Can addictions be cured?

It’s a common fact that most people have said no to the question of “Can addictions be cured?”. It has been said in alcoholics anonymous that is is arrestable, and then treatable over ones life-time. In other words their is no cure, you have to keep getting the treatment. The treatment has been, mostly a community system of AA or NA. You attend about three meetings a week. You keep your nose buried in the big book, and you keep your house and heart clean from all resentment and anger. If you ask can addictions be cured at an AA or NA meeting you’ll be told that it’s not possible. But there may be many more ways than one to skin a cat. AA works for many, many people. But definitely not for everyone. We have a growing addiction problem and relapse rates have soared into the stratosphere. The AA lifestyle, in a rapidly changing world, needs an update from science and spirituality combined. And, those updates are coming at us fast.

A popular mega-star teacher, Sadghuru, on youtube and in American culture was asked his point of view; can addictions be cured, we asked? His answer is quite extraordinary and his following about addiction is being supported by Deepak Chopra, Oprah and many others. Can addiction be cured? Here is his answer:

So let’s ask, Can addiction be cured? It depends on what kind of addict you are talking about. There are food addicts, drug addicts, alcohol addicts, sex addicts, suffering addicts, gossip addicts—so many compulsive types of behaviour about a variety of things. Gossip addicts, for example—do you think you can heal them? You can only make them change the subject. If they gossip in a way that is harmful to someone, you can make them gossip in a way that could benefit people. So, is addiction a disease? Any compulsive state takes away the ease from you—in that sense, it is a disease. Is it permanent? No. Even your being alive is not permanent—so where is the question of addiction being permanent?

An individual mess

Those who say that addiction is a permanent disease and treat it accordingly are themselves in a state of addiction; they are compulsive about doing something in a particular way. Each individual has gotten into this mess in his own way. Only to some extent, there can be a common treatment, but not entirely. You need to look at each human being and treat them the way it is necessary for this individual. Do we have the care and concern to attend to each one of them the way it is necessary? That is something we have to check when asking can addiction be cured? And above all, is it people’s right to always get into problematic situations and expect others to treat them? This also has to be looked at. A whole lot of people in this country [United States] think it is their right to mess themselves up and expect the government to fix them. If individuals do not take responsibility for their own well-being, no power on earth or in heaven can fix them.

Like most drug rehabs in Cape Town, we believe the most important thing is to establish that sense of responsibility for their own lives and to show them a better option. Otherwise, you will not get them off alcohol and drugs. Right now, this is the biggest experience in their lives. They are not going to give it up because you ask them to come to Sunday school or whatever. You have to show them something better. If you teach people a way to come to a bigger experience than what they have known so far, they will drop this rubbish. Look at my eyes. I am always stoned, though I have never touched a substance in my life. Everyone can be stoned in such a way all the time. It does not cost anything, neither money nor health. If you want, you can be super-alert, so alert you do not even have to sleep for days and nights.

Unless you teach them something better, they are not going to give up what they have found. It may damage the body, but they feel they have a bigger experience than people who work through the day, come back home, eat, sleep, and go back to work again. They think that is rubbish, and what they are doing is better. When they become helpless, when they get broken, you may be looking down upon them, but when they are high, they are looking down upon you. If they did not think it is better than whatever else is available around, they would not do it. In their perspective, it is good. Only when things go bad, when the body is broken, they come to you.

If someone comes up with a drug that does not damage the body much but keeps you in a hallucinatory state all the time, the whole population will go on it. In some way, human societies have failed to make the experience of life worthwhile for a whole lot of people, so they are taking all kinds of deviant ways to find something. We have to offer something that is more powerful than any drug and that leads to everyone’s well-being.

So can addiction be cured? We believe anything is possible at Pathways Centre. We choose to stay open to technology and scientific progress. Can you after all cure anxiety, or a common cold? Is depression or borderline personality disorder curable? There are many cases for both being true. So for now we need to think out of the box and jump at addiction, depression and anxiety from a new angle. Success rates of traditional rehabilitation are down in the single percentiles. We need new action.

For more information on can addiction be cured, contact us for information. We are an alternative to a drug or alcohol rehab centre. We provide courses in recovery that are world-class, modern and powered by highly experienced and registered team of professionals. Call 0824424779 or email info@pathwaysplettrehab.co.za