If you’re questioning whether to participate in drug detox and substance abuse treatment, you should know that there are two conditions that professionals typically see as a prerequisite for sobriety that is long-term and enduring.
There appears to be a common theme to the stories of those who stay sober, to the stories published in recovery books and stories on websites that emphasize sobriety.
Those Who Found Long-Term Sobriety With Drug Abuse Help Needed to Do the Following:
- Break through isolation and realize you are not alone.
- Get support for your decision to stay sober.
Feelings of shame are often associated with drug addiction and they tend to keep an individual lonely and alone in the throes of their addiction cycle. Yet, when the desire to get sober outweighs the shame, it usually pushes one through the bubble of isolation. When that breakthrough happens, the connection to others helps an individual recognize that he or she doesn’t have to survive the discomforts of drug detox and substance abuse treatment alone.
And once an individual realizes that he or she is not alone in the drug rehab process, there’s hope. And in that moment of hope, there’s that decision that anyone who wants to recover from an addiction must make – it is the decision to stay sober, that no matter what, you’re going to keep choosing sobriety. And even if you relapse, you commit to drug rehab again. You commit to moving upward and onward, despite the steps backward.
Break the Bubble of Loneliness And to Get Support for your Decision to Stay Sober:
- Join a support group: It’s common for recovery addicts to feel marginalized, separate from the mainstream of society. However, belonging to a group can heal that sense of separation. Being with others who are in recovery can provide you with a listening ear as well as honest feedback. Of course, Alcoholics Anonymous provides this sort of community support. However, there are other sources of group support in the community.
- Seek a Sponsor or Therapist: Support group has many benefits, as well as the one-on-one relationship you would have with a sponsor or therapist. In those relationships, you can experience addiction help that is focused on you and your particular needs.
- Seek Support Online: Although by going online you’re likely not going to find the kind of friendship and personal interaction that you would find in a support group or therapy, at least you’ll discover that you’re not alone. The web is filled with drug rehab stories, such as how an addiction caused great suffering and how an individual turned it around. The Internet can be a source of inspiration, encouragement, and support.
- Find a Sober Living Home: Of course, your own environment is going to be filled with temptation to drink or use drugs, from friends to family to commercials on television. Having a place to retreat to that is focused on helping you create a sober-free life can be incredibly supportive.
Some recovering addicts might say that another contributor to long-term sobriety is spirituality, that with the pattern of powerlessness, which is true of all addictions, there must be a relationship with a higher being.
However, others who have started the road to recovery years ago with drug abuse help and have remained sober neither needed nor wanted the spiritual component. Their disbelief in anything spiritual kept them far from it. Yet, others who remained at arm’s length to the spirituality of AA, for example, later found that it was an essential part of their recovery process.
Although spirituality is a big factor for some, experts in the field of drug addiction treatment have narrowed it down to two factors. If you’re serious about getting sober and staying that way, remember two things: you’re not alone and support for your decision is at your fingertips.
If you are reading this on any other blog than The Lakehouse Recovery Center or via my RSS Feed, it is stolen content without credit.
Follow us on twitter @TheLakehouseRC
Come and visit our blog at https://lakehouserecoverycenter.com/blog/