A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO REHABILITATION

Rehabilitation is traditionally defined as the act of restoring something that has been damaged to its former condition.

Rehabilitating people that has been damaged by addiction takes a special kind of approach as people are multi-dimensional and addiction is multi-faceted. Addiction affects people’s physical bodies in various ways even changing the physiology of the brain and how messages are being sent contributing to the perception that a loved one’s whole personality has completely changed. “He would have never done anything like this before” is statements that shocked relatives say in genuine bewilderment after unusual behaviour starts happening more and more frequently.

This is because, not unlike the phenomena witnessed in brain damaged patients, chronic and/or acute drug abuse can damage and change existing brain structures and neural pathways to such an extent that personality does seem to change dramatically.

Chronic activation of certain brain neurotransmitters responsible for feelings of euphoria or numbness can lead to desensitizing our brain to these messenger cells which later contributes to feelings of depression and anxiety further exacerbating the psychological and physical need for the drugs that now represent the only way for the addicted person to feel ‘normal’. The physical aspect of addiction is often the backbone of the belief that addiction is a disease.

A chronic and incurable condition that the addicted person will never be truly free from. Many well-meaning and quite successful rehabilitation programs are based on this belief. Abstinence becomes the only goal and means to success. The fact that the addicted personality seems to share some universal qualities is further used as justification that addiction can be classified as a disorder of the brain.

Even though this is true to an extent, this viewpoint does not make room for the whole colourful array that makes up the human experience and which fuels our hope for something more from rehabilitation than just life-long abstinence.

From a psychological point of view, addiction involves complex cognitive-behavioural-rewards systems meaning the parts of the brain that is responsible for evaluating a behaviour based on the relative reward that the person experiences as a response to the behaviour. The reward can be physical or emotional or a combination of both. In both cases the behaviour is repeated based on the positive reinforcement that is experienced as a result of the behaviour. This implies that habit forming behaviour is learned behaviour and can in theory be unlearned if the criteria for learning is met. Criteria for learning will include motivation to learn, a desire or drive to learn, and the perceived outcome of the learning experience. If there is no perceived reward, motivation to learn new behaviour will be low. Here emotions and previous experiences heavily informs perception, attitude and expectations of the rehabilitation process and will it be necessary to have insight into the addicted person’s emotional world and previous world experiences. 

From the above it is clear that addiction involves both cognitive and emotional processes and effect the addict in profound and very physical ways. As humans are in their essence social beings seeking interpersonal connections and validation, no behaviour happens in isolation but will always be rooted in the context of the social environment, being both affected by it and having its own effect on it.

This is why addiction affects not just the person, but at its closest sphere of influence the whole family and impacts even the greater community. School intervention and education are great tools to guard against the onslaught of drug rings and syndicates and a poor socio-economic environment that is the breeding ground for poverty and a culture of criminality. When we say we follow a holistic approach to rehabilitation we mean to say that we are interested in restoring people, in the full spectrum of what makes up their perception and experience of the world, not just to their previous condition (which took them down this path in the first place), but to a place of growth and insight that will allow them to view themselves as  powerful, passionate and purpose-driven people.

The true gift of freedom is the  freedom to choose something better. And in growth we become something more than what we were and can become contributors to this world instead of dependent on it for our sense of worth and value.

Human life is valuable and our time is immensely precious. This is the truth of our spiritual existence despite the condition of our physical bodies. Having a holistic view also allows for this truth to be explored and adopted right along teaching life skills and emotional self-control. The truth is, humans are complex and driven by lots of different needs.

Having a one-size fits all approach will never work and neither will a clear cause and effect view as our identity, emotions, intellectual health, our belief system and past experiences, are but some of the factors that motivates our behaviour.

These factors will very seldom be consciously known by the person themselves. Holistic Rehabilitation will facilitate insight, growth and long-term practical solutions that is focused on the health and well-being of all the many facets of the individual and a balanced integration of their life expectation and roles.