The New Life Program

kayla4New Life Retreat utilizes a unique program designed to handle the underlying causes of addiction.  The program uses licensed and certified medical and clinical personnel to deliver one of the most successful programs in the country.  The facilities grounds and accommodations offer a private “retreat” style setting which allows an individual a stress free, calm and supportive environment in which true change and recovery can take place.

The program begins with a drug free withdrawal where our trained staff support this early phase of recovery with nutritional support and specialized hands-on techniques which alleviate the majority of withdrawal symptoms.  Participants are supervised 24 hours a day until they have stabilized and are able to continue with the remainder of the program.  The licensed medical director and nursing staff are always on call and safety is a top priority.

Returning to Sobriety

This program brought me back from the edge of death that I had accepted as my life.

The New Life Program has been has been successfully helping addicts find a path to recovery since 1966.  It does this by first handling physical cravings with a unique sauna detoxification program designed to virtually eliminate the physical need for continued drug use.

It has been found that drug residues stored in the body can trigger cravings and cause relapse.  The sauna detoxification program is designed to flush out these residues and prevent them from continuing to effect the addict.  Many participants have reported increased mental clarity, improved health, and improved perceptions upon completion of the sauna program.

Regaining Self Control

Through a series of unique exercises, each person regains a fresh, new perception of his environment and world.  Positive self-control begins to return when the past has less effect on the person.  Part of self-control is learning to stay in the moment, not worrying what has happened in the past or what may happen in the future.  Lack of self control has not only caused drug addiction but has resulted in a great deal of anxiety about what the future may bring.

How Is Our Program Different?

12 Step programs are religious by nature. They require that control be given to a higher power in order to stay sober.  According to the Alcoholic’s Anonymous web site 95% of every person entering a 12 step program relapses within the first year of sobriety.  The popular 12 step saying “Relapse is part of recovery” stems from this fact.  Most 12 step programs are short term programs which rely on the person to go to meetings after they are done with treatment.  These short term programs are unable to address the underlying issues of drug dependence.

The majority of programs believe that drug addiction is a disease from which one can never recover.  The idea that once you are an addict you will always be an addict is also a fundamental belief of 12 step program

At New Life Retreat we believe that drug use began as a solution to a problem.  No matter what the problem was, drug use seemed to solve that problem.  it could have been the loss of a loved one or a physical injury which required pain medication.  Whether the problem was physical or mental using drugs solved the problem. The pain went away and life continued.  The real truth about drugs is that they work.  They cover up mental, emotional and physical pain so that a person can cover up the past.

The problem with this is that at some point the drugs quit working and more and more of the substance must be taken in order to achieve the same effect.  Since the drugs cover up the past very quickly a person forgets what sobriety was like, they forget that there was a time when they were doing well without them.  Continued use causes a physical dependence on the drug and no matter how hard a person tries to quit, relapse is inevitable.

In order to fully handle drug addiction both problems must be solved.The New Life approach begins with physical detoxification to remove the physical dependance on the drug.  Once the harmful drug residues have been removed from the the original problem that began the drug use can be addressed.

This process allows the person to realize that they have the power to overcome their own addictions.  While 95% of people who choose 12 step treatment relapse in the first year of sobriety, in our programs the majority of graduates get sober and stay sober for at least 2 years, and the majority of those go on to stay drug free for the rest of their lives.

How We Measure Success

While a typical drug rehab program measures success in days and considers relapse inevitable, our programs measure success in lives saved and the success of the individual graduate in their new lives.  The truth is that the majority of our graduates go on to lead a drug free life.

Narconon Louisiana New Life Retreat, Inc. is a BBB Accredited Rehabilitation Service in Denham Springs, LA