For alcohol and drug rehab programs what is needed is a really great textbook. I’m not saying there are not a lot of good books for addiction, but a simple all inclusive text that is written with the idea of using it while going through rehab is difficult to find. It seems most to the books out their fall into one of two categories. The first is a text about a theory or idea about addiction. There are suberb ideas and wonderful understanding to be had by these books. However they are difficult to adapt to a going from point A to point B approach.

The others are a dialogue of someone’s travels through an addictive experience. These again make facinating reading and have lot’s of life lessons to be learned. To use these as a rehab textbook again would be problematic and not very useful. A great drug rehab textbook would have simple clear explanations of the effects of drug and alcohol. There would be explanations of the commons mental and physical problems with prolonged drug and alcohol use.

Some simple detox issues would be also covered. Then it would have to have a reasonable sound evidence based guide or approach to drug and alcohol rehab. It would be progressive so leesons in the end of the book would be based on exercises and success in the first stages of the book. There are some basic self help guides to addiction out there. Again these are not essentially geared to a residential drug rehab program. It is not that the information I’m talking about is impossible to find. It isn’t. It is just spread out and not in a form readily useful to a drug rehab program.

Often in drug and alcohol rehab programs many people want to tell their “story”. This is especially true of people who have remained sober for a good period of time. The feeling is that it is beneficial to those going through drug and alcohol rehab to hear how “others made it through”. They like to recount the depth of their despair and all the bad experiences of the past. This is followed with their particular path to sobriety, finishing along the lines of follow this example and you too will be sober like me.

There is inherently a couple of problems with “stories”. One is that over time usually the story tends to change. The bad times tend to get a little darker with each repetition. The success tends to get over dramatized as well. This is not an attempt to deceive, but more a what keeps people interested while I speak sort of thing. Instead of the truth, it becomes more of a “dramatic representation of the truth”. Also a person’s recollections of the times they were high and out of control, are distorted simply because they were high and out of control.

The other main problem with stories is they tend to over emphasize the path to sobriety of the storyteller. There are thousands of ways to sobriety, and for those whom they worked, they are all valid. Storytelling tends to limit choice of techniques and skills that may be used to move past drug and alcohol addiction. Addiction needs to be dealt with in the present and in the future. You cannot beat your addiction in the past.

Sometimes in drug and alcohol rehab it seems like the whole family needs to change and heal. Drug and alcohol addiction affects everyone in the immediate family. It is impossible not to be affected by drug and alcohol abuse. Distrust and anger always follow family members where there is a long standing addiction. Communication dries up. Sometimes the same arguements are repeated over and over, with no resolution, and no progress.

If you have a family member in rehab, you may want to take some time while they are working on their addiction to learn some new skills of your own. Find ways to deal with stress in your own life. Find new a creative ways to discuss feelings and emotions in a non-threatening manner. Find ways to put back in boundaries that may have been broken or damaged in the past. Be clear about the relationship you want to have when your loved one returns. Be clear about the type and quantity of support you wish to give in the future. While someone is in a drug and alcohol rehab program is a great time to do a little family rehab. That way everyone wins.

What is drug and alcohol addiction? In drug and alcohol rehab programs what can you learn? Firstly, I believe you can learn that addicition, like all things in life is a learned repsonse. Most likely you learned it from other addicts or from other people using drugs and alcohol. Before you used any drug or alcohol someone told you what to expect. Someone told you where you could find alcohol and drugs. Other people showed you how to use it. How to mix it and with what. You learned your favorite places to consume. You learned ways to hide your addiction. You learned creative ways to finance the costs of drug and alcohol use. Nobody was inately born with the abillity to inject heroin.

The key to sobriety is learning the tools to stay clean. You learn the ways to walk away from situations that would lead to drug use. In a drug and alcohol rehab center you can learn ways to to cope with stress and develop the feelings you want in your life, without using drugs and alcohol. A good alcohol and drug rehab program is about education. Learning new skills. Practising sobreity.

For those clients who in home drug and alcohol rehab may be indicated, what would be a good program? What might it include? What extra help might be needed?

A good program would include a series of lessons and wookbooks to deal with information about the various aspects of addiction. It would include some external means of verification of sobriety, though drug or alcohol tests. There would be lessons on how to cope with stress. Lessons on improving relationships and communication skills would be included.

Any in home rehab program, no matter how good should probably be supplemented with some regular professional counseling. A weekly meeting with the counselor of your choice, with some experience in addiction would definately be an asset.

The most important aspect of an in home rehab program would include some way to develope a better a safer structure in your home. This would be the key to maintaining sobriety during and after the rehab program.

In home drug and alcohol rehab programs may not be suitable for everyone. In fact some clients may be best served by going to a residential drug and alcohol rehab center. Which clients may be best served by trying a rehab program at home? The first question to ask is how many times has the client tried to quit before? If this is the first or second real attempt at stopping the use of drugs or alcohol, this may be an indication that at home rehab might work. If there have be multiple attempts to quit in the past with various programs, with consistent short term results leading to rapid relapse, this might suggest in home rehab is not indicated.

Is the client still functioning, even at a reduced level, in their life? Are they still holding down a job? If the answer is yes, again, this is a person who may want to consider in home drug rehab. If there life is totally out of control, and they are involved in illegal or questionable activity to support their drug and alcohol addiction, residential long term rehab is probably still the best choice.

Is the person able to learn on their own? Some clients are much better served by an interactive and instructive process. Others like to read and work on their own. The second type will have a much greater chance of success with an in home drug rehab program. The first would be better served by a out-patient or residential rehab.

Probably the main determanent is the severity of the addicition. Out of control behavior and long standing addicitions of multiple relapse are not good candidates for in home rehab.

Doing an alcohol or drug rehab program at home also comes with some downsides. Some of these are quite large and must really considered before attempting to do a home based program. First is the ability to make your home a safe drug and alcohol free zone. If you have a drug dealer that will deliver to your home or if you are very close to a source of alcohol, making your home a safe zone will require some extra effort.

You will also require the discipline to actually do the program. Even if you have a sponsor or family member checking what you are doing, there is not any formal structure in your home. There won’t be any pre-written schedule for you to follow. You will also be lacking some of the comraderie that you would get in a rehab outside of your home. It is easier to get distacted by the details of life while doing a rehab at home. The phone will be ringing and life will continue to demand you pay attention to it.

It may be more difficult to break away from any drug using friends if you do rehab at home. There is a good chance they won’t want you to change the nature of your relationship. Again doing this at home is not impossible, it just requires a lot more focus.

For drug and alcohol rehab programs that you could actually do at home, there are not a lot of options. Let’s look at what would make a great at home drug and alcohol rehab. What exactly would be some of the criterion of a program that would present some success at home? Also what might be the advantages of doing a rehab program at home? What people might it be an advantage to do a drug and alcohol rehab program at home? As well which clients would a at home rehab program really not be an option and might actually be harmful for them?

So what are the advantages of at home rehab? First of all is cost. Anything you can do in the privacy of your own home will be much less expensive. Speaking of privacy, doing a program in your own home has a far greater safety to prevent others from finding out about your treatment. There would be no insurance records. As there are no other clients in the program there is no chance of another client ever revealing anything about you. You would be able to learn and go at your own pace. Also you would always start at the beginning of the the drug rehab program, and follow through til the end. When going to a center there will always be people ahead and behind you. Any program will be a comprimise to the levels of all the clients. You would be able to continue to work and go to school during the process. If a parent or spouse is involved in the monitoring process of the at home rehab program, including urine testing, the progress over time will help to restore the lost trust that in addiction, inevitably occurs. You can continue to work with your present health care professional. Stay with your current therapist and physician. In isolated communities, that lack of any out patient programs is not a concern. The risk of sexual liasons that sometimes occur in drug and alcohol rehab would be elimenated. Tommorow I’ll look at the disadvantages of at home rehab.

Structure in your life after you leave a drug and alcohol rehab program is one of the best determanents of sobriety. In a perfect world we could join health clubs and groups galor to fill our schedule with healthy activities. However sometimes finances limit us from joining a great health club, or some of our first ideas, so let’s look for ways to build structure without spending much money.

Join a running group. Most urban areas have groups that jog and run together. They usually meet 2 times a week to go for a good run, then usually grab a coffee or juice afterward. You can find these groups through the local Y.M.C.A. or find a specialty store tht just sells quality jogging shoes. They always have a bulletin board of groups.

Get a library card. Go to the biography area in the library. Make a list of the 20 biograghies of people you either admire the most, or had the best impact on society. Taking out one book at a time spend 30 minutes a day reading about great people.

Volunteer. Go to a local senior drop in center. Put your name up to do odd jobs or errands for 3 hours every Saturday morning. Will make sure you will get up nice and early on weekends, and you will make a big difference in someone’s life.

Coach some kids. There isn’t a little league or basketball coach out there who couldn’t use a good assistant. You really don’t even have to know anything about the sport. Be willing to organize, pick-up and cheer like crazy.

Learn to play the guitar. I’m amazed at what 50$ will buy in a secand hand store for musical instruments. Music lessons can be had for as little as 10$ per week. That’s just a couple of lattes at Starbucks.

Learn to speak in pulblic. Toastmasters in a fun group, costs next to nothing to join and who knows, you may be the next Tony Robbins.

Just get out there and add things to your life. These regularily scheduled events will keep you sober, keep you in shape, and add color and joy to your life.

When reading about different alcohol and drug rehab programs sometimes even for someone who is in the field, it can get confusing. Then sometimes it gets past confusing and just gets to the point where it makes no sense. There is no one way to sobriety in a drug rehab center. There is no one perfect peogram for every person of every age group. Sometimes when reading about a drug rehab program it seems they are trying to be too many things to too many people. There are 12 step rehab programs. There are cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) drug and alcohol rehab programs. Both have been around for a reasonable amount of time. Both have demonstrated some varying degree of success in the past.

However I was reading about a drug rehab program that decsribed itself as a core 12 step program that was CBT. When reading about it seems doing both might be a good idea, a cover all bases kind of approach. The foundation of both types are opposite of eachother. In 12 step you admit you are powerless over your addiction and turn it over to a higher power. In CBT distorted patterns of thinking lead to repetitive mistakes in behavior that do not serve the person. One requires admission of being an “addict”. The other goes down the road of you are the cause of your behavior and you are the solution.

So when being presented to clients, in a program that says you can do both, the question arises, are you powerless against your addiction, or are you not? Are you making mistakes in your patterns of thinking, or do you have the “disease” of addiction? You either believe in the disease model or you do not. You either believe addiciton can be cured or you do not. Saying you do both with clients may make great marketing. However at those critical moments when a client needs a core belief to turn to, in order to stay safe and sober, doing both will just confuse someone when they need clarity. Offering clients choices in drug and alcohol rehab is a good thing. Pretending you can be all things to all people is not.