One of the most common questions we get asked by clients, family and friends is about alcohol consuption.  Specifically if someone has a problem with cocaine or meth, but they have never abused alcohol, can they drink after drug rehab?  Well this really an interesting question on a lot of fronts.  One involves why someone ended up in drug rehab abusing drugs in the first place.  Most times it is some sort of self-medication process involving an inability to cope with life. 

One could make some type of arguement, that if you have learned how to cope with life and acquired new skills to deal with everything, one or two drinks wouldn't make a big difference … right?  I would say no.  The reason is very simple. Alcohol does not under any situation make for better decision making.  Alcohol lowers inhibitions.  Alcohol use before cocaine relapse is very common.  What is the point of taking that risk?  By doing a risk benefit analysis by any standard, drinking after drug rehab would not come out as a quality risk.  Improve your life by improving the quaility of your decisions.  By any yardstick, alcohol consumption after drug rehab is a poor risk.

Well the year is drawing to a close.  We have a goal this year to get out a relapse prevention plan and some matching on line drug addiction and rehab courses on the website.  We almost made it.  All that is left is one approval on our new website, and we are there.  So it will be up sometime in January next year.  There really is not a need to hit rock bottom before you change.  That is why we came up with this on line drug rehab program.  If things are starting to go downhill in your life or the life of a loved why, why not intercept it sooner?  Why not deal with it while you have a career to be saved and a relationship that is still salvagable?

Our on line drug rehab courses will have three components.  The first is a self guided relapse prevention manual to get you through the reasons to stop drug and alcohol abuse and how to stop.  Then it will deal with all the details of sobriety such as tiggers and cues management.  The second workbook is for family.  It is on how to support someone doing drug and alcohol rehab.  It explains everything you need to help your spouse or family member BEFORE there life totally blows apart from drug abuse.

The last component will be our on line lectures of the key topics of drug rehab.  These are the same lectures presented in a drug rehab center, but available to you when ever you want.  It adds voice and sight to the learning process to all that you will read for the drug rehab process.  We are truly excited about adding this to the other services on our site.  It will be quality information and help about addiction had home rehab at a very affordable price.  See you in 2008!

On my never ending quest for free drug and alcohol facilities I have received another source of information.  It is specifically for women with children.  It is particularily difficult for someone trying to raise and support a family on their own and deal with an addiction.  But what could have more impact on our society then helping moms with addiction, so they can raise and be real role models in their kid's lives.  Cycles of addiction and abuse tend to be passed from generation to generation.  Click here for information on State funded California drug rehab programs.

The Rest of the California State Funded free drug and alcohol rehab programs are also available.  Click here for the rest of the information.  This is a listing of all the free and low cost drug rehab services availble to men, women and children.  Anybody with more information on free rehab, just let me know and I will gladly pass it on.

Fort McMurray is a very unique place.  If you have not heard of it, you will sooner or later.  It is the site of the tar sands, a huge industrial complex being built in northern Alberta.  The amount of oil being produced and the scale of everything is staggering.  Everything in Fort McMurray is the biggest. The biggest dump trucks in world.  The biggest excavators in the world.  Projects totalling 25 BILLION dollars for a single plant.    Companies building their own airstrips with their own 737's flying 5 days a week to fly in their workforce.

Fort McMurray is also building something else on a massive scale.  The drug problem is growing at magnitude never seen before in a single community.  Big wages and long hours isolated from family and friends.  Lots of stress with every project behind schedule and over budget.  Darkness and extreme cold for 5 months a year.  The speed at which people are becoming addicted and blowing apart is frightening.  Cocaine, crack, meth, weed, alcohol are common place.

The companies at Fort McMurray are going to have to find drug rehab solutions if this wish to have a real sustainable workforce.  Drug testing workers may insure safe welds in their plants and pipelines, but what about the cost to the workforce.  They must start to address the stress in the workplace as well as the boomtown conditions.  Teaching people to cope has to be cheaper in the long run the "stealing" workers from each other.  

This is not a case study in how addictive cocaine is with people and high incomes.  This is a great example of if you stress people with family disconnection, long hours, harsh weather, project delays and we all want it yesterday, that self medication through drugs becomes the answer.  With all the cash going into Fort McMurray, the drug rehab programs provided by the oil companies there should and have to be state of the art.  They are not.  Stop arresting drug dealers.  Start teaching people how to cope.  Drug rehab at Fort McMurray is an exaggerated example of what is going on in the rest of North America.  It is just if they cannot deal with it, looking at the cash going into those projects, there is not much hope for the rest of us.

You have wasted too much of your life.  Your relationship is too damaged.  Your health is permanently affected and can never be recovered.  You have ruined your reputation forever.  Your criminal record will follow you anywhere.  With so many things you cannot change, why even try drug rehab?  These blanket statements have the same thing in common.  They are not true.  Ever!

You may have wasted 50% of your life.  You may have wasted even more.  No person has wasted 100% of their life.  How can you say learning to walk and speak was a waste of time?  How can you say breathing is a waste of time?  The other thing about these statements is that they all involve judgement.  Who is making that judgement?  Where are these rules written? 

In a drug rehab program you can improve all of these areas.  You can use your time more wisely today.  You can improve any realtionship today, simply by being calm and peaceful, (even if they are not speaking to you).  You can tell the whole truth today.  You can be successful in today, no matter what happened in your past.  There is a great video of Lance Armstrong.  In it on a practise day he is riding his bike when they tell him it is snowing ahead.  They say the road is impassable and he will have to stop.  It is not possible to finish the ride.  He calmly looks over and says, "Who says it's not possible?".  He then looks back at the road, and keeps on riding.

Do not let other people's decisions and rules tell you what is possible in drug rehab.  Challenge all or nothing blanket statements.  Set defintions in your life that support you and what you know in your heart you are supposed to do.  Even if this was your last day on earth, you can still make it "the best last day ever".  It is always possible to improve.

When you deal with a addicted person or client and you are one of a group of people dealing with this person, at some point you may come across splitting. This happens is a drug rehab quite often, especially at the beginning of the rehab program.  Splitting is a manipulation technique.  It inolves making you feel special, and tries to pull you away from the group concencus.  Here is a typical splitting scenario. 

Someone may come up to you and say, " Do you know what Bill did to me?"  Then they explain the injustice or how they were "treated unfairly".  Then comes the splitting comment ….  I know YOU would never do that!  In one sentence they give you a "compliment", and pull you away from the other person.  This type of manipulation involves creating a subgroup of 2 people, you and them, who reall know what is going on.

When you are dealing with people with an addiction or in drug rehab, be aware of splitting.  This is especially true if you are just dealing with a loved one over the phone while they are at a drug rehab.  Statement like, "You are the ONLY family member that understand what I am going through" is a splitting statement.  Invariably requests for "special" treatment will follow.  The key to deal with splitting is to simply bring in the other poeple.  A good response to the above statement would be to answer with, "Wow, I didn't know that, let's get the rest of the family on a conference call and see if we can get them to understand.  It's inportant everyone know you feel this way!"  Splitters will immediately back off.  They do not what an open conversation with everyone, as they are probably telling the other family members the say line they just told you. 

Splitters are not only in addiction and drug rehab.  You will find them everywhere in your life.  Truth and openess are the best answer to them.

Tony Robbins is an amazing speaker.  I have seen him live, up close and personal, and if you ever get the chance …. Go.  As 2007 draws to a close, thought naturally turn to next year and what you would like to accomplish in the New Year.  Drug rehab is about change and so is the start of a new year, so it is doubly important to stop, and plan a little for the future.  I saw this and thought I would pass it on.  It only take 3 or 4 minutes to watch and will help you a lot in thinking about what direction you would like to go after drug rehab.  Click here for The 12 Tenets for the New Year, from Tony Robbins!

Addictions gradually isolate and destroy lives.  With the so called war on drugs, many times it seems that it is the only addiction we really focus on as a society.  The other addictions ruin careers, marriages and families as well.  If you want to determine the "popularity" of the different types of addictions, again looking at the number of searches for that term on the internet is a fairly valid method.  If a lot of people are searching for gambling addiction, then it must be a concern.

When you look at the top ten non drug addictions I was quite surprised again by the number one spot.  Maybe I forgot just how much that comuters have become a part of our lives, but still I didn't expect it.  Click here to see the top ten and also the next ten "honorable mentions" for non drug addictions.

There are lots of celebrations in a drug and alcohol rehab center.  Anniversaries and birthdays and the like all occur to some of the clients while they are attending and learning from a drug rehab program.  Christmas was the biggest of them that just past.  I do not know if it the stress of being away from your family, or just the fact of all the Christmas's that have gone by, and been wasted by drugs and alcohol, but things get a little crazy in a drug rehab around holidays.  Our was no exception this year.  Somehow it seems to turn from a celebation of what you have, into a pitty party of what you are missing by being in drug rehab during these special days.

It is as always a problem of focus.  Pitty parites always start with a question that begins with "why".  Action and mental well being always start with a question that begins with "what".  That may seem like a gross oversimplification, but in reality and practise it is not.  Why does this alway happen to me? Why am I here?  Why don't they listen?  Why am I in this supid drug rehab?

What is going well today?  What have I learned here?  What can I do today to help someone else?  What is the most important thing in my life right now? 

Can you see the vast difference that one word can make.  It will make a huge difference in your stay at drug rehab, even if it not your birthday.  Take care and have a great day!

They say the devil is in the details, and so it is in drug rehab as well.  Details are that two edged sword that if you do not deal with the proper balance, trouble is sure to follow.  If you do not deal with the details, nothing ever get accomplished.  However at the same time you can never let details direct your attention and focus.  Sounds like it is impossible … right?

Not really, but again you have to be careful how you ask yourself questions, or you will misdirect your time and effort.  Drug rehab is about behavior change.  Behavior change is about quality questions.  Start your process each day with a couple of these.  Firstly, "What one thing can I do today, that will have the MOST impact on my sobriety and my drug rehab program?  What is the second most important thing?"

This will give you the focus you need.  Then try this question.  "Is there any details or clutter I need to clear up today so I can focus on what is truly important?"  This will provide the balance we all need.  If there are some housekeeping type items that must be taken care of so they do not intrude on the focus of your drug rehab program, then by all means get them out of the way.  This combination of questions helps you keep focused on the big picture.  It also help keep away all the little pictures in drug rehab, from blurring the big picture.  Give it a try and have a great day!