In Drug and Alcohol Rehab one of the most difficult things to find is the truth. The sad thing is that not only does this affect the addicted person, it seems the truth gets lost within the family and friends as well. Often rationalization takes the place of the truth. Way too many times family and friends are far to quick to forgive and forget. Addiction thrives on secrecy. Addiction blossoms under lack of communication.

I was recently contacted by someone for advice about their family. A family member had a long standing addiction lasting years. There was a total lack of discussion. It was being dealt with behind “closed doors”. While being handled in this fashion, it had progress to the family home being set on fire. Even this dramatic event was not discussed openly. Sending a family member to drug or alcohol rehab should not be done under a total veil of secrecy. I’m not saying you need to take out a notice in the local newspaper. However if done behind closed doors within a family, it allows to addicted individual to continue to manipulate and lie to those family members out of the loop.

Both in and out of a drug rehab center when dealing with someone with addiction, only the clear observable truth must be dealt with. Consequences of unacceptable behavior must be clear. Appologies should have NOTHING to do with outcome. Only observable behavior that can be proven is acceptable. Anything that cannot be seen or tested should not be believed until someone has been sober for at least a year, and most likely two. Truth is the light that addiction cannot stand. Shine more of it in your life.

Drug and alcohol rehab centers do not have a 100% success rate. Over a longer period of time the rate is much lower than that. There are many reasons for this. It may be a bad fit for the type of program. It may be the client didn’t stay in the rehab for a long enough period of time. I think some of the relapses and lack of success may be attributed to going for the wrong reasons.

Don’t go to rehab, if for you it is simply the best of a group of distasteful options. By this I mean if you are going to rehab only to avoid going to jail, and not because you really and truly want to quit, is a bad reason. You will most likely fail. Going to rehab because you felt “pressured” by everyone in your family to go and you felt you had no other alternative is another senario which will lead to a lower success rate.

If you find yourself agreeing to go to rehab, but them fantasizing about ways you could still obtain drugs and alcohol in rehab, your commitment level needs to be looked at. Anytime you are looking at ways that you could get around the system, you are not really ready for rehab. You will waste most of your time doing these activities instead of looking for ways to become and stay sober. If in your heart you cannot say, I am willing to do whatever it takes to get sober and stay sober, your odds of success go down. Rehab is a place to find the tools and safety needed to become sober. While a good rehab center can add to a clients motivation to become clean, it cannot provide it. To hope it can miraculously get someone to change who really doesn’t want to pay the price of change is folly.

Going to drug and alcohol rehab will involve learning some new skills. For some people this may involve having to learn, how to learn. Some clients have dropped out of school early. Some clients did poorly in school. Even those who have done well in the past can always learn a few pointers about how to get the most out of any educational, or learning situation.

Some of the obvious things are simple, like come prepared. If there is reading to be done beforehand, do it. Arrive a few minutes early, with any required materials. Participate actively. Don’t judge any exercises or sessions before you actually try them to the best of your ability. Don’t be afraid to feel a little uncomfortable.

There are actually a lot of things you can do to maximize your ability to learn. A great site with a tremendous amount of information on this subject is Studyguides and Strategies. Lots of suggestions for preparation and organization to really get the most out of what is presented. Definately worth a look whether you are fast learner or not.

In drug and alcohol rehab centers the first and foremost important thing is safety. A comment sent in yesterday talks of clients leaving a rehab because they feared for their personal safety. People will not and cannot change if they don’t feel safe. Change requires new behavior, and by definition “new” means uncomfortable. People will not try and master new, uncomforable skills if they are already uncomforable and afraid.

I believe a rehab has a moral obligation to make their center safe for the people who want to change. This sometimes means taking a stand that is not popular. Removing clients for smuggling in drugs or violating sexual boundaries, however has to adhered to. Violence of either physical or verbal must NEVER be tolerated. If we truly create safe enviroments for our clients then we can find out new and better programs the work far more effectively than before. If we don’t create a safe enviroment, then drug and alcohol rehab becomes a weird psuedo-prison hazing experience that is uncomforable for everyone, and nobody find sobriety there.

The pain and suffering that drug and alcohol addiction are causing in our society is enormous. Everyday on our phones and in our e-mail we are constantly asked questions about how people with few or no resources can seek help. Most times addiction drains all of the resources of those involved. The options when clients are looking for a free program are limited to say the least.

It is easy and trite to say the government needs to step in, but on some level, more money has to come from someone. The ultimate dollar cost to society through increased social welfare programs and in the prison system is there anyway. Why not treat people instead of putting them in prison and taking their kids away into foster care? Families are trying to raise funds. Drug addiction will not go away by blaming the addict or the pusher. It will go away by treating those affected and by changing society’s view of drugs and alcohol. Drug rehab centers need help.

Fitness is tough for all of us to keep up with. It is vitally important for someone fresh out of a drug or alcohol rehab program. Exercise is on of those great ways to relieve the stress of life. Those same stresses that if not properly handled can lead to slips and a relapse. Staying motivated to keep up a fitness routine sometimes can be the tough part. Any and all help in this area can be a lot of help.

So this is just one more tool to ad to the treasure chest of information to stay on the clean side of life. Hopefully during your stay at a rehab you got on the fitness bandwagon. If not how about today? Dropping a few pounds of fat and gaining a little muscle does wonders for the self-esteem. There is a lot of information on this site, so check it out. FITNESS TOOLS

Does everyone who has a drug or alcohol problem need to go to a drug rehab center for a program? The answer is most likely no. Rehab is most definately for clients who are out of control. It is for people who have tried to quit on several occations on their own and have failed. They may have tried counseling and outpatient therapy already. They may have even tried some weekend intensive seminars with still no sustainable long term sobriety.

A residential treatment program makes sense for clients with the above characteristics. There are obviously a lot of people with problem drinking and drug use, who are not as far down the road of addiction as this. They may just be starting to lose control of their life. They could still be holding down their job and are just starting to feel the consequences of their actions. There are some interesting and varied ideas on different ways to manage this. One is moderation management. This is a planned way to decrease and control the behavior. This is obviously not a choice for someone whose life is totally out of control. Abstinence is a better choice for that individual. For some people with a much milder addiction, this might be a viable choice. If you think you may into this group, why not check out their site. Not everyone should go to a drug rehab center. What is Moderation Management is the link to their site. Have a look and see what you think.

An active drug and alcohol addiction is a chronic condition. It takes time for an addiction to develope to it’s severe forms where all aspects of someone’s life revolves around procurring and using drugs and alcohol. Treating and reversing the damages of addiction is a similar process. It is a slower and more disiplined change than some of the other changes in one’s life. Going to a drug and alcohol rehab center is a one to three month journey. This becomes the launching point for a new life of growth and change, where work will continue for many more months.

Along this journey there will be marvelous days. This days will be easy. You know the change you are making is good for you and those around you. There will be a lot of average days. These ones you won’t feel so great, but they won’t be so bad either. There are also going to be a lot of pretty lousy days. Days you want to use badly. Days where your past behaviors still follow you and drag you down even though those behaviors are no longer with you.

Expect and prepare for the bad days. Just because you are sincerely commited to never using drugs and alcohol in your life again does not mean you life will be magically transformed to a place of peace. The life of sobriety means choosing different tools to handle these bad times. It means choosing different tools to have fun. A lot of times it means choosing different tools to make a living with. Drug and alcohol rehab is a safe place to start this process. Stay there long enough for these changes to become a habit. The frustating part is that treating an addiction is a lot like being a parent. You are never really done. Your child will need you less and less. However you never stop worrying about them.

No matter how long you have been on the path of sobriety there will still be bad days. The difference between and ordinary life and a truly great one, is going the extra distance on the bad days. Using the tools to improve your life on the days you don’t want to. A great drug rehab center can really help you with this, however it is still mostly up to you.

I am always on the lookout for any tools for relapse prevention. It doesn’t matter what style of addiction program one is attending, you can always use reinforcement on your relapse prevention plan. The key is always structure. This is why treatment at a drug rehab center works in the first place. The rehab center provides safety and structure. When you leave rehab you have to find ways to give yourself that safety and structure.

A good site to help you with this linked HERE. It has a good explanation about the etiology of drug and alcohol relapse. It is chalk full of suggestions and ideas on ways to handle these issues. Some good suggestions on cues and cravings.

The availabilty of fast accurate drug and alcohol testing has changed the way rehab centers can treat addiction. These relatively inexpensive tests can produce results in as little as 5 minutes. These tests have to major advantages in the treatment of addiction in rehab centers.

The first major advantage in it allows clients to be totally honest about their drug usage much faster than in the past. When the results are self evident in as little as 5 minutes there is no point to being untruthful with a counselor. Being comfortable discussing the absolute truth is essential to any addiction program. A series of passed drug tests will help to rebuild the trust that has been shattered with family and friends. Changed behavior and a clean test record will speed up this process.

If there has been a slip, a failed drug test will draw immediate attention, hopefully before a full blown relapse develops. The will allow a total scrutiny of a relapse prevention plan and see any weak areas that require improvement. The sooner any usage is dealt with, the sooner and more effective treatment will be rendered.

Modern drug and alcohol testing is an extremely useful adjunct to any drug rehab program and is in use by many centers today.