Are you one of the many people looking at alcohol or drug treatment programs? No matter what substance you’ve been abusing, just about any treatment center can help you. They are all basically set up to address the many facets of addiction treatment.
Addiction treatment: Such a strange term! But it considers the entire 360 degrees of a person’s life experiences. Parent, child, sibling, employee, supervisor, and neighbor: You are possibly all of those things and more.
Picture yourself at the center of a circle. If you reach out in one direction, you touch your family life-your spouse and children. In another direction, you have an effect on your parents and siblings. Turn slightly and reach out, and you’ll see yourself as you stand within your community. And with another adjustment, you’re facing your role at your workplace.
Drug treatment programs are designed to help you take your place effectively within that circle we talked about. Maybe you can only do that by standing outside of that circle and looking in at yourself. Many of the counselors in drug treatment programs employ a therapy that helps you to see where you stand in the quagmire of addiction.
Timeline: One of the first steps is to draw a simple horizontal line-and make it into a timeline of your life. Put a mark on the line that shows the time you first tried each new substance.
Uses, Consequences, Secrets: In this mental exercise, the counselor will ask you to look at what substances you’ve used at various ages. Did you have your first drink at age 12? What were the consequences-a headache? You kept it a secret from your mother? Maybe you’ve moved to something like trying heroin at age 23, with the consequences of landing in jail, and the secret is that you’ve stolen your mother’s antique jewelry to pay for it.
Family Tree: Addiction does seem to run in families. Think honestly, back to the days when you were a child, about the relatives at family picnics who always got too blitzed for everyone else’s comfort. A grandmother, an uncle, a cousin: list them on your family tree, and your counselor will take you on a journey of discovery.
Drug treatment programs use these methods plus others to help you buy into your recovery. You will no longer resent those who brought you to a treatment center; you will begin to take an active interest in what’s going on there.
You will also begin to accept yourself as a likeable person, part of your family and a member of the community. It will become possible to view addiction not as a crime, but as a medical diagnosis. We often say that addiction is like diabetes: When you are first diagnosed, you need immediate treatment. Once you’ve received that, you need to manage your disease for the rest of your life.
Visit http://alcoholism.about.com for a list of programs in each of the United States.
With help from one of the licensed, certified drug treatment programs in your area, you can do this.
