Going to rehab for drugs and alcohol is a very scary experience. The months and years leading up to that moment are usually some of the worst times of a person’s life. The time spent away from everything and recovering in a treatment facility is extremely valuable. You need to take advantage of that time to plan out your attack on your addiction. The key thing here is to make a simple, concise yet effective plan. I want to go over 3 extremely important keys to ensure you are successful in your recovery journey.
Forget Your Way
I spent years trying to get sober and spent years not being very successful at it. My biggest struggle was giving up doing things my way. I would go into rehab, and after a few weeks I would start to feel great from being clean from drugs and start to think I knew what I had to do. In fact, I felt so good being off drugs in treatment I thought everyone was overreacting about the precautions I had to take in order to get sober. I would get suggestions from my therapists and staff and I would always tell them “Thanks, but no thanks, I know what I need to do”. I did this several different times and each time I was lucky to stay sober for a month out of treatment. It wasn’t until I stopped doing my way completely that I was finally able to flourish in recovery.
Take Action
Building a new sober life takes an awful lot of work. For many of us we need to start from scratch. When I entered recovery I had no job, not a dollar in the bank account and absolutely zero life skills. It was very overwhelming to begin my life knowing what was a head of me but all I did was work at it every single day. There is great satisfaction when you start to put your words into action and start building a life. Every day I would work on things like:
- Getting/Working A Job
- Going To Meetings
- Working the Steps with a Sponsor
- Going to the gym
- Saving Money
- Creating A Routine
- Making Friends
I could go on and on but the point is there is a lot to do. There is no reason to sit and do nothing and wait for life to happen. Sobriety doesn’t happen for people who want it or need it, it happens for people who DO it.
I could also write a lot more about what you should do once you leave inpatient treatment but the path of recovery is really a unique path for everyone. We all have our strengths and weaknesses and we want to make sure not to compare our journey with others. However, everyone needs to surrender and take action, absolutely everyone. Building that new life everyday with no questions asked can lead you to a very beautiful life.