I’ve worked in the addiction field for many years now and I see myself as having a good understanding of how addiction works but more importantly how to treat it.
Although the addiction client group can be difficult and challenging at times (that’s an understatement) ‘addicts’ and their addiction need to be understood. So you can imagine how shocked I was when I read about the Chinese ‘boot camps’ that are attempting to treat Chinese ‘clients’ for ‘internet addiction’.
Brutal is how I would describe it. The residents appear to be subjected to boot camp tactics of heavy handed army style discipline.
Resistance to treatment is a common factor which can sometimes play a major part in any addiction and this inappropriate kind of treatment only encourages enormous amounts of resistance. When treating addiction, you need to roll with the resistance, not increase it.
I laughed out loud when I read that in one of these boot camps the clients tied up a member of staff and escaped. I didn’t laugh when I read that staff at a different boot camp had been sentenced to imprisonment last year for beating a 15 year old to death.
Addiction cannot be beaten out of someone it can only be beaten with modern methods, patience and understanding.
Although the Chinese realise that they have an internet addiction problem and that there is a need for a treatment centre to deal with this, there is obviously a learning need in the treatment of addiction (another understatement).
