S wiss d oc t or s | Th e K u s n a c h t P r a c tic e
Swi ss do cto rs | The Kusnacht Practi ce
the structure of
addiction T
he patients who come here are not revealed even if they are famous or members of royal families. Their anonymity is ensured by long non-disclosure agreements. It is clear that problems like alcoholism or drug addiction must be treated far away from the
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public eye or noise… Dependencies can imperceptibly happen to people from all walks of life. These dependencies are not limited to alcohol or drugs; people can become addicted to food, sex, or anything. Today we will talk to the head of The Kusnacht Practice clinic, Dr. Lowell Monkhouse.
FO TO THI NKST OC K (1 )
TEXT Еva Velme
FOT O M AR YA NA HAUT MA N N (1)
The Kusnacht Practice is probably one of the most closed Swiss clinics. If its doctors do make public speeches or give interviews, they do so for participation in specialized congresses in subjects which are considered important for public information.
its harmful influence, and they cause a sense of euphoria. This is in many ways a psychological disease, or even a mental one. However, what the person will become addicted to – alcohol, heroin, cocaine, sex or food– is a secondary question; the main thing is what pushes them to do so. I have to find the reasons behind it and then eliminate them, and teach the person how to live with their altered brain, as their brain will never be the same again. This is like pickled cucumbers; they will never turn back into fresh ones. The same happens to an alcoholic’s brain, and it changes for Lowell Monkhouse ever. He is the founder of The Kusnacht – Will treatment not Practice clinic and a certified internahelp? tional class specialist in addictions – No. The brain has treatment. He was trained in and then practiced as a consultant for drug ad– Tell us please how you changed its way of funcdiction issues at the Hazelden Graducame up with the idea to tioning, and created a cerate School of Addiction Studies, Center establish this clinic. tain response to stress. So City, Minnesota, USA. He was a con– I had a friend who if people who were addictsulting doctor at inpatient and outpawas dying of alcoholed to alcohol tell you that tient clinics, including at Priory Fam ism, and I was looking they have changed and Place, Charter Day Care and Promises, and had his own private practice. for a way to save him. At can drink normally again, a certain point I underthey are lying. Only those stood that there was no who are not addicted to it clinic that could offer an efficient way of deal- can control their alcohol consumption. The alcoing with addiction treatment and so I decided holic’s brain becomes instantly hooked, and the to create it. person cannot stop. In 2002, I went to the USA to the world’s first – Do you mainly have patients with alcohol alcoholism treatment center, took a postgradu- or drug problems here? ate course and then did my practical training. – It depends on their age. Young people usuThen I studied this problem while working in a ally have problems with both drugs and alcolarge psychiatric clinic in London. I came to the hol, and the older generation mainly has an isconclusion that most patients that undergo treat- sue with alcohol. Another serious problem of our ment return to their bad habits because their ner- time is drugs, which result in addiction. Some vous system remains unbalanced; they still feel doctors don’t know that they prescribe medicadejected and irritable. If the true reasons behind tions with long-term consequences. For examthe disorder are not eliminated, the person quick- ple, people may become addicted to benzodiazly goes back to finding consolation in alcohol (or epines (a typical scenario ruins the person’s persomething else). Addiction is caused by internal sonal biorhythms). Medications sometimes bring anxiety, depression or insomnia, something that about drug-like addiction as the brain does not gnaws you from within. First people get used to understand whether these are the «legal» pills predrinking a glass of wine at dinner to relax, and scribed by the doctor or «illegal» ones; all of them then they want more and more... work in the same way. But alcohol is a poison, a drug. It is the only – How do you start working with the patient? drug that penetrates each cell of the body, so it – They arrive at the hospital and we conduct is much more destructive than heroin for exam- complex testing for a week to determine their ple. People get their kicks from this poison, as the neuronal chemistry, seeing what processes are brain produces substances to protect itself from going on in their brain and understanding what
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