It’s one of those “everybody knows” data: It’s the irresistible cravings that make drug or alcohol addiction so hard to beat. Cravings for addictive prescription drugs, illicit drugs or alcohol are so strong that addicts will feel like life itself is dependent on getting and consuming their addictive substance.

In fact, drug and alcohol abuse creates cravings in two distinctly different ways. Drugs and alcohol rob the body of essential nutrients and that depletion causes tiredness, pain and cravings that an addict may want to cover up with more drug or alcohol use. Plus these substances leave behind toxic residues stored in the fatty tissues that are easily reactivated by stress, exercise or intense emotion.

These stored residues can interfere with hormones that affect moods and energy levels. That disruption causes cravings for what the body lacks or a similar substance, such as the drugs that originally caused the disruption. The reactivated residues can also act as a physical trigger for memories of drug-related experiences and discomforts from the past, causing a desire for more drugs or alcohol at these times.

The solution? A thorough detoxification of residual drug or alcohol toxins with a carefully-monitored program of exercise, sweating in a sauna and nutritional supplements. This is the Narconon New Life Detoxification Program, developed by author and humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard in the late 1970s.

“The Narconon New Life Detoxification Program has been helping people eliminate their cravings for nearly 30 years,” stated Ryan Thorpe, Director of Admissions at Narconon Arrowhead, one of the country’s leading drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers. “Our sauna detoxification program is a major reason we have a seventy percent success rate two years after graduation from our program. It is such a powerful program that those on this program talk about smelling or re-sensing the drugs being emitted from their bodies while they are in the sauna.”

After receiving medical approval to start, and under continuous and close supervision, people on this program exercise to stimulate circulation, spend time in a dry sauna and take a specific regimen of vitamins and minerals proven to support thorough detoxification. The end result of this program is a person who can think more clearly and whose physical cravings have been alleviated. The positive effect of this program is clearly evident in this compilation of comments from those who completed it:

“My sleep is great, my thoughts are clear and I don’t think about drugs anymore…” “I had the scent of alcohol coming out of me…” “My senses have improved enormously…” “The aches and pains have subsided and I can sleep for eight hours straight…” “Depression is now a thing of the past…” “(The) sauna (program) has also made me more calm and has gotten rid of my compulsive thoughts about using drugs…” “I don’t have that foggy feeling in my head that I used to have…” “I am not an evil person like I was on drugs.”



Thanks to addiction for contributing this article to our Addiction blog:

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I’ve always thought that it was just therapy, counseling, and rehabilitation that’s used to treat addictions. But recently I found out that others are given medication as well. I was just wondering what these drugs are.

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