Drug Treatment Success depends on you and your commitment to recovery. Recovering from addiction will probably be one of the most challenging things you will ever do in your life. It may takes hundreds of attempts to quit using your preferred compulsion or addiction. Drug and alcohol addicts have a particularly difficult time because of the changes the body goes through during the process of detoxification and the psychological effects of drugs and alcohol on your brain. A few things can make the process a little easier on yourself. Regardless of what you do, there will be tough times, no amount of ambition will minimize the effects drugs and alcohol has had on your mind and body, but it can be easier with the right attitude and support. Simply remembering that “this too shall pass” or “it won’t last forever” can help immensely. It won’t last forever, it will get better, it may feel endless, but as time goes by life will get easier the longer you stay sober.Pay no attention to relapse rates, even if the chances are one in a million that you will recover from
drug or alcohol addiction, you can always be that one. Nowhere else have I witness as many miracles, as in recovery. It seems like the people who appear to have what it takes to “make it” and have it all together, know all the right things to say, and attend AA meetings on a regular basis, can relapse more often as the people who don’t seem as motivated. We may have to quit a hundred times before it “takes”, many people have remained sober for years only to become relaxed and relapse, stay on “top of it”, addiction is sneaky and will swindle its way back into your life when you least expect it. By the way, the odds are WAY better than one in a million, I simply don't trust the statistics, because there is no way to truly count everyone that is trying to recover. Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step programs are a great foundation, especially in early recovery but it is not the only way to go. Combine whatever works for you, going to meetings and perhaps attending church, or taking up exercise, whatever it takes to distract you from your desire for drugs or alcohol. There is no “right” way to get sober, as long as you don’t use, the rest will fall into place. The change is not simply the absence of drugs and alcohol, but an entire spiritual change in your life. If we don’t research and address the reasons for our drug and alcohol use, we have the potential of relapsing that more quickly. Remember drug and alcohol use is not the problem, but a symptom of it. In many cases, the problem is the inability to deal with the underlying issues in your life that you probably don’t want to “deal with”, so instead of facing the problem head on, we use chemicals to avoid those undesirable feelings, numbing ourselves to the “real problem”.
You can recover from drug and alcohol addiction, it is your responsibility to yourself and your family to live the most gratifying and rewarding life you possibly can. No one else can make you happy. You are responsible for your own serenity and the benefits from your contentment will be infinite.
