I’ve been emailed another link about the Narconon Drug Rehab chain. They certainly seem to have people on both sides of the fence as to if you like their program or you dislike it. It is always good advice that if you are confused about a choice, go visit the facility and talk to people who have been through it. Drug and alcohol rehab needs to be a good fit with your life philosophy.

If you are not sure about whether a narconon rehab is right for you, maybe you could contact some of the people involved in the site www.stop-narconon.org.

In drug and alcohol rehab an interesting twist starts to happen this time of year. Not so much in October but more so in November and the beginning of December. Clients start pushing off rehab until after the holidays. They don’t want to be away from their families during the holidays. They agree that a drug rehab program would be of great benefit to them but they want to wait until the new year.

Holidays can be a joyous time, but it is also a stressful time. All the extra activities and extra cost leads to more stress. This can and often does lead to increased drug and alcohol use. This is dangerous to someone in the lifestyle of addiction.

Why not give your family and friends a better Christmas present. Instead of the increased worry a family feels during the holidays wondering if someone suffering from addiction is safe, give them the wonderful gift of knowing you are safe in a drug program. Give them a New Years present of someone that is sober. If you are in a rehab center over the holidays, it is a small price to pay for a new better life. Don’t put it off. Don’t use the holidays as an excuse.

Every drug and alcohol rehab program will have some anger management in it. Some of it will be formal and specific. There are lot’s of specific techniques in this area. Again they mostly boil down to one concept. This single concept is the reason for a lot of grief in all our lives. Once this is mastered in someone’s life a lot of fomer difficulties tend to disappear. A lot of former problems become a much more manageable size.

It is the concept of proactivity. It is such a simple thing, and yet it is so incredibly hard to do on a consistent basis. In a nutshell what proactivity boils down to is taking a slpit second of time between thought and action. For example: someone is rude and cuts you off in a line at the grocery store. The easy thing to do is to immediatley in your head say” What a Jerk!!”. You next response might be to respond harshly with, “I was here first, you idiot!”. With proactivity you take the split second in your head to simply ask, “Is there some other explaination for this person’s behavior?”. With that your brain will say, maybe they were just distracted and didn’t notice where the line started. Or maybe something really bad happened to them a few hours ago and they are so focused on it they don’t even know what they are doing.

With that proactive question asked, your response will be much more tempered and reasoned. And after all that if they are simply being a jerk, you will not get sucked into their unhappy headspace. Most anger management tools revolve around tips and tricks to get your brain to ask that question or one something like it. It is one of the most powerful and lifechanging skills you can aquire. A proactive person will stay sober. Someone who is proactive will not let their emotions rule their behavior. But I’ll be honest, it require lot’s and lots of practice and a real desire to want to change. It is worth all the effort though.

During a drug and alcohol rehab program, is it valuable to look at the past? Does reliving past bad experiences really motivate people to change? Does writing out all of your failings really give you the strength to move past them? What about responsibility? If we are responsible doesn’t it mean we need to go through and make good on our past transgressions?

I guess it boils down to the point of drug and alcohol rehab. The only reason and sole purpose of rehab is to stop using drugs and alcohol, and to acquire the skills so as to never use and abuse drugs or alcohol again. Looking back at your history may not be the best method, or most motivating method to do this. Most change is accomplished by forward focus. Constantly reliving history simply re-inforces past bad behaviors, and often with many retellings, the story actually becomes worse than it actually was. This will not lead to sobriety.

After a client has learned some new skills and adopted a new lifestyle there will be lots of time to deal with one’s past. The will be lot’s of time to make amends for past behavior. The number one way to make up for poor actions in the past is to never do them again. The past is not a place to find sobriety. Dwelling there is not healthy for someone with an addiction. Drug and alcohol rehab should be forward focused. Change lies in the present and future.

In drug and alcohol rehab often clients want to take some extra upgrading courses, or start to study a new subject. Many times it comes up that there isn’t sufficient funds for anything. As with many things in life there is always a solution to get you going in the right direction.

A great site on the internet that you might want to look at is www.free-ed.net. In it you will find courses on quite a large variety of subjects. They are all free. All the required reading materials are all downloadable, so there isn’t even a cost of any books. It would be a great place to start and see if you truly enjoy studying in a particular area, withour spending a single cent. You can start anytime. One of the keys to sobriety during and after drug rehab is structure. Here is something to stretch your mind, add structure to you life, and it is only a click away.

I read recently on another site on the internet, where an individual was asking advice about his problem. He had an addicition and wanted to change. His fear was about going to drug rehab. He was afraid to loose his job and career if it was found out he went into rehab. It was a valid concern. There are occupations where any evidence of drug use would lead to dismissal and a permanent setback.

The advice he received was to try and deal with his addiction without going to rehab. It was thought the safest way to protect his career was not to seek help in a treatment program. I’m not judging the advice. Who know, it may have been the best advice for this person. It just saddens me that someone cannot seek help without fear of stigma and some sort of retribution. It would be naive to think we live in a perfect world.

Addiction is a condition that thrives on fear and secrecy. When as a society we drive people underground we just compound the problem. By increasing the difficulty of getting help, more people repeat the cycle of relapse after relapse. If you are truly fearful of going to rehab and losing your career, find a rehab out of state or even out of the country. Go learn the new skills you need in a safe enviromant. Come back to your choosen profession a non-addicted person. Change your life today.

In the news lately lately has been some high profile individuals who have been caught doing behaviors that have not exactly “furthered” their careers and life. We are not here on earth to judge other people. They have their own path and journey in life. What I’m finding offensive, is that after someone gets caught, they enter a rehab for their problem, and then while at rehab, have their lawyer or some other spokesperson use their addiction as the excuse for their reprehensible behavior, and that all is well now they are dealing with the problem is rehab.

Rehab is for people who want to change. It is not a place to do damage control for your career. Besides if someone was actually changing while at a stay in drug or alcohol rehab, they would be taking responsibility for their actions. I can think of no drug or alcohol rehab program that says your addiction is the reason for everything wrong. Blame it for everything. You are not responsibile for your actions. Your are to be pitied and forgiven immediately for all your actions because you are an addict. What a load of crap.

Thinking like this is an insult to all the effort real people are making in changing their lives. This neither want pity or unearned forgiveness. They simply want a safe place to change. So forgive me Mr. politician/ rock star/ movie star who gets caught with your finger in the wrong cookie jar if we are unimpressed with your spin doctor’s ramblings. You discredit all the individuals who are working their butts off in programs. It is sad that even in your “hour of truth” there is still none to be found.