By Kieron McFadden

The fifth part of my serieson the basic nature of drug addiction.

What are cravings? How does someone deal with drug cravings?

One must understand the bio-chemical dimensions of drug addiction. Aftertaking a drug, something called "metabolites" are produced by and arestored in the body long after one has stopped using drugs. It is the creationof these metabolites that produces cravings and they are crucial to resolvingthe riddle of why addicts who stop using the drug revert to using them again.

When an addict uses drugs, his body's natural resources are disrupted anddepleted, creating deficiencies in vital chemicals. Metabolites are formed andact as a substitute for natural body chemicals - unfortunately they are a verypoor substitute!.

In the absence of nutrients key to mental and phycial health, the bodybegins to rely on these metabolites to play vital roles related to mental andphysical well-being.

When the addict attempts to stop using these drugs, the body, damaged anddepleted of its own natural body chemicals, will demand more of the drug so asto continue producing metabolites: hence the cravings. If he does not get themetabolites, he will experience profound mental and physical discomforts assevere deficiencies kick in.

One of the worst examples of this is the ache deep in the bones experiencedby the methadone addict: prolonged methadone abuse causes the bones to depleteof calcium and be "replaced" by the methadone, which then concealsthe calcium deficiency so long as the addict continues taking methadone. Whenthe methadone stops, the chronic calcium deficiencies quickly show up.

In short, the person is caught in a trap steel-sprung by the agony ofwithdrawal and the seemingly insurmountable cravings. It is this that bars theaddict from escape from his addiction.

The cravings are so intense and uncomfortable that they compel the addict todo almost anything to alleviate them.

Added to the pain, we then have a descending spiral of misdeeds and criminalacts comitted to alleviate the suffering and the addict's sense of self respectis steadily reduced to a state of complete confusion.

This very sense of self degradation and compounding misery fuels further theaddict's need for drugs.

The addict is caught in a trap that appears inescapable unless effectiveintervention handles the condition.

Fortunately such an effective intervention is now possible and something CANbe done about all this. The metabolites can be flushed clean from the body andthe body restored to health by a program of nutrition and that the person'sself-worth and identity can be rehabilitated through effective socialeducation.

Narconon has the solution. I have seen this solution at work. I recommend itto you wholeheartedly.