Addiction is a serious problem around the world. More than 47,000 people killed by drug overdoses in 2014. By going into drug treatment, you are taking a great step in making your life better. There are ways to get the most of the experience and increase the chances that you will be successful.
- Keep your eye on the prize. Only you know the reasons that you have decided to enter drug treatment and what you have to go back to after you are through. If it helps, take a journal and write down your reasons and look at that on the days that you are not feeling great. It will help.
- Stay in the moment. It is easy to spend your time in the treatment program thinking and worrying about your life away from there. If you do this, you will miss out on the treatment and you will not get as much from it. One way to keep yourself in the moment is to ask a lot of questions. Engage in group and individual therapy sessions.
- There are rules for a reason. Not all the rules will make sense but they are there for a reason and you should follow them to the letter. When you are just getting into the addiction treatment center, you may find it hard to follow the rules but you need to. This is a way to learn some self discipline, which most addicts lack. It does not matter if you are there for alcohol addiction or opiate addiction, you need to learn self control and the rules will help you do that.
- Remember, Rome was not built in a day. It may be tempting to want to rush things but you cannot rush recovery. You need to learn to be patient with yourself, with other people and with the process. Recovery is not a destination that you can race towards, it is a journey you need to walk through.
- Focus on you. Every day, you should take a few minutes to mediate, think about what you are feeling or write down your experiences in a journal. Some people find being in drug treatment to be very stressful and taking a few moments to relax and calm your nerves can help a lot.
- Try to be open to the process. Some of the exercises you do may seem to make little or no sense but you may find they have a lot of value. The staff at the drug treatment facility know what they are doing, trust them and do the exercises as requested. You may be surprised by how they make you feel.
- Dedicate yourself to the process. You have a lot of control over your recovery but you have to really dedicate yourself to it. If you do not take it seriously or if you do not focus your energies on your recovery, you will really not get what you need to get out of the treatment you are getting. Part of this is being completely honest with yourself and with the people around you. You cannot recover from your addiction if you are not honest.
- There will be bad days. If you go into drug treatment knowing you will have bad days, you will survive them better. You will feel bad but the feeling will pass. Just try to remember that. You will feel better. It will get better.
- Stay positive. The more positive your attitude is and the more open you are to the experience, the better your recovery will go and the more likely you will be to succeed. When you are in a positive frame of mind, you can better deal with the bad feelings when you have them. They say that when you smile, your brain releases endorphins and they, in turn, make you happy. If you are having a bad day, try it. You have nothing to lose from flashing a great big smile.
By entering into a drug treatment center, you have taken a very positive step towards reclaiming your life. If you really commit yourself to the process and do the work, you will put yourself in the best position to profit from the experience.
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