When someone is in an alcohol and drug rehab center at times it may seem like the whole family is involved. Honestly for many clients, all the siblings and parents pull together, to do the arranging and financial commitments necessary for it to happen. It always amazes me the length people will go to help another person. Doesn’t matter how many “bad” stories are on the news about human beings, the are far, far more stories of courage and kindness out there, they however don’t make the news.

Sometimes it is hard to know exactly what to do to support someone in rehab. When do you pull back and let the person deal with reality or fail on their own? One suggestion I have for people is to only deal with and comment on what you know for sure to be true. Don’t deal with what might be true, don’t deal with “there’s a slight possibility it is true”. Don’t deal with “Everybody deserves the benefit of the doubt“.

Those of us that thankfully don’t have an addiction controlling our lives routinely give others the benefit of the doubt. Giving this to people in a drug and alcohol rehab center or those with a severe addiction may be harmful and certainly won’t help them. When you are trying to change harmful behavior in yourself, you need to hold yourself to a higher standard.

Let me give you and example. Suppose you sibling is in rehab. They seem to be doing fairly well. Then you receive a call that they are being suspended or ejected from the facility for failing a drug test. You talk to your sibling and they tell you, it was because of an antidepressant or herb they took. Or is was a faulty test. Drug tests today are very reliable. Yes in some instances false positives might occur. Are you supporting your sibling by getting on the phone and demanding something is wrong with the test? Personally I don’t think so.

A better response, and one that has a greater chance of helping your brother might be something like this. Yes there is a possibility of a mistake in a drug test. However it is a very small one and not very likely. The more likely possibility is that you consumed some drugs. I am going to assume it was the second possibility. The reason being if it was the first one and you are clean, things are going in the right direction , this is just a small bump in your journey. However if it is the second and you are consuming again the is a very real chance of a relapse and harm coming to you. I don’t know how you got a positive drug test, but I do know it is a warning sign I will not ignore. I love you and will not put you future in danger on the small chance there was some sort of mistake.

People stay in an addicted lifestyle far longer than necessary because those arround them, give them the benefit of the doubt. It is harmful for them. Give them something far more important, the ability to live in the truth. The is vital during and after a program in a drug or alcohol rehab center.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 25th, 2006 at 11:13 am and is filed under Drug Rehab. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.