Rehabilitation at our centre is built on a professional psychotherapeutic process that draws on elements of the twelve-step programme. What follows is a full and open account of what we call our treatment philosophy: the set of beliefs that everything else here grows out of.
Advice on how to treat substance dependence can be found in serious scientific journals, in books with a mystical slant, and in newspaper advertisements of every kind. The range of methods on offer is extraordinarily wide: from brain surgery to incantations said over a photograph, with the patient nowhere in the room. The timescales vary just as much — from several months to a fifteen-minute conversation with a psychic — and some providers even offer a guarantee for a fixed period.
Every method rests on its own theory about the causes of alcoholism and drug addiction, and on its own approach to rehabilitation. So when you are choosing a centre, what matters is not the name of the method but what that centre actually believes.
By treatment philosophy our team means the system of views and convictions our staff have agreed on. It sets out how we regard alcoholism and drug addiction in general, defines the goals of the rehabilitation course, explains the elements of the treatment programme in detail, and shapes the treatment process itself.
For a long time alcoholism and drug addiction were treated as questions of a person's moral character. When someone failed to stop using, it was put down to unwillingness on their part rather than to an inability.
In 1956 the World Health Organization recognised alcoholism and drug addiction as illnesses that cannot be cured outright, but whose progress can realistically be halted. That is the view we work from.
Alcoholism and drug addiction are not symptoms of some larger underlying problem. We do not regard a poor upbringing, a difficult social environment, family problems, lack of education, mental illness or learning disability as the cause of the illness. All of these can help it develop, but none of them causes it.
If nothing is done to stop the use, the person's condition deteriorates gradually — and sometimes quite fast — until it kills them. This also means that the course of the illness can be predicted with reasonable accuracy.
In most cases the people who first recognise the problem are not those who are ill but those closest to them: relatives, friends and colleagues at work. The person themselves accepts that they are ill much later — a year or two, and sometimes ten years, after their family first said so. Patients already staying with us confirm this themselves.
Our experience shows that once a person has lost the ability to drink in a controlled way, or has become dependent on drugs, they cannot go back to using without damaging their health, even after a long period of abstinence. In our view, therefore, the only effective treatment is to help the person give up mind-altering substances completely and to combine that abstinence with a programme of personal growth.
The six stages of rehabilitation at ISTOCK: consultation, motivation, assessment, detox, the main programme and aftercare once treatment ends.
What the twelve-step programme is, why we use its elements inside a professional psychotherapeutic process, and what that means for the person in treatment.
Denial is the psychological defence that stops a person from seeing their own addiction. How it works, and what the family around them can do about it.
What happens after discharge: returning to work and family, the first months at home, staying sober, and ongoing support for relatives as well.
No. We use elements of the twelve-step programme within a psychotherapeutic process, and the spiritual side of it has nothing to do with belonging to a denomination. People of any convictions take part, including those with no religious belief at all.
Because a complete cure is not possible — what is possible is halting the progress of the illness. A centre that promises a guarantee for a fixed term either does not believe what it is saying, or means something else by treatment.
Because the environment a person used in is usually part of the illness. A few weeks away from it make it possible to work on their thinking instead of on yet another relapse.
The length depends on the substance, on how long it has been used and on the person's state of health. A precise answer comes after assessment — not as a way of avoiding the number, but because no two cases are the same.
These reviews are not written by us: they sit on our Google profile, where the owner cannot delete an inconvenient one.
Good afternoon, this comment is for parents and relatives who are experiencing family problems! My daughter went through rehabilitation at this center, and she's finally sober and happy. I was desperate and didn't know where to turn. Miraculously, I found out about this place. My daughter went there herself and completed the full course of rehabilitation. The center is open and there's no moral pressure. They treat us with love and care, and they've really helped me and many other parents understand their children better! I'm eternally grateful to you, you've changed our lives and done what others couldn't do!!!
I want to express my deepest gratitude: my friend has already been clean for a year. With the help of this Rehabilitation Center, he began to recover and is now getting his life back on track. Using the knowledge and skills he gained at the Istok Center, he is trying to resolve his current problems and worries and is even helping others do the same! Thank you for opening his eyes and giving him a choice about the life he wants to live. Thank you for that!
A very good center!!! Thanks to the staff and the director of the rehab center, I have completely changed my life after twenty years of severe drug use. My family and I are so grateful that there are people like you who can show us the right path and, most importantly, support us when we think we're lost. I recommend it to everyone!!! All you need is a sincere desire, and the rehab center staff will help you with the rest.
The consultation is free and anonymous. It is usually the family who call first rather than the person with the addiction — that is normal, and most recovery stories begin exactly there.
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