Willingway’s philosophy of alcohol and drug addiction is a little bit different than the stigma and stereotypes that most people are used to. We believe that addiction is a disease that can be successfully treated with love, respect, and a solid program of recovery. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that our rehab center has employed some of the top addiction medicine physicians in the country, some of the most tenured nursing staff of any treatment center, and effective treatment programs that have been developed over the past 50 years. Besides all this, our idea on addiction is the same – We love you until you can learn to love yourself.
Alcohol addiction, generally speaking, is repeated drinking that causes trouble in an individual’s personal, professional, family, or school life. Drug addiction is drug use that presents problems in a person’s life.
Medically defined, alcohol addiction is a disease in which there is impaired control over drinking, preoccupation with alcohol, continued use of alcohol in the face of adverse consequences, and distorted thinking.
When someone with an alcohol addiction drinks, they can’t always predict when they’ll stop, how much they’ll drink, or what the consequences of their drinking will be. Denial of the negative effects of alcohol in their lives is common in people with alcohol addiction and those close to them.
Like other diseases, alcoholism is an interaction between the host (the person who gets the disease and his/her genetic and biological makeup), the agent alcohol and other mood-altering chemicals, and the environment.
There is no known cure for alcohol or drug addiction. The disease can be arrested through complete abstinence from alcohol and other addictive drugs. Once abstinent, most people recover from the damage caused by their drinking. More than 1.5 million Americans are currently in recovery from alcohol addiction.
Alcohol addiction is also a family disease, directly affecting others close to the addicted person. These other individuals need and deserve appropriate help to recover as well. Effective alcohol and drug addiction treatment programs include a family component and referrals to appropriate self-help support groups modeled on the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) twelve steps of recovery.
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