AHS Views

Here’s an unusual addiction help treatment being used in Australia – surfing. LJ’s Surf Clinic was set up by a former drug addict who just couldn’t find anything he was more interested in than drugs. Surfing, he discovered, was a challenge that motivated him to stay alert and in good physical shape, which means being clean and sober. He’s now 53 years old and helps others get off alcohol and drugs by learning to surf.

There’s a lot to be said for getting involved in sports, or anything else you’re passionate about, to stay off drugs. But I wonder what happens to people when they go home after their nine-month stay at the surf clinic.

If they can surf at home, that’s great. But most people don’t live in an area where they have rolling ocean waves nearby. Also, how are they going to make a living? They’re going to have to do something other than surf, unless they’re pros, to pay the rent.

For some, it may be enough. Being out in the elements and presented with physical challenge has a tendency to make us think differently – to look at life with a new perspective, get a boost in self-esteem and a new respect for the body. Some will also examine what’s going on their lives, who they’re hanging out with, whether not they’re really happy with their career and so on. And that may enable them to make the changes in their lives that need to be made to stay sober when they get back home.

But others will get back home, be faced with the same old problems that drove them to alcohol or drugs in the first place, and they’ll relapse.

Now – if the surf club also included a mandatory examination of one’s life and helped lay out a plan that included more than surfing, we might have a combination of addiction help services that really turns people’s lives around.