If you checked out the main website of the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), you would see pictures of the brain everywhere. Even their director, Dr. Volkow, often poses by screenshots of brain scans in most of her pictures. Doesn’t this seem to be just a bit off the mark? It does to us.
See, many of these addiction scientists love focusing on the brain and chemical interactions and testing rats. Why is that? Their underlying belief is that people are controlled by their brains instead of having minds and spirits that can overcome physical situations (like brain chemistry), with the right help. This doesn’t mean that drug rehab centers should not use any physical rehabilitation techniques, in fact it is quite the opposite, but it does mean that people can and do have successful addiction recovery every day without taking more drugs to treat the chemicals in the brain.
Most non-12-step drug rehabs use more of an a holistic approach that includes nutritional therapy, education and some type of spiritual element rather than reducing someone to being powerless against the neurotransmitters, water and tissue inside their head. It just so happens that they are also typically much more successful than traditional programs.