Going to a drug and alcohol rehab program has a single major purpose.  To change your life from uncontrolled drug and alcohol use, to focused self controlled purposeful living.  The problem is that real change is difficult to see and even harded to prove.  There are lots of old saying warning us about the ability of people to change.  "You can't teach an old dog, new tricks."  "People change, but not much."

The problem with change is that most of us have tried and had setbacks in changing our habits.  We have all changed a behavior of some sort and later reverted to back to out old ways.  This is compounded in drug and alcohol rehab.  Clients have tried to stop their drug and alcohol abuse many times before arriving in a rehab center.  Their confidence in changing negative behaviors with permanence is at an all time low. 

There are two elements to change.  The first is in the ability to get the pause in your mind when presented with a stimulus that normally elicit the old programed response.  By this I mean, in the past if you were feeling particularily stressed you would have in the past reached for a drink, you pause and ask a better question.  If you can recognize a past trigger and pause and look for a new response, then you have accomplished the first phase of change. 

The second phase of change is when you automatically go to the new behavior in your mind when cued or provoked by an situation that would have lead to the old behavior you want to change.  This second phase of change obviously takes time to "re-program" your brain.  Depending on the person and the length of habit this can take months or even years.  This again goes back to the value of structure.  By planning your schedule and filling it reguarily, you force your brain to reprogram.  Desire and education will get you through the first stage of change.  Time and practice will get you through the second.  This is one of the main reasons to go to a drug and alcohol rehab center.  It will keep you safe will you make the first connection.  The daily schedule of the rehab center will get you on the beginning road to the second. 

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 21st, 2007 at 9:01 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.