The vast majority of people who call us for drug and alcohol rehab simply do not have the means to pay for it.  The plain truth is that we need more and creative ways to finance drug rehab.  The other option is to find ways to give drug rehab at a much lower cost.  Of course we all would like to have the government pay to help all these people.  Again either the government cannot afford it, or the political will to pay for it is just not there.  So if the government is not going to pay for drug rehab, what other things can we do?

We are trying to offer something at a much lower cost.  Of course it is not like going to a drug rehab center.  It will never be as good as going to a drug rehab center.  However it might be good enough to save someone's life.  It might be good enough to slow or reverse the progression of the addiction.  Given the alternative of slowly watching people die, that might be a good choice.  I am talking about our workbook and lessons.  Make Your Last Relapse The Last, is a workbook almost anyone can do.  It is simple and straight forward.  You go through it and write your anwsers in the book and progress from one topic to another.  We will be offering it on a new website going live next weekend.  The site is www.sobermart.com .  Shortly after there will be matching on line lessons. This is not meant to replace rehab.  However for a very small cost a client can get a lot of the core information presented in rehab in a format they can try at home or anywhere else.  On line drug rehab has the potential to help thousands of people who simply have no finances to try something else.  We either need more money for drug rehab or cheaper options for drug rehab, because we cannot just continue to ignore 8 out of 10 people.

Are you really commited to change?  Was does commitment look like?  What is it that separates those who successfully complete a drug rehab program from the people who who just put in time ar leave early?  Commitment has at least two components to in in a drug rehab progam.  The first is the mental component.  It invloves the simple act of doing what you say you are going to do.  No exceptions.  Even if other people dropped the ball.  Even if you have been deceived by somebody a bit to get you in rehab.  Commitment is about doing what you say you are going to do. 

The second component is the quality of your actions.  Just showing up, is not honoring a commitment to change.  Not being open to consider and try new ideas before discarding them is not commitment.  Not being willing to help other clients with your input and caring is not commitment. Commiting to change is about cutting off and old way of life and moving into new territory.  It is not about counting days.  It is not about sarcasm.  It is not about seeing how many rules you can break without getting caught.  Commitment is about setting a new standard for yourself the you have chosen.  Drug rehab centers do not exist for any other reason than to help you change.  The quality of your life will directly match the quality of your commitment at drug rehab.

In drug and alcohol rehab there are many moments of self doubt.  There are times where I am sure many clients cannot actually believe they are in a drug rehab center?  How did there life get so out of control?  There are times when it feels as low as a low they may have had in their life. 

What may be useful to remember is that even though you are in a drug rehab program, a significant number of the worlds population would trade places with you at that very moment.  There are millions of desparate people who want to get into this country.  They would take your addiction and your citizenship in a heartbeat.  There are people with diseases and conditions far worse and terminal than your situation at the moment. 

I'm not saying this to minimize your situation.  I am saying it to make you realize you still have a lot of vauable assets many people covet.  You have more in your glass of life than you may think.  If there are a significant number of the world's population that would trade places with you, it would seem likely that your present place in life is far from hopeless.  It is vaulable to know others would see your problem as solvable.  If you are having a truly bad moment, ask yourself a quality question.  What one thing can I do right now to improve my mood?  Ask it as many times as you have to in order to get an answer from your brain.  It will be worth it.

There is a needs for a better solution or a more involved solution for people in long term chronic pain.  Narcotic analgesics for these clients seems like making a deal with the devil.  Over time the medications become less and less effective.  Over time in the pursuit of temporary relief, clients take larger and larger doses of the narcotics. 

The sad truth is these clients seem utimately still in pain, but simply taking large doses of narcotics as now they are addicted.  The drugs have become their coping mechanism.  These clients might need a two pronged approach drug rehab.  They still need all the classic help from a drug rehab.  They need stress management and help with distorted patterns of thinking.  They also need help on the pain management front.  They simply cannot be removed from drug use and left alone.  The pain they feel is real and difficult.  There is no simple solution to this issue.  Prevention is most likely the key.  Narcotics for a truly chronic pain solution is an area where risk vs. benefit is a difficult choice at best.  Ending up in drug rehab because of chronic pain just does not seem fair at all.

When you have a family memeber addicted to drugs and alcohol you are in a difficult situation.  You might be one of the last people to still believe in them.  You might be there last life line.  The problem is, what if you feel like they are pulling you down with them.  This is especially true of parents and their children.  You have sacrificed financially your whole life for your child.  You have postponed vacations and other things in your life so you could provide for them.

Now you are at a stage where you should be concentrating on yourself.  Looking to other pleasures and adventures but instead you are presented with the choice of spending your money on rehab for your adult child, or finally doing something for yourself.  You are also confronted with the knowledge of the fact drug rehab is not 100% successful.  Not by a long stretch.  How so you decide how much you are willing to give.   "Whatever it takes".  "I'd spend anything to save my kid".  These are trite answers that do not really solve the problem.  If you actually follow them you will leave yourself open to manipulation and financial ruin.

You cannot save a drowning person if you drown yourself.  Firstly decide how much you can afford to spend or borrow for rehab without putting yourself into serious financial peril.   Stick to that amount.  Then decide what are the criterion that you are willing to spend it.  One should be total willingness to go by the client.  Two should be a commitment to stay at the program, no matter what.  There will be no exception to not completing.  If they do not complete, you make it clear you will not assist them in any way in the future.  Write it down and stand by it.  Think of other things you require from someone before you commit your money to this project.  Write them down. 

Once you have your limits and conditions in place then you can start to actively intervene to make it happen.  Do not blindly promise to send someone to rehab, "If they only try".  Be clear about your boundaries and the behavior you are willing to tolerate and support.  Love them unconditionally, but support them only if you can and it actually helps.

A large number of clients coming into a drug rehab center have issues with their sleep pattern.  They are awake late at night and have difficulty falling asleep.  Changing the sleep pattern is always a priorty in the first month in a drug rehab center.  A lot of clients arrive with medications to assist them to "fall" alseep.  Are sleep medications a good idea in a drug rehab center?  While we are not here to give any medical advice, what approach may make the most sense in the long run?

What is the danger in using sleep medications in a drug rehab center?  The most obvious one is that many sleep medications have an addictive potential.  Any drug that alters moods or leads to drowsiness may be dangerous to a client at this stage.  Drowsiness may lead to poor decisions.  Even a small buzz may trigger cravings.  At some point a client may also need to make the connection that problems cannot be solved with pills.  Drug rehab centers are safe places.  People are around 24 hours a day.  What is the worst that will happen if you do not fall asleep?  You will be tired the next day.  If you stick to it sooner or later you will be tired enough to fall asleep at at your desired hour.  Pills will never do that for you.  You start to believe that for you to sleep well you need a pill.  Again a lot of pills are not as effective over time as they were intially, so you either have to increase the dose, or learn to sleep without pills. 

You are investing time and money for a place to change.  Avoid the seductive feeling of, "I just need this for a while to get through this."  Seek other solutions.  Exercise so much you are exhausted.  Read at night if you can't fall asleep, to make it productive.  Stay away from coffee and caffeine.  One more pilll is not really the answer for a lot of people.  In a drug rehab center, nobody dies from not going to sleep.  Clients do die who do not stop using drugs.  Make the smart choice.

Clients at the depths of their addiction want to change.  They are depressed.  They are isolated.  They are very tired of trying to find their drug and at the same time juggle all the lies in their life.  They want a change.  This however makes them very vulnerable.  They are so desparate for a change, they are willing to believe anything if it looks like it will get them out of the addicted hole they are in.

Drug rehabs might need to understand and use caution because of this.  Sometimes I question the wisdom or fairness of running a rehab for vulnerable people and then telling them about religion and God as their solution.  Is it fair to indoctrinate vulnerable people?  If addiction is a disease, why would we allow this?  Would we be just a comfortable with rehabs for people with heart disease and obiesity being treated this way.  People with heart problems and overwieght issues need exercise, diet improvement, medication and medical monitoring.  People with addiction need to find God.  Why the double standard? 

I am not knocking God.  Everyone needs some sort of spritual center and guidlines for their life.  I am talking about why addiction gets involved in Christian drug and alcohol rehab centers, but diabetes, cardiac issues and cancer patients somehow do not need to find God in their cure?

It goes to how society values addicts.  As long as someone helps them get off the street, we do not care what they teach them at a vulnerable and lost moment in their life.  What happened to research?  What happened to standard of care?  I'm sorry, it makes no sense to me.

The severe storms over the last couple of days wrecked havoc and destruction on many. many lives.  Listening to the accounts of those affected on CNN, I heard a comment from a lady, which we all need to take to heart.  Her house and possessions were all totally destoyed.  As she was surveying it, she said, "It's just stuff, I'm thankful my family is ok."   Talk about a line we all need to live by.  Many times is a drug rehab program, clients are depressed and remorseful over all that their addiction has cost them.  The cars, houses, jobs, businesses, money are gone and replaced with debt. 

At some point it may be useful to remember all those things are just stuff.  Sometimes people lose all those things and they didn't do anything wrong or make bad choices.  They just lived where a tornado decided to touch down.  Stuff can be built again.  Money can be made anew.  How many of the things in your life right now that you are worried about ultimately just involve stuff?  What is the %?  I'll wager it is at least 50%.

If you remove that 50% you will get to things that are far more important to you, and that can actually make a difference.  Relationships with others.  Focusing on your ability to work and contribute.  These are areas that if you increase your skill level while you are in a drug rehab program, you will have made an effective change.  Drug rehab is a great placed to demote "stuff" to it's proper place in life.  Stuff is secondary, people are not.

"I'm sending my kid to you guys so maybe you can motivate him to do something with his life."  Anyone who has worked with a drug rehab center has heard this line more than once.  Tony Robbins has helped a lot of people change thier lives.  I have heard him live and if you ever get the chance, go see him.  He is one of the most inspirational speakers you will ever find.  He does have a pet peeve though.  He has been refered to as "that motivation guy".  He rightly points out that he nor anyone else can motivate someone.  Motivation comes from the inside.  So in a drug rehab center, we can inspire, teach, help, listen, and assist someone to motivate themselves.   There is no secret "motivation room" or tape. 

The ultimate motivators are the real reasons why you want to stop using drugs and alcohol.  Your kids, your family, your body are all great motivators.  Being able to make a difference on the lives of others is another great motivator.  Living a life by values you choose and are proud of is another.  Being in control of your own destiny is a suberb motivator.  For some people staying out of jail may be a really good motivator.  It is different for all of us.  Stop and ask yourself why you want to change and for who?  There will be a source of a great deal of motivation while you are in drug rehab.  It is a gift you have to find for yourself, nobody else can give it to you.

No road is ever perfectly straight, and no journey is ever without mistakes.  Sometimes it is necessary to move back a few steps in order to regroup and head toward are ultimate goals.  In drug rehab going backwards may involve giving up on a relationship either permanently or in it's present form.  The same may be said for a job or a career you are doing.  Going back to school seems like a step backward to some people no matter how you frame it.

Clearing up old legal issues while in drug rehab may seem like going backward.  You have changed and now you may end up incarcerated.  Sometime you have no choice at all.  If drug abuse has permanently damagely your health.  Accepting that may again seem like a step backwards, but you cannot move as quickly and efficiently forward as we all want if you cannot clearly see where you actually are.

Plus to be honest Backward and Forward are just judgements.  While a game is being played making judgments or labels about about the ultimate meaning of an event, they do not really serve any purpose.  The real question to ask is if this move will ultimately get you to where you want to  be.  Wisdom is about making choices that get the results that will bring you the best quality of life.