Addiction Rehab Centers Rebuild Lives

Happy people walking.

When we think of drug and alcohol rehab centers, what is our first thought? Most likely, our first and only thought is that drug and alcohol rehab centers are places where people go to get off of drugs and alcohol. Getting people off of drugs is certainly the primary focus of drug and alcohol rehab centers. But treatment centers “should” offer much more to recovering addicts.

At drug rehab centers, people get their lives back. A lot has to go wrong in a person’s life for them to fall prey to a substance abuse habit. A lot of mistakes have to be made. Few people become addicts overnight. Few become alcoholics in a day. The path to addiction is usually a long one, with many things going wrong for the person along the way. A drug and alcohol rehab center seeks to right all of that wrong, and to help the person fully repair his or her life, not just “get them off of drugs.”

Rehabs Work to Clean Up a Recovering Addict’s Body

When an individual first arrives at a treatment center, they are helped to withdraw off of whatever drugs or alcohol that they were on. They experience a full detoxification, a cleanup, and a resulting repair of their very bodies from the damage that drug use did.

For example, at Narconon, the program utilizes a non-drug assisted withdrawal and detoxification process to bring recovering individuals down off of drugs and to set them on a path for better, cleaner living. Narconon’s combination of exercise, sweating in a dry-heat sauna, hydration, nutrition, and the use of vitamins and supplements all combine to create a simple yet effective withdrawal and detoxification process.

Most rehabs seek to cleanse the body first because it is believed that recovering addicts will have a hard time focusing on much of anything else until they experience such a cleanse. There is more to be done in rehab and in one’s path to recovery, but detoxing off of drugs and finding a pureness and a cleanliness in one’s own body is the first step.

Rehabs Get to the Bottom of the Drug Problem

Interview patient

As mentioned earlier, few people become addicts overnight, and few become addicts by chance. Most will agree that addiction is merely the accumulation of a lot of bad decisions, poorly-chosen environments, bad relationships, etc. But even deeper than that, drug addiction almost always comes from inner turmoil within oneself, a crippling struggle or anxiety about life that one feels they must use drugs or alcohol to cope with.

One of the most powerful benefits to drug and alcohol rehab centers is that such programs work with their individual clients to help find the source of addiction. So confronted, recovering addicts are able to see how their own personal crisis really was not as significant as they perhaps gave it merit for, and they are able to begin focusing on the future instead.

Rehabs Pull Individuals Out of the Past and Focus Their Attention on the Future

Focusing on the future is another benefit of drug rehabs. Most addicts are stuck in the past, stuck in the difficulties and turmoils of whatever is causing them to use drugs and alcohol. While in a rehab center, those past areas will be addressed and handled, and additional attention will be placed on that person’s present and future.

For example, the Narconon program has their own battery of processes and exercises that they use to assist recovering addicts in focusing on the present, not the past. Life happens in the present. Living in the past is a recipe for hardship, misery, and relapse. Getting recovering addicts out of past-based thinking is a huge boon to recovering individuals and a great approach that many rehab centers include as a part of their programs.

Rehabs Help Teach Responsibility and Ethical Living

Open book with text - responsibility.

Any addict will agree that drug abuse and alcoholism does not come without a diminishing in ethics and responsibility. Drug use and alcoholism are inherently wrong, so one cannot take part in such activities without sacrificing some aspect of their true and moral selves and their.

Drug rehabs are there to help people get that morality and responsibility back again in the form of honesty, integrity, fairness, trust, reliability, open communication, hard work, commitment, trustworthiness, loyalty, helpfulness, friendliness, courtesy, kindness, bravery, etc. These and more are principles taught at most rehabs, principles that addicts tend to lose sight of over the course of their lives as drug users and alcoholics. With the help of a treatment center, these principles can be brought back into life once again.

Rehabs Show Recovering Addicts How to Repair Damaged Relationships

Relationships are the breath of life among mankind. Our growth through our relationships will often be the direct metric to our happiness in life or our lack thereof. As Fran Tarkenton, entrepreneur and NFL Hall of Famer once said, “In the end, it’s all about those relationships we build and the people we are able to help. That’s the mark of a true leader, whether it’s a quarterback or an entrepreneur.”

A drug user or alcoholic is not going to be able to help anyone, much less himself. Such a person will likely have troubles in his relationships with others. He will likely be causing more damage to the relationships that he does have than he will be adding benefit to them.

This is why drug and alcohol rehab centers focus on teaching recovering addicts how to repair and improve their relationships with others. From learning how to fix a broken relationship to how to overcome relationship roadblocks and learning how to find good people for oneself, these things can be and are taught at many rehab centers.

Rehabs Teach Recovering Addicts How to Cope Better in Day-to-Day Life

Life after rehab is no walk in the park. Going through a drug and alcohol treatment center helps people immensely, but they still have to walk the path of sobriety afterward. Upon graduation from a program, recovering addicts now have to apply what they learned in rehab. And life will attempt to throw curve balls into the best-laid plans every step of the way.

For these reasons, rehab centers also teach recovering addicts life skills, relapse prevention strategies, coping techniques, tips for getting out of dangerous environments, ideas on how to create safety networks, etc. Rehab programs will also advise that recovering individuals continue to work on themselves and to grow and improve, even after leaving the treatment center. And most rehabs will help arrange this with their clients as well as provide some after care.

Friends happy after getting sober.

Rehabs Change Lives for the Better

Drug and alcohol rehab centers do much more than simply get addicts off of drugs. With the tools, strategies and life-changing experiences that one gets from attending an inpatient rehab, life in recovery becomes not only possible, but it becomes something to look forward to.


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Reviewed by Claire Pinelli, ICAADC, CCS, LADC, RAS, MCAP

AUTHOR

Ren

After working in addiction treatment for several years, Ren now travels the country, studying drug trends and writing about addiction in our society. Ren is focused on using his skill as an author and counselor to promote recovery and effective solutions to the drug crisis. Connect with Ren on LinkedIn.

NARCONON ARROWHEAD

DRUG EDUCATION AND REHABILITATION