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NLP and the News
3. A More Effective Approach to Drug Addiction?
The UK government has recently announced a public consultation exercise on how to deal with the country's growing drug addiction problem. Which is very good news, as long as it isn't just window dressing and the minister(s) concerned are merely going through the motions because someone has already decided what is going to happen.
So, let's take an optimistic view - that practical advice will be recognised and taken notice of, and ask what use, if any, NLP can be in such a situation.
After You Stop - What Then?
Any NLP approach to dealing with drug addiction has to start by recognising where the real problem lies. That is to say, there are now several forms of treatment which make getting off drugs - even cocaine, heroin, crack, etc. - remarkably easy. So actually stopping taking drugs really needn't be a problem at all.
But if "getting off" is so easy, what is the problem? In two words: Staying off. And that really does present problems, especially if it isn't taken into account right from the start of any rehab programme.
In fact it is estimated that something like 70-90 per cent of all drug addicts who quit their habit have re-established their addiction within a year or less.
And for a very simple reason.
Very few rehab programs show addicts how to replace their addiction with a well formed outcome.
Okay, that may seemm simplistic. And it would indeed be foolish to suggest that just having a well-formed outcome would, of itself, resolve every case of drug addiction.
What I am suggesting is that NO drug rehab program stands much chance of producing long term success stories unless it includes some form of training in this essential skill.
After all, for many (most?) drug addicts, the business of finding, buying and taking drugs is the centre and focal point of their lives. And when they're not actually getting and taking drugs, large amounts opf time are devoted to hanging out with other addicts discussing stuff - like the peice of drugs, who's got drugs, the best drug experiences they ever had, the worst drug experience they ever had - in fact drugs, drugs and more drugs.
Coming off drugs is not merely a question of ceasing to physically take drugs - it means giving up a whole way of life. Taking on a task like that without a well-formed goal, accompanied by a well-formed plan as to how that goal is to be achieved, makes as much sense as
"
What is clearly happening here is a "clash of maps", so to speak.
Or a case of "insanity", from an NLP perspective.
I believe it was Einstein who said:
And these word games aren't merely crude propaganda. They are doubly dangerous insofar as they help to conceal the fact that certain important, possibly even more important maps are missing from the scene.
The maps of "the enemy".
If you'd like to let us know your thoughts on this subject, please write to:
bradburyac@hotmail.com
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