because the person's body has now been forced to get used to having the drug(s) or alcohol present and when they are absent the body and mind are sending "reminders" to the person to use the drug(s) or alcohol. The good news is that the body and mind will go back and return to that of a normal drug free person, the bad news is that most people addicted to drugs and/or alcohol cannot make it through the first few crucial months of hourly unrelenting thoughts, urges, cravings, compulsions and dreams to use the drug(s) and or alcohol.

The second part of the "physical cravings cause" of relapse stems damage to the addicted person's organs and their body's inability to breakdown and process the drugs and/or alcohol. The human body was never intended to process large quantities of harmful drugs. The two organs that are employed to filter out impurities and toxins in the human body are the liver and the kidneys. Most people are familiar with what happens to an alcoholic when years of drinking causes their liver to stop functioning and cirrhosis of the liver occurs. What most treatment centers and drug rehabilitation programs overlook is that long before the liver stops functioning there is damage caused to it and it becomes unable to effectively process and breakdown the drug(s) or alcohol. Also overlooked is that not only is alcohol toxic to the body, it causes damage to the liver and kidneys. Crystal Meth, Opiates, Benzodiazepines, Cocaine, Crack, Pain Killers, Marijuana, Sedatives, Tranquilizers and Hallucinogens are also toxic and cause liver and kidney damage.

All these drugs must be processed, broken down and gotten rid of by the body. As the addicted person uses more and more of the alcohol or drugs, the liver and kidneys become less and less effective of breaking down the drugs and getting rid of them. What happens to the drug parts that are not fully broken down and gotten rid of? Simple, they are still present in the person's body and usually attach themselves to fat cells and are trapped there. Fat cells are present (in the millions) in everyone's body no matter what gender or body type the person is. These drug toxins and leftover drug residues accumulate in the person's body and are triggers for future relapse later when they are released back into the body. The re-release of these drug particles, also known as drug metabolites, usually occurs when fat cells are burned during periods of physical activity or stress. One does not need to run a marathon to have them re-released it could be as simple as walking to the mailbox or getting in an argument with a family member where stress and increased heart rate and blood pressure occurs. Once these toxins are re-released the person will get a craving, thought, urge, sometimes can taste or smell the drug or feel the effects of it and they then go and use the drug or alcohol and relapse occurs. These drug or alcohol toxins can stay in the body for years if left alone and they will be released at various times causing relapse. The solution to ridding the body from these drug and alcohol toxins and speeding up the body's natural process is the "New Life Detoxification Program" also known as the body cleansing and purification program. See the Utah Attorney General Video and the Video of "A Word from our Medical Director" for more information on this effective process.

Relapse stemming from unhandled traumas and transgressions:

The second cause of relapse is unhandled traumas or transgressions that occurred before and during a person's drug use that have negative emotion attached to them. When investigated a person generally makes an uninformed decision to start using drugs or alcohol in excess because of some issue or uncomfortable situation that is occurring in their life. It can be as simple as a boyfriend, girlfriend breakup, parents' divorce, problems at school, social inability with friends or a long list of other more severe problems. The person at that time does not realize the amount of trouble and size and scope of the suffering that will occur as the addiction progresses, as if they did, they would many times come up with a different solution than using drugs or alcohol to "escape" the problem or problems. Of course the drugs or alcohol does not solve their initial and original problems but merely masks them and then of course many other problems are created and accumulate as a result of the drug or alcohol use and abuse.

As the addiction progresses, the person will generally do things to get the drugs or alcohol that they are not proud of and later regret. They will generally manipulate people and situations in order to continue to feed their addiction. They will lie to people who care about and love them and who they care about and love as well. The addicted person loses all their personal integrity, the morals and ethics they were taught and raised with go right out the window as the addiction will now drive them to do whatever necessary to obtain the drugs or alcohol. Because the addicted person inherently knows right from wrong and good from bad, the negative behaviors they practice to obtain the drugs builds up negative emotion in the form of guilt, anger and shame. When the person is sober they are left to confront their actions and think about them which become overwhelming so they must then go use the drugs to forget and numb their negative actions, transgressions and behaviors. This of course becomes a vicious cycle and the addicted person digs the hole deeper and deeper until they can no longer see a way out.

When the addicted person attempts to quit or abstain from drug or alcohol use and "sober up" they very quickly see and reflect on all of their negative actions and behaviors. This is of course overwhelming and the accumulation of the guilt, anger and shame associated with these transgressions will drive them to seek the drug or alcohol out and relapse. The solution to this not occurring and preventing relapse, is to have the person first fully detoxify properly from the drugs or alcohol and then have them go back and talk about, write about and take responsibility for their actions by re-living each transgression and seeing the implications and effects of their actions on the people and family members around them. This, coupled with making amends to these actions, will be the only actions that "free" them from the accumulated guilt, anger and shame of the actions they did and participated in while abusing drugs or alcohol. Here, the underlying issues and deficient social skills, learning ability, and lacking relationship skills will need to be addressed. Lastly the person must be taught the proper life skills and coping skills to handle problems in the future when they arise instead of turning to drugs and alcohol as the solution. This is all handled at all Narconon Fresh Start Programs in the Cognitive Behavioral Rehabilitation and Life Skills Counseling that go on to address each part of the program participants life and rebuild them to be an in ethics, responsible, drug free contributing member of society. Read more about this in the Program Overview and Guide and Full Program Description.

In conclusion, relapse is too common of a theme and can be avoided by taking the above actions and steps. Many drug treatment centers and drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs have come up with countless reasons for relapse, the newest of which is "relapse is part of recovery". This of course is not scientific or rational and stems from very few people getting success from poor rehabilitation models, quick fix group therapy or drug substitution programs that are ineffective and bad rehabilitation technology. The fact is that if the problems causing relapse are fully understood, then an effective treatment model can be drawn up and put into practice to prevent relapse and give each person the ability to live a drug free life. Such a model was developed 45 years ago and is put into practice each day and each year since 1966 and is in practice at all Narconon Fresh Start Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Programs.

Caution: If you hear things like "relapse is part of the process of recovery", "the person must hit rock bottom in order for the treatment to work", "The success rate of our center depends on the willingness of your child or family member", "Most addicts need 4-6 drug rehabs before they can kick the addiction and remain sober", "your son, daughter or family member has a disease which cannot be overcome but only controlled"; know you are talking to a treatment center or counselor who has an ineffective approach to rehabilitation, has been riddled with many failures and has latched on to these justifications that others use to explain the reasons for their treatment or therapy failing to produce drug free contributing members of society. Call 855- Rehab-Center (855-734-2223), and get real effective and proven help.