Do I have to put my life on hold to deal with my addiction?

While you have to make some fundamental changes it is also important to maintain the positive aspects of your life. Work, family and support networks are so important in your recovery. Because coaching is a non-residential programme, it aims to assist you in establishing a non-using lifestyle within your existing life environment. At the end of the day, this is the environment you need to live in and stay clean in. Wherever possible, the programme is flexible to fit in with your life.

Do you offer personalised treatment?

Addiction Recovery Coaching is a personalised approach. It’s built around your needs and works practically in your life to create steps to improving your life now. SHARP offers clients versatility, flexibility and discretion. Should need be, treatment can be provided at home or at other predetermined locations.

Do you offer support to families?

Recovery is a very personal and private journey. However loved ones can offer enormous support during this time. We often work with partners and families, offering support to the entire unit, and this can be a great healing process. Of course all coaching and therapy is totally private and nothing you discuss in treatment is ever disclosed to anyone or any family members without your consent.

Do you only treat drug addiction?

Addiction Recovery Coaching can help people recover from any addictive behaviours – gambling, alcoholism, sex addiction and compulsive eating as well as drug addiction. It’s not about the behaviour, or the substance, it’s about understanding addiction and learning how to live life in the now free from addiction and need.

Is there such a thing as a successful addict?

No. Sometimes people who develop addictive behaviours have had no prior problems with addiction, no history of psychiatric problems or any other social problems, and do not seem to fit within the stereotype of a drug addict. They may not even appear to be traumatized in any way. They can be highly motivated, skilled and dynamic people. The problem is that once they have found something that takes them even higher, there’s no going back. So life appears miserable at the thought of never reaching that high again, of facing boredom and emptiness. Lasting recovery is about finding ways of getting high without drugs or other addictions.

What about the psychological effects of addiction?

Over time, certain things, people or places can become what psychologists call ‘paired’ with the addictive behaviour. In other words, one thing can lead to another. In addiction recovery coaching, you gain awareness of your trigger situations and learn how to manage them. And in time, you will become desensitised to the triggers and even extinguish some of those triggers for good. Coaching will help you gain control over cravings, and support you every step of the way.

What if I need a detox?

SHARP offers detox support in the home as part of the Addiction Recovery Coaching programme. This unique, medically assisted detox is very therapeutic and supportive. Support is provided one on one, and 24 hour care can be provided with an experienced personal nurse within the home. This provides for complete privacy and also the continual comfort of your own surroundings. SHARP also has psychiatrists, psychologists and psychotherapists specialising in substance abuse who can be called on. At the beginning of a detox, an assessment is done to see exactly what appropriate methods and support is needed.

What if there are physical withdrawal effects?

In some cases, addictions like cocaine addiction can leave you with a shortage of dopamine, and without enough dopamine you feel miserable and irritable. In extreme cases, adhenia can be experienced where it’s pretty much impossible to feel good about anything. Everybody feels a crash when they come down from the high that their addiction brings. And this of course can lead to a recurrence of the addictive behaviour, as a cure for the come down. There are methods such as auricular acupuncture believed to assist in rebalancing brain chemistry. Meditation or visualisation therapy which is learned during coaching is also effective in stimulating those feel-good neurochemicals which help to reduce physiological withdrawal effects.

What will it cost?

Your journey is unique to you, different people have different needs. Some may need more personalised attention on an ongoing daily basis, others may prefer less frequent sessions over a longer period of time. So the 9 month programme can cost from R18 000 to R40 000, again depending on the amount of care required. Compared to 9 months of residential treatment months, Addiction Recovery Coaching is a fraction of the cost.