In a alcohol and drug program there are many things to learn.  When you leave a program to venture back into your life there are even more lessons to gather and incorporate into your life.  A chance meeting with a stranger last night, posed a question that I think we all struggle with.  We were standing in a dance club listening to the music at the bar.  I ordered a diet coke, and so did he. We laughed and he asked why I wasn't drinking, and we started discussing rehab. 

He had been to a rehab program to stop drinking.  I asked what had happened and he told me about a DUI he had.  He decided he needed to stop drinking and went to a treatment program and stopped several years ago.  He turned to me then and and asked, " Why do we have to get hit between eyes and get arrested before we change?" 

So many times in life we wait until we have to change.  We wait until we have few or no choices but to change.  Then the change we are given is not the one we would have chosen.  Our only real choice at this point is about what attitude we will adopt as we are forced to change.  Being forced is never any fun. 

We all might benefit from looking at the direction of the path we are on.  Where exactly are we headed?  If the direction you are on is headed to a brick wall, why wait for the impact?  If you are in a drug and alcohol rehab program or center and you are not fully participating, why wait until they ask you to leave before fully committing to it?

We can chose to make the changes we want and need or as my new friend said, we can wait until we get hit between the eyes.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 26th, 2007 at 9:49 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.