Adrenaline Instead of Amphetamine—Replacing Psychoactive Substances with Parachute Jumps

ABSTRACT

The “Adrenaline Instead of Amphetamine” program was launched by Gdańsk's MONAR association—a center for drug treatment. The purpose of the program was to show some alternatives to using psychoactive substances and to propose replacing these anti-medical behaviors with parachuting. The treatment effectiveness in this center is about 30%, and the program's effectiveness was 80%.

KEYWORDS:

• Anxiety/fear
• decision and control mechanism
• human factors

Author notes

Ryszard Makarowski is a Lecturer in the Department of Psychology at University of Gdansk and was awarded a PhD in 2004 from the University of Gdansk. He received a Masters of Chemistry in 1986 at the University of Poznan and Masters of Psychology in 2005 at the University of Gdansk. He is also a instructor pilot. Piotr Makarowski is an experienced Sales Manager with very good knowledge of the pharmaceutical and FMCG industry, acquired while working for large international companies. He graduated from the University of Physical Education and Sport in Gdańsk in 2007 with a Master's degree in Biological Regeneration. He is also a Commercial Pilot with a passion for flying for a lifetime. Zbigniew Kamiński received a Masters of Pedagogy in 2010 from the Gdansk Higher School of Humanities. He is also a skydiving instructor and psychotherapist.

Notes

1. Nowadays, instead of referring to someone as a “drug addict,” a description should be used: “people using, abusing, or dependent on various psychoactive substances.” However, for the sake of brevity, the terms “drug addicts” or “addicted individuals” will be used in this article.