After someone has agreed to come off drugs, the first step is to help him dry out.

Dry out means go through a period of withdrawal from drug use.

Workable solutions have been developed in Scientology which make it possible for a person to dry out successfully.

Before these solutions existed, coming off drugs was very painful.

The user, no longer taking the drug, went through withdrawal symptoms. These are the physical and mental reactions that a person experiences when he stops taking drugs. They are horrible. No torturer ever invented anything worse.

The person then had two choices:

1. Stay on drugs and be trapped and suffering with no hope of anything better.
2. Be so agonizingly ill while coming off the drug that it was almost too painful to bear.

Thus a drug user faced a most unhappy future.

Fortunately, two workable methods now exist which make it possible to come off drugs with the least possible amount of discomfort. Both of these should be used:

1. The person who is drying out should be given adequate nutrition. By nutrition is meant the proper food that the body needs to stay healthy. This includes vitamins and minerals. A drug user has deficiencies of vitamins and minerals. By deficiency is meant not enough of something that is essential for health. For example, drugs cause deficiencies in vitamin C, vitamin B₁, B complex and niacin. All these vitamins are essential to health.
   
   Giving the person vitamins and minerals while he is drying out has been found to be very important in a successful withdrawal. Instead of just having him stop taking drugs, with the pain and risk of failure, he is given large amounts of vitamins and minerals.
2. He should be given Objective Processes, which are techniques that help a person to look or place his attention outward from himself. Objective has to do with outward things, not the thoughts or feelings of the person. A process is an exact series of directions or a sequence of actions (a sequence is the order in which things happen) to bring a desired result.
   
   Objective Processes help a former drug user direct his attention off himself and onto his surroundings and the people and things in it. This action is very important for someone coming off drugs as it helps to bring him into present time.
   
   When properly used, Objective Processes ease the person’s withdrawal symptoms and, along with vitamins and minerals, make a successful withdrawal possible with the least discomfort.

If you know someone who is dependent on drugs, you can help him get through withdrawal successfully by using these methods.

If a person is suffering from a very bad addiction, it is best to send him to a good medical doctor for examination. The doctor may recommend special precautions that need to be taken for that person.

Some persons may have been put on a medicinal drug by a doctor and possibly should remain on it. It is up to the person and the doctor to decide what should be done in those circumstances.