Learning better communication skills is a cornerstone of any alcohol and drug rehab program.  Clear and concise methods of intereacting with others are a large component of relapse prevention.  Being able to openly communicate to understand and be understood will decrease many of the stressful moments in your life.  Decreasing and controlling stress is the bedrock of drug and alcohol rehab.  The more methods you have to decrease stress other than alcohol and drug abuse the safer and happier you will be.

Being clear in your communications means you have to be assertive.  A lot of individuals have trouble with this concept.  They feel being assertive is being rude, or aggressive.  It is not.  The person whom you are talking too needs to know exactly what you are requesting, and is still at choice, they just know the facts.  Let me explain.  You are at work.  A surprise happens and you have to report to your boss the situation in 2 days.  For you report to be complete you need the production numbers by tommorrow so you can finish your report.  If you go to production with a request like this, "I know you are swamped, and I'm not giving you any notice, but if it is at all possible would you mind getting my the production numbers for the last 3 months?  As soon as possible please?"  Because you feel this is an imposition on this person you are overly polite and soft in your approach.  If they say yes and give you the report in 3 days, they feel they have done a good job, and yet you feel stressed and will be late with your report.

Assertive and clear requests would look like this.  "I have just been given the task of reporting all our activities to Mr Boss in 2 days.  For this report to be complete and useful, I need your production number for the last 3 months by tommorrow at 5 pm.  Can you deliver this or do we need to find a different avenue to get me these numbers by 5 pm?"  Here the individual know exactly what they are agreeing to.  They are at choice.  They know the facts.  There is nothing wrong with being polite and asking, "Please may I have a moment of your time?",  and then thanking them for their time afterward.  Adding polite softeners in the actaul request just muddles the message and sometimes comes accross as begging. 

Again the beautiful part about drug rehab is it is such a great opportunity to practice communication without danger of offending someone.  Role play and practise with others.  Leave rehab with the ability to be assertive.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 5th, 2007 at 7:01 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.