The main principles of the Gate Program
1 The most significant principal of the gate is that, we consider the addiction as a disease not as a delinquent or ethical phenomenon. Accordingly, some terminologies are defined as they are suitable for this vision. Hence, we must not use the word of "the addict" but we describe him as a patient with addiction disease. He is ill, not an ethically delinquent person, he needs the therapy not the punishment, and he must be referred to the therapeutic society not the prison. The therapists must commit to this principle; otherwise, it will be stigma of the psychological therapy
2 Recognizing the danger of this disease, we should acknowledge that the addiction problem is no longer a bi dimensional problem (ethical and criminal) but it extends to include more dimensions as it negatively affects the community with its different categories. This problem affects the developing and developed communities alike at present.
3 The increasing number of these patients is the most serious danger faced by the societies in addition to the rarity of the available therapeutic programs that help in the recovery from the addiction.
4 The addiction therapists use a certain therapy that helps this patient traverse only one phase, but it ignores the other aspects that need other therapeutic methods. Therefore, the therapy and rehabilitation are inadequate, leading to high rates of relapse.
5 The gate program considers with forming an integrated vision in treating the addiction. In other words, the recovery from addiction needs multiple therapeutic interventions with its different methods such as Insight-oriented psychotherapy, dynamic therapy, deeply clinical interviews, behavioral and cognitive therapy…etc. The gate program stresses the importance of the individual and collective therapy together in training these patients on the mechanisms of how to deal with the addiction, and helping these patients to obtain the necessary skills for the permanent recovery from the addiction
6 The gat is a therapeutic program specialized in the treatment of the patients with addiction disease. This program is based on different theories and schools of psychology with their multiple therapeutic methods as the author considers that these patients need all these different methods to overpass all phases of the recovery
Objectives of "the Gate" program
This program aims to help the patients with addiction disease acquire the curative culture which is the main means in facing this disease. This curative culture helps the patient know everything about his disease, how to deal with it, and how to continue to recover. The objectives are as follows
Helping
Helping the patient make the decision of the recovery for himself not for the others
Having
Having the patient aware of the features of the addictive personality,
Modify concepts
Helping the patients modify the addiction- related wrongly established beliefs
Admissions
Helping the patient accept the nature of this disease and deduce the positive aspects rather than the negative ones.
Behaviors
Modifying the addictive behaviors as they are the conditional factors leading to the relapse,
Training
Training the patient to acquire the mechanisms that help him face the mostly dangerous events of the recovery phase leading to relapse
Training
Training the patient on the mechanisms of how to deal with the drugs craving
Avoid relapse
Defining the concept of relapse and the stimulus combined with the substance use as they cause the relapse and how to face them
Training on the mechanisms
Training the patient on the mechanisms of how to deal with the defensive mechanisms as they are the unconscious leading to relapse,