Recovery Philosophy

Addiction to alcohol and/or drugs is a brain disease. Research has proven that this disease is a product of a genetic predisposition and/or an altering of brain chemistry with prolonged use of drugs and/or alcohol. At Amethyst Place we believe that recovery is a life-long process of healing and changing physiological, neurological, psychological, behavioral, social, and spiritual areas of a person's life.

"We now know in great detail the brain mechanisms through which drugs acutely modify mood, memory, perception, and emotional states. Using drugs repeatedly over time changes brain structure and function in fundamental and long-lasting ways that can persist long after the individual stops using them. Addiction comes about through an array of neuroadaptive changes and the laying down and strengthening of new memory connections in various circuits in the brain. We do not yet know all the relevant mechanisms, but the evidence suggests that those long-lasting brain changes are responsible for the distortions of cognitive and emotional functioning that characterize addicts, particularly including the compulsion to use drugs that is the essence of addiction. It is as if drugs have high jacked the brain's natural motivational control circuits, resulting in drug use becoming the sole, or at least the top, motivational priority for the individual. Thus, the majority of the biomedical community now considers addiction, in its essence, to be a brain disease: a condition caused by persistent changes in brain structure and function." (Alan Leshner, Former Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, NIDA)