How to Know When You’re Ready for Drug Addiction Treatment
Some people say that you can’t be successful in drug and alcohol rehab if you don’t really want to go. Others say that successful drug addiction treatment goes deeper than that, that you have to lose everything before you can fully understand how vital it is to get clean and sober.
The research doesn’t show this, however. Some studies show that drug rehab can be successful even for those participants who have no desire to be there at first. Success, according to these studies, depends more on the length of your stay. In short, it doesn’t matter if you want to be there; if you choose an immersive, residential drug rehab program and stay there for as long as possible, your chances for success are extremely high. If you are considering outpatient drug rehab, however, those statistics no longer apply and your attitude towards drug treatment will significantly change your outcome.
You Have to Need Drug Addiction Treatment
Maybe this idea of “hitting rock bottom” is true for some people, but not all. I don’t even think that you have to want to get clean for an inpatient treatment program to have some impact. Drug and alcohol addiction, is after all, a chronic disease and everyone has to start somewhere. However, I do think that if you’re going to attempt an outpatient drug addiction treatment or day treatment program, you not only have to want it, you have to need it. You have to equate getting (and staying) clean with the other human needs (air, food, water, shelter). It’s that basic and that necessary. If you’re not on that level, if you’re still qualifying your choices and justifying “just one…” then you’re not ready for an outpatient drug rehab. You need an inpatient, residential drug and alcohol addiction treatment facility.
You Have to Be Done With the Life That Comes With Using Drugs
If you’re still enamored with “the life” of using, if you’re still nostalgic about “getting high,” if you’re still interested in the drama that goes along with chasing a bag or getting roaring drunk at the club, then you’re not ready for an outpatient drug treatment. Don’t get me wrong: even those who have been clean for years, even decades, are tempted sometimes. You may even have a few funny or good memories of getting loaded. But if you don’t also remember how sick the drugs make you when they wear off, how miserable you were on the roller coaster of chasing a high, how miserable everyone around you was while you destroyed your relationships and yourself, then the nostalgia will win and you’ll end up relapsing without the 24-hour support of a residential drug and alcohol rehab.
You Have to Have a Plan During Drug Rehab
Just saying you want to get clean isn’t enough, especially during outpatient treatment. You have to commit to your program and to the therapies, fully applying yourself to your treatment goals and really trying. You have to have a support system to help you through the hard times when you are outside of the facility. You have to have coping skills and relapse prevention skills almost immediately.
What’s your plan?
