ARC Addiction Recovery Centre

Treatment Philosophy

ARC believes that addiction is a chronic, progressive, and incurable primary illness that often proves fatal.

Addiction has the potential to affect the physical, mental, emotional and behavioural wellbeing of the addicted person. As the addiction progresses, usage becomes more frequent and life becomes more chaotic. Over time the consequences of addiction impact on all areas of the person’s life including family, friends, employers and the community. It is the progressive nature of addiction that creates the need for recovery.

Dependency on alcohol and other drugs was once thought of as a moral problem. The addict was looked upon as a weak-willed individual who did not care about other people or even himself or herself. Today, of course, medical doctors, the clergy, and other professionals realize that chemical dependency is a disease which responds to treatment. Addiction is a pathological relationship with a mood or mind-altering substance or behaviour which renders one powerless and produces harmful consequences. The addicted person is often the last to accept the disease concept. But parents, spouses, and other people close to the addict are slow in identifying the disorder as an illness. This is because they, too, are simply too involved emotionally with the disease process.

With correct treatment, the disease can be arrested, making recovery- a happy and productive life free from active addiction- a possibility.