Understanding Addiction

Burning Tree provides relapse prevention programs specializing in long-term residential drug and alcohol treatment for adults with a relapse history. We serve adults who have been to other treatment centers and 12-step programs and have relapsed. Alcohol & drug-relapse prevention and a relapse-prevention plan are our primary roles. We are a drug-rehab program treatment center licensed by the State of Texas.

Understanding Addiction

“I came to Burning Tree a broken individual. Drugs and alcohol had become my master and serving it was leading me to certain destruction. The Ranch taught me how to live a sober life and how to love again. Ultimately, the Ranch gave me the freedom to live a healthy life.” -Dirk L

A core concept that has been evolving with scientific advances over the past decade is that drug addiction is a brain disease that develops over time as a result of the initially voluntary behavior of using drugs. The consequence is virtually uncontrollable compulsive drug craving, seeking, and use that interferes with, if not destroys, an individual’s functioning in the family and in society. This medical condition demands formal treatment.
–From “Addiction is a Brain Disease” by Alan I. Leshner, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health.

Our staff understands addiction. Burning Tree manager David Elliott knows addiction first hand. After bouncing in and out of multiple treatment centers, David landed in a long-term residential treatment center that helped him change his life and find long-term sobriety. Burning Tree recognizes the need for specialized treatment for the group of alcoholics and addicts known as “chronic relapsers.”

Understanding Drug Use and Addiction

*The following article is reprinted with permission from The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

Many people view drug abuse and addiction as strictly a social problem. Parents, teens, older adults, and other members of the community tend to characterize people who take drugs as morally weak or as having criminal tendencies. They believe that drug abusers and addicts should be able to stop taking drugs if they are willing to change their behavior. These myths have not only stereotyped those with drug-related problems, but also their families, their communities, and the health care professionals who work with them. Drug abuse and addiction comprise a public health problem that affects many people and has wide-ranging social consequences. It is NIDA’s goal to help the public replace its myths and long-held mistaken beliefs about drug abuse and addiction with scientific evidence that addiction is a chronic, relapsing, and treatable disease. Addiction does begin with drug abuse when an individual makes a conscious choice to use drugs, but addiction is not just “a lot of drug use.” Recent scientific research provides overwhelming evidence that not only do drugs interfere with normal brain functioning creating powerful feelings of pleasure, but they also have long-term effects on brain metabolism and activity. At some point, changes occur in the brain that can turn drug abuse into addiction, a chronic, relapsing illness. Those addicted to drugs suffer from a compulsive drug craving and usage and cannot quit by themselves. Treatment is necessary to end this compulsive behavior. A variety of approaches are used in treatment programs to help patients deal with these cravings and possibly avoid drug relapse. NIDA research shows that addiction is clearly treatable. Through treatment that is tailored to individual needs, patients can learn to control their condition and live relatively normal lives. Treatment can have a profound effect not only on drug abusers, but on society as a whole by significantly improving social and psychological functioning, decreasing related criminality and violence, and reducing the spread of AIDS. It can also dramatically reduce the costs to society of drug abuse. Understanding drug abuse also helps in understanding how to prevent use in the first place. Results from NIDA-funded prevention research have shown that comprehensive prevention programs that involve the family, schools, communities, and the media are effective in reducing drug abuse. It is necessary to keep sending the message that it is better to not start at all than to enter rehabilitation if addiction occurs.

A tremendous opportunity exists to effectively change the ways in which the public understands drug abuse and addiction because of the wealth of scientific data NIDA has amassed. Overcoming misconceptions and replacing ideology with scientific knowledge is the best hope for bridging the “great disconnect” – the gap between the public perception of drug abuse and addiction and the scientific facts.