Treatment of addictions is relatively recent within the clinical-focus field. Treatment procedures to combat addictions (both chemical and non-chemical) have varied and evolved remarkably during the past 50 years. Due to the fact that most substances were considered illegal and marked as taboo, they were excluded as part of academic or scientific university knowledge over the course of many years.
The history of treatment for addictions dates back more or less to 1930, when the first psychology and psychiatry faculties started to surface. Psychiatry faculties practically stemmed from philosophy faculties in France, Great Britain and the United States of America, more or less at the same time. Psychiatry is a science that came from medicine and clinical psychology, and so it started to study the problem with alcohol.
Science in those times was still quite embryonic; there were virtually no psychopharmacological treatment methods to manage anxiety, which explains why these procedures started off from a spiritual way of management. This is why the earliest groups of Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) appeared, whose purpose is that of obtaining a spiritual awakening resulting from the 12 steps, the methodology of the 12 traditions and the 12 steps, which is the ethic that guides Alcoholics Anonymous. The twelfth step of this method precisely talks about this spiritual awakening. Actually, the 12 steps got materialized in the Serenity Prayer written by American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, who accepted the use of a shortened version of his prayer by the A.A.
As diverse sciences gained terrain, primary clinical treatment methods came forward in the United States around the 1950s in psychiatric institutions in Kansas and Minnesota. Later on these methodologies travel to some Miami hospitals, where the 12-step method is publicized somewhat integratively, combining the clinical and the therapeutic. Afterwards, these treatment procedures make their way out to different parts of Latin America, with Colombia among them.
During the 60s and 70s the first protocols denominated detox or detoxification were started, protocols which in essence covered symptoms associated with abstinence or withdrawal of addictive behaviors such as compulsive eating or gambling as well as different psychoactive substances.
The 1970s saw the evolution of the first treatment procedures based on molecular medicine and psychiatry, derived from the research studies by two-time Nobel prize winner Dr. Linus Pauling, who was awarded the Nobel for both chemistry and peace. In connection to this, three Canadian and one American psychiatrists made advances to initiate the formulation of minor elements such as nutritional supplements, essential amino acids and mineral salts, in order to obtain benefits in the field of phenomena associated with neuro-mismatch and neurotoxicity. We know nowadays that addictions are a disease; therefore, any approach for the treatment of addictions that fails to view them as a brain disease must be immediately disregarded.
Proper treatment of addictions must not be of a fundamentalist nature, keeping in mind that what worked well on one occasion may not do so in all other cases. Here we must consider what the first step makes reference to: impotence (powerlessness) and ungovernability. Impotence is presently represented, as we know well, a brain disease which causes malfunctioning in brain connectivity and in the stimulation of certain nuclei, chiefly the amygdala, the hippocampus and the Nucleus Accumbens. This lack of power is responsible for leading the person to lose control over abstinence to then start the addictive ritual all over; it also causes loss of control over substance intake, thus causing the individual to dissociate his/her personality, to lose all control and thus become completely ungovernable.
Upon examination of the term ungovernability we can see that for many years there have been methodologies proposed by Kraepelin, Adler, Ellis, Horney, Alport, Maslow, Rogers, Millon, Otto Kernberg and many others who converge in the comprehension of personality diagnosis ―methodologies contained within the international diagnosis manuals, in books and in modern psychology academies― for accurately defining the different types of personality disorders, whether it is the inclination to isolation, social withdrawal or emotional instability, or even volatility in self-concept and anxiety disorders. All this clearly indicates how imperative it is treating the many personality disorders in the most effective way possible.
Statistically speaking, it has been demonstrated that over 85% of addictions (except genetic or inherited addictions) have an extremely important personality component in need of treatment. Likewise, there are a number of aspects that are of relevance to the self which gradually deteriorate as a result of a series of cracks in the individual’s own identity and poor self-concept. This situation leads the person to conceive him/herself in a way that is somewhat distant and distorted, or lacking adjustment and acceptance within self-concept as such.
At Future Function Rehabilitation and Detox Center, treatment of addictions has been a national and international model and go-to reference. Through our Integral Approach we offer the most powerful and helpful tool ―of which we are designers and pioneers in Latin America―, as shown by the results obtained by our team of psychiatrists, specialized psychologists, anthropologists and specialists in family, groups and in spiritual techniques. Our perspective is in essence humanistic, person-centered, as opposed to merely labeling symptoms and rendering diagnoses. It is of great importance to understand theology in addictions, a subject matter we go over in depth on the basis of thorough diagnosis, even along with a treatment plan so as to find out whether there are genetic constituents or aetiology in the personality. With us you will find the finest solution for treatment of addictions available in the country and in Latin America.
Due to the above reasons, we at Future Function Rehabilitation and Detox Center provide deeply professional treatment for addictions, taking the ever important aspect of spirituality through phenomenological schools or psychospirituality, which is a giant step ahead of similar or comparable techniques. Fundamentally, we seek to encourage and strengthen the senses of conscience and elevate the levels of conscience so patients reconcile with themselves, a reconciliation with a new signification of the self and its different surroundings, both past and future.
Our treatment of addictions focuses on bringing the person into the present time, so the individual is capable of building up a life plan that is fully adjusted to his/her abilities and skills, and encourage in the person emotional, social and spiritual intelligences. Statistical results of our treatment methods for addictions ―in chemical as much as in non-chemical addictions ―have been extensive against the different symptoms, with some of the highest figures in the Americas in that regard.
Accordingly, we offer an orthomolecular psychiatry-based system, utilizing essential vitamins, minerals, salts and amino acids which help not only with brain detoxification but also with brain nutrition so as to carry out a completely neuroplastic process, adjusting these connections within neuronal networks, all of this supported thanks to the multiple range of activities we offer.
With our services you will find a real, effective solution to your problems with addiction, since we offer fully specific, personalized treatment techniques, with a top-quality team of professionals who manage groups of up to eight (8) people when in internal in-admittance treatment.
Treatment of addictions at Future Function Rehabilitation and Detox Center is provided in three modalities: residential (in-admittance), outpatient and external consultation, thus fitting each of our customers’ specific needs. There is no such thing as a single treatment for all patients, so our treatment plans are designed in accordance with each patient’s symptomatology and particular needs, which accounts for our results. Our patient service rate is one to one, which provides an extraordinarily careful attention to people who know they can choose.