To change the direction of your life at a drug and alcohol rehab program you need several elements.  You must be willing to be open to new ideas and concepts.  You don't have to accept them blindly and without reservation.  However you must be willing to at least try them in good faith to see if they might help you.  You must be willing to dream and believe there is a better life for you without drug and alcohol abuse.  You must be willing to do some work.  You cannot sit and do nothing and somehow suddenly morph into this new better person. You must be willing to be uncomfortable.  Some of the changes will be against the patterns you have in your life.  Changing long term ingrained patterns is uncomfortable for a while.

All of the above steps require one more thing. They require courage.  It takes courage to leave your surroundings and loved ones and get on a plane.  Going to a drug rehab center, is venturing into new turf in your life.  There is an element of the unknown.  Sobriety requires and demands a certain amount of courage.  It takes courage to leave behind your old drug and alcohol using friends.  So many people in this world talk about changing their life.  So few actually do.  It is because they are surrendering to fear and not summoning the courage we all have inside of us.  Leaving behind an old life, no matter how awful that lifestyle was is difficult.  People get stuck in the comfort zone of the familiar, and never summon the courage to go into the zone of what might be.

Hopefully sometime during a stay in a drug and alcohol rehab center, the client will see that change is coming no matter what.  You cannot stay in the zone of what is.  You can choose to change yourself, or you can let external forces change you.  What is your definition of courage?  There can be many.  My definition of courage is the ability to follow what my heart tells me is right without caring what is in it for me.  Courage can be many things.  Sometimes it is doing the right thing.  Sometimes it is standing by and doing nothing. It took courage to go to drug rehab.  Build on that courage by trying to learn new skills.  Drug and alocohol rehab is a safe place to find your courage back and listen to the voice of reason inside your heart.

Getting back to work after staying in a drug and alcohol rehab program is a major step to moving past addiciton.  Meaninful work is a cornerstone of structure to prevent you from moving back to drug and alcohol abuse.  It is ironic however, that work is an essential part of sobriety, and yet work may also be a contributing factor to relapse.  This is because work can be, if not handled properly a source of uncontrolled stress.

This is why it is imperitive to learn how to handle stress in the workplace while you are still in a drug and alcohol rehab center.  Firstly you must be alble to see the different types of stress in the workplace.  Then you require a method for handling and diffusing the stress.  Then you will get all the benefits of the structure that work will produce in your life.  You will also leave behing the danger stressful work can be for someone just out of a drug rehab program.

Click here for a great article on Stress in the Workplace.  It is a very nice resource wih ideas to keep all the benefits of stress and move past the dangers.  It will help you find the balance you require for work when you leave drug rehab.

Often times when a client gets to a drug and alcohol rehab center their goals and dreams are battered and bruised. Sometimes their only goal is they just want to stop using.  When it comes times to set goals they quickly snuff out any great ideas with thought of nobody will hire an ex-addict.  Or they may feel their past criminal acivity in support of their addcition will again stop them.  So it is hard to get past the negative voice in their head.

On way of geting past this is to use a corny little phrase, but still a very effective one.  It is, "If I could wave a magic wand and change ANYTHING about my life, what would it be?"   Immediately sometimes a client will say this is stupid, I not going to try something so silly.  Answer with, " sure it is silly, but if you had to answer the question like you life depended on it what would you say?"  By sitting down and repeating the question a few times finally some answers start to appear. The moment you get an answer jot it down on a pad and simply ask, "What else would I change if I had a magic wand?"

It is important to keep asking the question, fast and over and over.  We want you to spill out as many answers as possible without letting the negative voice in your head start to desroy your ideas.  Once you have a large list and can truly think of nothing else, start to prioritize the list.  Here's a non-limiting question to use.  If all of these ideas were possible, which one would I do first? Keep going until you have ordered your dreams.  Using these few questions is a very effective way of breaking out of the, I've screwed up my life and can't get my dreams rut, that a lot of clients are in when they first come to a drug and alcohol rehab center.  If you don't ask the universe for what you want, you will never get it.

Sometimes while clients are in drug and alcohol rehab, they want to rid themselves of all their negative habits.  They are sick and tired of the way their life has been going, and are truly ready for a new direction and a new life.  So is it a good idea to stop smoking at the same time as giving up drug and alcohol abuse?  There are two schools of thought about this. Your decision will boil down to which of these two you believe. 

One school of thought is that you are going to be uncomfortable anyway so why not get over all the uncomfortable things at once.  You might as well give up nicotine while you are giving up you other drug of choice.  Some say it is no worse craving two things rather than one. There is also an added benefit to taking this course of action.  Smoking may actually be a cue to either drinking or drug use.  If you always smoked while doing drugs or if you smoked drugs, stopping all smokng will actually make it safer for you down the road.

The other school of thought is tackle the biggest problem you have first.  If you get too uncomfortable you might leave the drug and alcohol rehab program, and that would be a greater danger to your helath than smoking.  It is the drug use will kill you before smoking will kind of logic.  Again this would seem to make sense given the stakes of not succeding in a drug rehab center.

So which route is best for you?  If you can stop smoking while you are in rehab.  You have more support and drive to change while you are there.  You have gone into a drug and alcohol rehab center to give yourself the gift of change.  Why not make it the biggest gift possible.

In a drug and alcohol rehab program there is always work to be accomplished in the area of communications.  One area that understanding between indiviuals breaks down is in definitions.  You may hear the word someone is saying, but do you know the meaning of that word, to that person.  Here is a classic example.  A parent comes into their child's room and turns to their son a says, you have one hour to make this room neat and tidy young man, or you will be grounded.  The parent leaves the room feeling like they have been clear.

However in the parents mind, this is what they are thinking.  I want all the clothes pick up off the floor, I want his desk tidy, and I want the dirty leftover dishes take downstairs and put in the dishwasher.  If he doesn't do this I wiil ground him for 2 weeks.  This what the child heard according to his definitions.  I'll pick up some clothes and straighten my bed a  bit.  If I don't do it she'll only ground me for a couple of nights and it's only Tuesday so I be free by the weekend anyway.  When the definitions of words like neat and tidy can vary so much only a misunderstanding can occur.

In the drug and alcohol rehab field many of the same things can occur.  What is the definition of sober for one.  Is it simply time without drug or alcohol use?  Does it involve work and socialization skills?  Does one slip or lapse mean you are not sober? Everyone has different meanings to these events.  Success is another word, that will have almost a different definition for every person who uses it.  If we are to be clearer in our communications with others, we must be sure to add in our definitions in when we talk to them.  Talking the time to be clear in our meanings and spending the effort to find out the definitions of others will lead to far fewer misunderstandings and all the consequences that go with that.

In a drug and alcohol rehab program often it is difficult to "connect all the dots" in your life to make sense of everything that has happened.  Often dwelling on the past slows any progress in the future.  Sometimes it is difficult to believe that some of our biggest failures will turn into our greatest blessings.  Here is an example from the founder of Apple at a speech he gave to a graduating class.  It is however perfect advice for anyone in a drug and alcohol rehab program dealing with their life path.  Click here to see and listen to his advice!

In running a drug and alcohol rehab center, which do you think is the most important asset?  Is it a clear and uniform policy which clearly states the rules and conditions under which everything is operated?  Or is it the flexibility to examine each situation under a unique light and formulate a plan based on what is best under those circumstances.  In deciding to organize and run your own life you are faced with a similar sets of choices.  Do you let priciple guide your behavior or do you look at what is presently happening and decide your course of action on what is best at that moment?

At first glance many might assume the the ability to be flexible in a drug and alcohol rehab would be the best route.  However there is a price to be paid with flexibility.  It is the tyranny of choice.  By remaining flexible it means you have to look at each situation and decide.  It means you have to weigh information on every choice.  Staying flexible means you get bogged down and time is wasted deciding every little detail. 

What then becomes important is being very selective in the areas you want to remain flexible in.  This is very important if you are running a drug rehab and even more important if you are trying to stay sober.  Policy in a drug rehab and principles in your own life free you up from the tyranny of choice in at least 90% of the situations you face.  This will decrease the stress you face every day.  It is like when you go to an all inclusive resort for holidays.  I think they are so popular because they remove a lot of the annoying choices in holidays.  You know when you are going to eat.  You know what you are going to do.  You don't have to carry money.

If you want to remove addcition from you life, remove a lot of the decisions that are not that important in the greter scheme of life and replace them with principles and structure.  Then when you do have a choice to make, you might actually enjoy doing it rather than having one more decision to throw on the pile.  Build your own personal policy manual while you are staying in a drug and alcohol rehab program, as crazy as it sounds it is a major step in bringing fun back in your life.

I have said on far more than one occation that uncontrolled stress is the number one enemy of any drug and alcohol rehab program.  Uncontrolled stress is the number one cause of relapse.  Well guess what?  Stress leads to unhealthy activities in people with addictive behavior and those without.  There is a great article showing that under stress we all pretty much do poor and negative things to ourselves and others.  In a drug rehab program you really must learn ways to control the stress in your life.  Have a look at what the American Psychological Association has to say about this.

Some of the areas they say are impacted in a bad way by stress are diet, activity level, sex drive, moods and depression.  If there  is any doubt about stress and the connection to relapse look at the long list in this site.  Then double your efforts while you are in a drug and alcohol rehab program to learn to control and mitigate stress in your life.

Drug and alcohol rehab can serve no higher purpose than helping a woman deal with drug and alcohol addiction while she is pregnant. The potential and real damage to the unborn child is monumental.  It is absolutely imperitive that someone in this situation seek treatment and immediately.  Rather than have me list off all the possible complications have a look at what the The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have to say.  The summary of this site is clear short and profound.

The future costs of medical treatment of the child born with damage from drug and alcohol abuse are staggering.  I personally am a proponent of allowing people to make a free choice, but this is one of the few areas where I do believe the courts should have the right to intervene.  We need to get any gal who is addicted and using while pregnant into a good alcohol and drug rehab program.  I stress the word good however.  If we are going to force some people into treatment then it is incumbent on us to make sure the drug programs are top notch.  Otherwise we are just another group of people shooting our mouths off to look good, but not really making a difference in the world.  Gals who are pregnant and expecting need free drug and alcohol rehab if they cannot afford it.  Governments have to step up and provide all the neccessary funding to insure free access.  Not sort of free access, but FREE access.  It is the only real sane and compassionate thing to do.

With the time money and effort put into a drug and alcohol rehab program everyone wants to see results right away.  In a perfect world results would hapen according to schedule and everything would turn out great every time.  Drug and alcohol addiction are not like that.  There is an interesting play at work when people change and grow.  The decision to change and the moment of actual change happen in a mere split second.  Change on some level is actually a rapid event.  The structure and foundation that will suport an change and make it a permanent fixture is not an instantaneous event.  Building a foundation is both hard work and may be time consuming.  Often the results of such work may not even be visible to you or those around you.

The repetition and practice to make a decision part of your make up also take time.  Again the results of this type of work will not be noticeable.  You will feel more confident in your new role as you do it more and more.  It is a subtle change though.  Many times on T.V. they make change appear with lots of drama and tears.  Emotional highs and low are around every corner.  In reality while there are certainly highs and lows in drug rehab, the majority of change is of a slower more consistent pace.  Results take time.  This is most likely why clients sho stay 90 days do so much better than those who just do 30.  Good foundations to live a drug free life take more than a month to mature and gain strength.  In drug and alcohol rehab centers, don' expect too much too fast.  You are worth the time it takes to get it right.