Take Steps Towards Recovery

Take Steps Towards Recovery

How do you take steps towards recovery? A drug rehabilitation center is designed for that purpose, and that purpose only – to help the person who needs to get off drugs and get on with a clean, sober life. A drug rehabilitation center may have its own space or building, and may be situated in a location that can be considered “out-of-the-way”. In other words, the only reason to be going there is for drug rehab or to visit someone who is at the center.

Some hospitals and/or medical centers devote entire wings or floors to the operation of a drug rehabilitation center. Access to these areas involves great restrictions. No one knows the patient is there unless the patient wants it to be known. Some facilities may only operate on an “outpatient” basis. In other words, a patient may have to go to one place for a brief stay, and then go to the center for counseling sessions and follow-up visits.

Others may offer both services: inpatient (or resident) and outpatient. In this way, a person who, once having made the important decision to receive the help offered by the drug rehabilitation center, desires to do so can simply utilize the same area.

Drug Rehabilitation Centers Are Always an Option

No matter how the facility is set up, no matter where it is located, no matter whether or not a person can stay there for however long it takes for the rehabilitation process, or if the individual has to come and go, the drug rehabilitation center is there, and it’s available. If a person is dealing with a drug addiction, then that person should make the decision to go to the nearest one and do what has to be done to “kick the habit”, and get back on the road to recovery.

Recovery from Drug and Alcohol Addiction

Recovery from Drug and Alcohol Addiction

Life After Drug Addiction Recovery

When you have recovered from a drug addiction problem, you might think that you can go back to your life just as you always lived it. This is usually true, but there are going to be things that change that you can do nothing about.

When you have finished your drug rehab treatment program, and you are in recovery or a sober living facility, it is important to realize that you might always have cravings for the drugs that you were addicted to. It is also important to realize that you might not always be able to do the things that you thought that you could do. Sometimes, you have to change things about your life because you are aware of the fact that you just can’t be with the same people that you were with when you were using drugs, or do the same activities that you used to do when you were using drugs. If this is the case for you, don’t be surprised if you have to change some of your friends or activities in order to keep yourself clean and sober.

Recovery Is a Lifelong Process

It’s also important to remember that life after drug addiction recovery is really life IN drug addiction recovery. You are always going to be someone who has an addiction problem, and even if you haven’t used drugs in a long time the temptation is always going to be there to use drugs. You might need to realize that you will always have these temptations and cravings. In order to ensure that you stay in recovery and you don’t backslide into use, a good thing to do is find meetings that you can attend on a regular basis.

At these meetings, you are going to be able to discover that you are not alone, and that being in recovery is something that you can really learn from and make part of your life. You are going to have a group of people to fall back on while you are in recovery, and if you have been in recovery for a long time you might be able to help others as they begin recovery.

Life Gets Better In Recovery

Life after drug addiction recovery is something that can be sweeter than life before drug addiction. Through your treatment, you have learned lots of things about yourself, and lots of things about your drug or alcohol addiction. You should be able to really take full inventory of the things that you have learned and apply them to your life as a whole right now. You are going to want to be a completely different person now that you are clean and sober, even though you are the same person.

Who you are in recovery, after your drug addiction treatment, is the person that you always wanted to be, living the life that you always wanted to live. You are going to be able to take the world as you have always wanted to. After drug addiction recovery, your life is going to be the best that you ever thought it could be.

Do not be discouraged that recovery is going to be a process that lasts for your whole life. In reality, a drug rehab center is the best place for you to be, because you can be fully aware of yourself and your limitations and because of the things that you have learned during your drug treatment program, you are going to be less likely to ever have problems with drugs again. Recovery is a glorious place to be, and it is something that each person with a drug addiction problem should strive for.

Recovering from Alcoholism

Recovering from Alcoholism

A Brief History and Overview of Alcoholism

The disease or disorder known as alcoholism is one of the most destructive forces in society today, but it is nothing new. No one knows the exact origin of alcohol and alcoholism. However, beer jugs that were discovered and dated back to the late Stone Age established the fact that humans were intentionally fermenting beverages as early as 10,000 BC during the Neolithic period. Additional evidence was documented as far back as 4,000 BC in the Egyptian hieroglyphs of the period.

Alcoholism Addiction Treatment and Recovery

There are two schools of thought where recovering from alcoholism are concerned. One claims that the recovery stage never ends. In other words, once you are labeled a recovering alcoholic, you will always be a recovering alcoholic. The recovery stage never ends. Conversely, there is the group who feel that it is possible to be cured of alcoholism and that the recovery stage eventually comes to a close because the person remains clean and sober for life.

How to Start Recovering from Alcoholism

The following is the advice given by the NIAAA or National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to those individuals who are in the recovery stage:

  • Quit drinking altogether. Don’t just cut back.
  • Bring the issue to center stage. In other words, admit that you have a problem with alcohol.
  • Walk away from a relationship where you both drink. Recovering from alcoholism is almost impossible when you are in a co-dependent relationship. Invariably, the other partner will not support the one who is quitting, just like with drug-dependent relationships.
  • Find why you are self-medicating yourself. Make a list and divide it into three columns that are labeled as follows:
    • Column #1 – Things that Make Me Happy
    • Column #2 – Things that Make Me Sad
    • Column #3 – Things that Stress Me Out
  • Study that list once you’ve completed it, and then circle those items that are “triggers” or what makes you reach for a drink.
  • Now circle the positive ones and commit yourself to doing them more often.
  • Replace all the ones that make you drink with the happy ones.
  • Be patient and allow yourself enough time. Remember, it took you a while to develop your dependency on alcohol.
  • Visit your doctor and see if he or she will prescribe a medication that will help you quit drinking.

Let Our Referral Service Help You

The Rehab Advisor is the premier addiction treatment and recovery program referral website. For more information about our referral site and our programs for recovering from alcoholism, fill out the e-mail form above or call the toll-free phone number above if you want to speak with someone immediately.

My Addiction Story

Here is my addiction story. I started out just like many others; smoking cigarettes and thinking I was cool behind the local bowling alley. Like it is for so many, cigarettes were my first gateway drug. It wasn’t long past that I started stealing sips of alcohol from my parents liquor cabinet. Once i was used to getting drunk, and somebody offered me marijuana, there was nothing stopping me from trying it.

I stuck with marijuana and alcohol for a while but, when I got to high school and other drugs were introduced to me, I had no problem trying them. By this time I was addicted. Not necessarily addicted to any one thing, but I was addicted to being high. I would do anything offered to me and in massive amounts. It all seemed very normal and fun to me. It continued in college, but got much worse as there was much more available.

Getting Help

I flunked out of college and entered the work force. I chose a profession in the bar and restaurant industry, because it seemed to accept and almost promote drug and alcohol abuse. I would work in the bar and then spend my paycheck there at the end of the week.

After losing job after job due to my use, and after digging myself so deep in debt, and after my third time in jail for drunk driving enough was enough. With the help of a long-term drug rehab facility I was able to kick drugs and alcohol entirely.

I never realized life could be so great sober. I always thought I needed drugs and alcohol to deal with life. I realize now by using I was avoiding life rather than dealing with it.

How To Recover From Addiction

Addiction recovery really needs a lot of hard work, not only by the people in recovery, but also by the entire community, especially the family around them. On the family or community side, they need to see the real person within a person, not how they have been. (Though we have to consider that on the other side – that they are under the addiction recovery process). We have to go back to the fast of who they were in order for them to see themselves as before their good old selves. Remember them as the people once loved before and will still love in spite of their weaknesses, that we are their on their side ready and willing to help all the way till the end and after they recover from addiction.

Determination to Recover From Addiction

As for the people under addiction recovery, they have to really have a determination and self-control. They have to discipline themselves and keep reminding them of more damage addiction can do to them and to their loved ones or community where they are. See the goodness and how are they going to live after the addiction recovery with the family they once have and used to have before.

Family has to commit some changes for the sake of their loved ones in addiction recovery. We need to band together for support. Whenever we see any of us going astray or behaving differently, following up on our family relationship is immediately needed. But the best remedy of all for fast recovery is love. Let us keep reminding them and always be physical and emotional in showing that we love each other.