The Narconon program is one of the most successful rehabs in the world.  There are many Narconon long term drug rehabs located across the globe. Narconon started in a prison in 1966 in Arizona by a man named William Benitez.

How Narconon Started

William Benitez, Narconon Founder

William Benitez

Willy, as he liked to be called, was arrested for possession of narcotics. While he was in prison he read a book called “Fundamentals of Thought” by Hubbard. The book concentrated on helping a person gain or regain abilities that they did not have or had lost that they needed for dealing with life and all its problems. The more that Willy thought about it, the more he realized that the information in the book could help people who were addicted to drugs and alcohol.

The more that he read, the more that Willy realized that drug addiction was really a lack of abilities. A person who was lacking the abilities needed to function properly in life would get upset about the fact that they had all these problems stacking up and they did not know how to handle them. The person lacked the abilities to prevent problems and also lacked the ability to handle them once they had been created.

An Addict Has Problems and Lots of Them

Often times the person was unknowingly creating problems for themselves and they would not even know it. Because they did not have the abilities to handle the problem they would start to get really uncomfortable with life and would eventually get so overwhelmed that they would feel really helpless.

If a person was suffering from a situation like this and they were introduced to drugs or alcohol the person would most likely feel a temporary sense of relief from the drugs or alcohol. It would make the person feel like they did not really have so many problems, or the problems that they did have were not really as bad as they thought. They would start to desire this feeling that gave them a sense of freedom from all the problems that they were facing. After a while they would feel like the only way that they had to deal with life and be able to confront the problems that went along with it was to be high or drunk on some sort of substance.

Drugs Numb Pain

The reason that someone gets high is because it gives the person numbness from some sort of pain that they are suffering from. This pain may be physical, it may be mental, or it may be both. Drugs are essentially some sort of anesthesia. All drugs numb the senses in one way or another. This is true for alcohol as well. Alcohol is really one of the first drugs that humans ever used, and has a very numbing effect.

The use of drugs and alcohol often causes in the user a feeling of no worries or a carefree attitude. This why people will occasionally have a glass of wine or a beer with dinner, they feel it helps them relax. It makes the person not be so concerned with anything that is upsetting them in their life for a temporary moment.

Addicts Want to Feel Numb all the Time

The problem occurs when the person wants to feel that way all the time. The person can get to the point where they would rather run away from their problems than face them at all moments. This can really wreck havoc on the person’s life because after a while it gets to point where they are not handling anything. Just because the person is unable or more accurately, unwilling to look at the fact that they have problems or difficulties does not mean that their problems or difficulties actually went away. It just means the person is not looking at them.

When the person gets really addicted, after a while they become so numb to the world they become unable to care about the fact that their life has turned to shambles. This can happen to anyone. There have been very successful people from all walks of life who have ruined their lives due to their addiction. Most of them are unable to care and refuse to feel regret over the situation. If they did, they might be forced to fix the problems and confront them. Since they do not want to care about their situations, they choose to just keep using drugs or alcohol instead. Instead of focusing on fixing the things that they probably should be worried about, they divert their energy into an obsession of getting high. It is because really all the problems that they have to face really are bothering them deep down, but for some reason they feel unable to do anything about it.

Willy Benitez Learned the Key to Fixing Addiction

That is why when Willy Benitez read fundamentals of thought it really hit home with him. He realized that his addiction had really been a way for him to not deal with the problems that he needed to be dealing with. He realized that if he worked on strengthening the abilities that he needed to deal with the problems that he had, he would no longer have the need to get high. These abilities that he was lacking were really just coping abilities. They were also the abilities that are needed to be able to see a problem for what it is, and also be able to see the solution that is needed to fix it. Once Willy started working on making the abilities that he needed to confront life stronger, his desire to use drugs or alcohol went away. He felt so good and even powerful over his own life, even though he was locked up in prison. Once he realized that this had worked so well for him, he figured out it would be able to help other people as well. He made a decision that he was going to help other people overcome their addictions as well by starting a treatment center. This was the beginning of Narconon drug rehab centers.

Continued in Part Two …