“When we totally and unconditionally surrender, which means that we accept our total and complete powerlessness over our addiction, we begin to build a solid foundation for recovery. If we surrender, our disease loses its control over our life.” ~ Dr. Allen Berger, Ph.D., 12 Stupid Things That Mess Up Recovery: Avoiding Relapse through Self-Awareness and Right Action If you have finally decided to get help for your substance abuse disorder, whether it manifested in the form of alcoholism, drug addiction, or both, you are to be congratulated. You have made the best possible choice for yourself, your family, and your future. However, if you are like most people just starting out on a journey of recovery, you are probably confused about what comes next – you are asking for help, but what help, exactly, should you accept?
Now Is the Time to Choose Your Addiction Recovery Path Wisely
There are a number of choices that you now need to make, and your decisions can affect how smooth your personal journey is –
- Who –What facility will you choose?
- How– Inpatient/residential? Outpatient? Medication-assisted?
- When– That’s actually the easy one –the best time to get help for an alcohol or drug problem is always RIGHT NOW.
- Where– This is an important consideration that most people forget about. But, you think about it, you’ll come to realize why WHERE you go for substance abuse treatment can actually matter quite a bit.
Why You Should Travel for Alcohol/Drug Rehab
It’s quite understandable why you might want to check into a rehab facility near your home – you’ll miss your loved ones and the personal support they provide. But in a larger sense, that is precisely one of the reasons why you might want to get away.
During Drug Rehab, Family DOESN’T Come First
In most relationships where one person is addicted to drugs and alcohol, a dysfunctional, codependent relationship develops. The addict becomes adept at manipulation and emotional blackmail as a means of getting what they want when they want it. The spouse/partner/family member becomes codependent when they begin to neglect their own needs and obligations because they are too busy focusing on the substance abuser. In simplest terms, the alcoholic/addict never has to personally deal with their disease or its consequences, because their codependent loved one is always there to clean up their messes and support their addiction. During drug rehab, that paradigm has to end. Both sides need to have the time and space needed to focus upon their own selves. The long-suffering family member needs to learn more about the disease of addiction, how to stop enabling that disease, and most importantly, learn how to focus first on their own needs and obligations. The addict/alcoholic, on the other hand, needs to learn how to stand on their own two feet, dealing with the challenges of every day, responsible life on their own.
Putting Your Sobriety First Is NOT Selfish
Recovery – especially early recovery –is a time when your sobriety has to come first. Anything else that might serve as a distraction – your family, your job, your friends, your bills, even your children–has to become of secondary importance for a while. Although that might seem self-centered, it is in actuality the best, most responsible thing you can do for everyone and everything you care about. By fixing yourself FIRST – by freeing yourself from the shackles of addiction – you put yourself in the best possible situation to actually BE THERE for your loved ones – sober, sane, and alive.
You Break Bad Habits When You Travel for Drug Rehab
There is another practical reason why leaving home to go to drug rehab is a good idea. One of the best strategies that a person has to employ during recovery is avoiding triggers that might precipitate a relapse and jeopardize their fragile sobriety –
- People – Your loved ones might serve as distractions, but your old drinking and drug buddies are actual hazards that endanger your recovery. If you halfheartedly try to participate in a treatment program at home and are still hanging out with “friends” who are drinking and using, you set yourself up for failure.
- Places – Just like you have people in your life who you did/drank with, there are places that played a part as well – your favorite bars or liquor stores, your dealer’s house, etc. During early recovery, you need to stay as far away from those places as possible.
- Things – You may not realize it, but there were aspects of your substance abuse that was very ritualistic. There were probably familiar activities that you engaged in when you were about to drink or drug. When you travel for drug rehab, you separate yourself from anything that could spark a misleading feeling of nostalgia about your substance abuse.
It may be difficult to completely avoid everything and everyone associated with your past drug/alcohol abuse forever, but during your first few months of recovery, your sobriety is still tenuous. Get away, get clean, and get stronger, so you can successfully deal with those temptations at some future point. If you need to get away from it all so you can get it all together, there is no better place than Northpoint Recovery, located in Boise, Idaho. Northpoint serves as one of the region’s premier alcohol and drug detox/rehab facilities, offering residential treatment to people suffering from the disease of addiction.
