Let me tell you a little about what is going on with the addict and why these other programs don't work and what the solution is: in all of our brains there is something called neurotransmitters and what they are is like little roads that goes back and forth.  This is where our dopamine, seratonin and endorphins are produced; it's kind of God's natural reward system. 

When we are eating good; sleeping good; exercising, having sex, anything that we do naturally and normally we feel better, live longer and we're happier.    When a person drinks or does drugs we block off those roads in our brain.  It takes them about 25-35 days to start producing at a normal level again.  This is about the time that a person comes out of a traditional or twelve-step treatment program.   And if this was the only thing going on in our body we could go to treatment anywhere; come out go to meetings, counseling, church, after-care, half-way house whatever and stay clean.  But there is something else going on in your body and it is called Metabolization; what that means is that the drugs and alcohol are termed lypo-philic or fat-bonding so traces of the drugs and alcohol are stored in your body, so lets say that a person honestly tries not to use. 

Sometimes a person can go a few days; sometimes a few weeks; sometimes a few months, but not usually, all it takes is getting stressed out; having an argument with someone, not eating properly, running into a drug buddy at the store, getting a pocket full of money; anything that speeds up the metabolizism and the heart rate and the metabolites get released out into the system and go straight up to the brain and set off a drug or alcohol craving.   

It takes our body 3-5 years to clean up all these metabolites if we could stay totally clean off everything.  And in that period of time a person will have 100's and usually 1000's of cravings.  What we do here at Narconon is address the Biophysical part of the addiction and the mental and emotional issues.  We have a 76% Success Rate; most treatment programs have a 3-7% Success Rate.  The reason ours is so high is because we address the Biophysical 1^st and then the Mental and Emotional 2^nd. What we would do is bring a person in and put them on a strict regimen of vitamins, minerals and amino acids and then they would weigh in and do you vitals, then you will go in and out of a dry heat sauna just like at the health spa, as they go in and out of the sauna a person will drink approx. 2 gallons of water, well 2 gallons of water weighs 16 lbs, at the end of the day they will weigh out and do your vitals again and you will weigh out within a pound of what you weighed in that morning. 

This is how in a 30-45 sometimes 60 day period we will you accomplish what takes 3-5 years and that is to clean up the physical craving for the drugs and alcohol.  But this is only the 1^st part of the treatment then we will address the Mental and Emotional Issues through a set of classes or courses that are called Life-skill Therapy which means that we will teach you how to Control, Confront and Communicate with yourself, your environment and your surroundings.  So once your not physically craving the drugs and alcohol and you have handled the mental and emotional issues then you will be able to control your choices, confront life and communicate, set goals and accomplish them and remain alcohol & drug free.