The answer to this question is simple. You just keep trying. Don’t give in. Don’t give up. But never quit trying.

At least, we need a lot more access to drug rehab. I have been on the road for 5 weeks now. In the past few months I’ve seen a lot of this country. This country is beautiful, friendly and varied. However one thing is clear. Drug and alcohol abuse is everywhere. From the smallest and most religious town to the most cosmopolitan of cities, lives are being destroyed by drug abuse. Billboards exhorting people to live drug free lives are everywhere. When you look deeper and more carefully though you see people “falling through the cracks” in every town.

I’ve been wearing a t-shirt with the slogan “rehab is for quitters” on the front of it. Most people take it as a joke against stopping drugs and alcohol. People have even come up and told me about their failed rehab experiences. What it clear is there is not enough rehab centers available at a cost people can afford, and what is available is too short term. Everyone I talked to had been to a 28 day program. That is just not long enough and leads to relapse and an entrenched view that the client cannot change. This is a great country. People deserve options to move past a lifestyle that will destoy them and those around them. Rehab is for quitters, and we need a lot more quitters to turn the drug abuse tide.

We all have things that we hang onto too long. Sometimes it is behaviors that no longer serve us. Sometimes it is a job that is slowly destroying our spirit and drive for life. It could be a firend or lover who no matter how hard we try is not right for us. It simply could be a belief about ourselves or the world. If we have these things in our lives it will add stress. It will add pain. It will add emotional upset.

When you are in a drug and alcohol rehab center is the time to remove these from your life. If you couldn’t do it before, in the safety of the rehab program will be your best chance to remove some these things. You have conselors. You have the structure of the program. You have new and supportive friends. You don’t have the temptation of alcohol or drugs. It will be more difficult to deal with some of these areas when you are finished. Take advantage of the extra support and do a little “housecleaning.” Reducing the stress in you life will firstly improve your health and secondly greatly resuce the chance of relapse.

Sometimes clients present with more than one type of addiction. Drug and alcohol rehab centers can be successful in treating multiple addictions at the same time if the enviroment of the rehab center can made safe for the client. If someone has a existing co-addiction with sex or gambling, the drug rehab program will help both, if the boundaries of the rehab can support it.

The client may have to openly relinquish internet access if they have a gambling addiction. If sexual issues arise maybe a same sex only rehab may be helpful. The core issues of stopping harmful compulsive behavior are the same. The stressors leading to relapse are going to be similar. Simply writing a clear and sane set of boundaries with your counseling team could be immensly powerful.

Sometimes it may be useful only concentrating on the most destructive and dangerous of one’s addictions, however properly structured, it is possible to treat more than one at the same time.

Sometimes people end up with a drug and alcohol problem because of a series of bad choices. They chose to use drugs recreationally at first and progress through several steps to more a more problematic behavior. Other times the start of a drug problem is something far more random. A car accicdent or a bad sports injury leading to chronic back pain or some other long term severe pain. We don’t have a lot of choices when it comes to severe pain. Most of the drugs that are effective come with a rather large addictive potential. They also build up tolerance and become less and less effective against the pain.

This leads to the choice of increasing the dosage and increasing the addictive risk, or being in so much pain so have to effectively have a very low quality of life. When the injury actually does resolve itself, months or even years later, the person may have a large drug problem that is just as difficult to deal with as any other. We need to find better ways of managing pain, however, we also need to realize sometimes clients do end up ion rehab through no fault of their own.

In Drug and Alcohol Rehab, like life in general we have a choice to make. It is about the level of effort we will put into the tasks that lay before us. We can make a half hearted effort. We can do nothing. To be successful at most things in life you probably only have to put in a “6″ on a ten scale to get by. Or you can challenge every tough task in front of you with every ounce of talent and effort you have.

Why would you want to put so much effort into something? Is a 95% on a test rally that much better than a 82%. Both are excellent marks. Both will pass with room to spare. So why go for the 95%?

It is because of what it will make out of you. If you go to rehab just to sober up, and you achieve that, everyone will be happy. All you friends and family will probably congratulate you and pat you on the back. However is that what the universe has in store for your life? Only to be sober? Is that the only legacy you wish to leave behind? We are here to learn and love. Be sober is key for that to happen. But to learn and love you have to give a lot more than just a “6″ for effort. Relationships take a lot more time and effort than that. To truly and completely change your life try every task in a rehab program with all of your effort. It’s not about getting every point, it’s about the changes you will have to make in yourself to become the type of person who can get every point. Take care, Terry