Anyone that has ever dealt with drug addiction knows that it doesn’t only affect the user, but instead, it affects everyone close to them. This makes habit become a family affair since it can interfere with relationships to:
- Partners
- Children
- Parents
- Grandparents
- Uncles
- Aunts
- Cousins
- Other relatives
- Friends
Everyone listed above can be affected when someone they know is suffering from an addiction to drugs or alcohol.
For this reason, it is so important to get help from a treatment centre for drug or alcohol addiction. The media has portrayed the idea of addiction and how an addict lives, and it is not necessarily exact to what most situations look like. Therefore, when it happens to you or someone in your family, you may not see it right away, or it may not be very easy to accept. You can always get help from definingwellness.com.
The biggest problem happens when people that are close to the addict want to help their family or friend and end up making damaging mistakes because they do not fully understand the disease. When this happens, the person suffering from addiction can be forced into more profound isolation than they were previously, and this can increase their drug use. Many people that don’t understand addiction can think that the person can snap out of it and stop using it. However, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Addiction is a clinical disease that will get worse until treatment is received from Treatment centres.
Can Addicts just quit Their Addiction?
When you hear about drug use and addicts, you may see many people loudly proclaim that addiction is a lifestyle choice, and they can control it. Yet, instead of it being a moral weakness, it is a severe disease that needs medical treatment. The person that is addicted cannot help themselves without the assistance of someone who is trained in these types of situations. Most of the time, the addict themselves deny that they have a problem. Living with an addict can be extremely hard, especially if your loved one is in denial, yet you are watching their health deteriorate in front of you.
The substance that an addict uses changes the way that neurotransmitters in the brain function. This leads to compulsive behaviour, and this is the problem with drug addiction. If a person has used a drug or alcohol for a prolonged period, there is more damage to the brain. Therefore, the quicker that the person begins treatment, the better the long-term success rate will be.
This means that addiction cannot only be controlled by saying no or by willpower. Similarly to other diseases, addiction can run in families depending on genetics and the environment. Addiction can, over time lead to serious health issues such as:
- Heart Disease
- Diabetes
- Cancer
A family needs to fully accept that addiction is not merely something that can be stopped so that they do not use the wrong techniques when trying to help their loved one. Using tough love or taking away a support system will force an addict into complete isolation and is the absolute worst thing you can do for them. Triggers are what an addiction feeds on, so if someone feels like they are alone or not understood, it can lead them to use more.
What will be Life like after Visiting Treatment centres in the local environment?
After you complete your time at your drug and alcohol rehab facility, you are completely proud of yourself. You feel like a new person. For the first time in months or even years, you are finally sober. You finally feel like your old self, and you feel like absolutely anything is possible. You finally get to go back to your friends, family, co-workers, neighbours, etc. This is a very crucial time, and the choices that you make will ultimately determine if you stay sober or not. If you go back to hanging out with your old group of friends or take part in dangerous activities again, the chances are high that you will relapse. Right now, point in your life, it is essential to think about where you want your life to be. You want to be able to enjoy a sober life after rehab and be able to enjoy life without worrying about your next fix.
How do you prioritize your life and sobriety once you get us of rehab? We have some tips that can help you adjust to your new life so that you can make the best choices and stay sober. We can help you readjust to your old life but remain free of alcohol or drugs.
Priorities after Inpatient Treatment
Before you went to rehab, you were a slave to either alcohol or drugs that you were addicted to. Your entire day was planned around your fix and how you were getting the next one. Now that you don’t have to worry about the drugs, your focus will switch, and you can get back to what matters most to you. This will vary from person to person. Some may want to focus on the career they lost due to their addiction. Some may want to fix the family that they neglected. This is the time that you can start your life with a fresh perspective. Reconnect with your family, openly discuss the problem, renew old contacts from pre-addiction time, and make new friends with healthy habits.
Avoid Triggers and Find Good People
Nothing will change if you are still hanging out with the people that you previously did drugs with or if you are still sitting at the bar with the other alcoholics. You need to free your environment of alcohol and drugs. This means that you need to say goodbye to these people, walk away, and don’t look back.
Once you get rid of the shady people from your past, you may find yourself lonely. Instead of dwelling on these lost “friendships”, you need to focus on the people in your life who truly matter. Spend time with these people. These are the people that you pushed away during your addiction for various reasons. However, you got a second chance. Get to know these people again. Sometimes, these relationships were damaged, but now you have the time to repair them.
If you need more help with life after rehab, if you are searching for Inpatient treatment in your city because it is local, you may be better off considering facilities away from home. Connect with drug treatment centre counsellors at United Recovery Project for more information or to get in touch with our specialists now.
