Addiction is treated in many ways: an addiction specialist and therapy, aversion "coding" procedures, a locked door at home. None of it achieves much while the person has no wish to recover. Here is what actually works, and why.
The first approach that works is Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings. People share their experience, and in the first months of sobriety you need to go every day. There is no deep work on past mistakes to begin with: the first goal is to stay sober for 90 days, and only after that does the work on yourself start.
The difficulty lies elsewhere: the temptation to relapse is very strong, and everyday obligations do not go away. Work, family, habits. Finding the time for meetings on your own is hard, and easy to put off — after all, the person knows one "reliable" way of dealing with exhaustion.
In the centre a person joins those same therapeutic groups, but stays in them around the clock. The need to take care of the basics — money, food, a roof over one's head — falls away.
Coming through a hangover and withdrawal in a caring environment, among people in the same position, is far gentler than doing it at home. The first two weeks are what we call quarantine: the person can eat more (while using, that need is usually forgotten), rest up and get warm, even if sleep has not yet come back.
During this time they get to know other people with an addiction, and that is when it sinks in that addiction really can be treated, if you want it to be. Acceptance of the illness and of one's present state follows, and with it the wish to be well.
A centre is not simply a restricted space. It is round-the-clock attention from the staff and from the residents themselves to how a newcomer is doing, and an understanding of what the person is going through. There is always someone there to listen.
The rules of the centre limit contact with the outside world, to keep the person away from people who do not understand the problem and from the triggers that can push them back into using. At first this almost always meets with resistance.
Those same rules gradually bring back skills that have withered: keeping things clean, looking after one's appearance and health, caring for someone else. In a group it comes more easily — there are dozens of people alongside you, and every day each of them shows by their own example what working on yourself looks like, how people change, and that there is hope it will work out.
Counting first a month of sobriety, then three, then six, a person builds a new set of values. Everything the substance had replaced during the using years comes back into their life and begins to bring pleasure again. The setting, the rules and the community of the centre protect this common sense while it is still new and fragile.
That is exactly the aim of the whole rehabilitation: to restore the common sense that was lost, to build new social skills, to develop a spiritual side and to teach the person to live differently. Leaving the centre, they understand the value of sobriety — and that what was lost comes back with it, while new possibilities open up. There is only one condition.
They can be, and for many people they help. But in the first months of sobriety you have to go every day, while at home the job, the family and access to the substance all remain. A centre removes exactly these obstacles.
Because isolation without work on the way a person thinks treats nothing: the moment the door opens, all of it comes back. And at home they go through the worst of the physical withdrawal with nobody keeping an eye on them.
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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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