If left unchecked substance abuse can lead to drug addiction with all its potential horrific consequences. The disease of drug addiction can result in people losing everything they hold dear as a direct result of substance abuse.
Physical health problems, broken relationships and homes, job loss, emotional problems, legal trouble and financial woes are all on the horizon for the substance abuser unless they find recovery from substance abuse.
Because substance abuse has such far reaching consequences any addiction treatment program will need to look at many areas of the illness in order to help the patient find lasting recovery from substance abuse. Such programs will have a variety of different therapeutic activities, each of which is suited to examining a particular area of life.
In order to offer a diverse drug abuse recovery program, rehabs will draw from the experience of a multi-disciplinary team of addiction treatment consultants. Such a team will include members of various professions, such as doctors, nurses, social workers, psychologists and addiction counsellors.
Because each professional is trained with a different specialist view of substance abuse together they can create a composite understanding of the drug abusing patient. We can see that the patient is placed at the center of a ring of caring professionals all of who are dedicated to helping him/her find recovery from substance abuse.
Recovery from substance abuse has many rewards. It’s not just about quitting drinking or getting clean from drug abuse. So many people have tried to clean up from drug addiction and never entered recovery that there is a special term for the way they live… the “dry drunk” syndrome.
Dry drunks are those people who have stopped drinking but not changed their behaviour. Since they have not changed their behaviour their lives have not changed and they end up being miserable. There is a saying that goes “if nothing changes, nothing changes” which may seem tautological but captures the dry drunk syndrome in a nutshell.
Rather the professionals in a drug addiction rehab clinic will see recovery from substance abuse as a condition where the patient is completely restored to function in all areas of life – physical, emotional, vocational, spiritual and psychological.
Addiction recovery requires radical change in the behaviour and attitudes of the drug abuser and so can be difficult to acquire. But the goal is worth the effort!
Drug addicts in recovery from substance abuse describe having a new sense of freedom and a new happiness in life. Instead of compulsively seeking to abuse drugs to the point of oblivion and obsessing about it when they’re not high they find that they can spend their energy in new directions. This freedom from the cycle of physical compulsion and mental obsession is one of the large rewards of recovery.
Many drug abusers walk around with a tremendous sense of shame about what they may have done while addicted. Recovery from substance abuse helps to relieve this burden and drug addicts find that they stop regretting their pasts and come to a point where they can accept themselves. They see their present life (which is pleasant) as a product of their past. The past therefore becomes a useful lesson in guiding them towards their current progress.
Drug addicts in recovery from Substance abuse find themselves able to deal with situations that used to present enormous challenges. Instead of being flummoxed in novel social situations they are able to adapt with ease. Instead of needing to lie to cover up their behaviour they find that their behaviour is appropriate and they have no need to cover it up.
There are many other benefits to being in recovery from substance abuse. The opportunity to reinvent your life and choose exactly who you want to be is a tremendous blessing for which drug absuers remain grateful throughout their sobriety.
If you feel that your drug abuse has escalated to a point where you want to get help in stopping before you suffer further consequences please contact one of our addiction treatment consultants today. Their expert advice on finding rehab near you is just a phone call away.
Call us right now for assistance getting into recovery from substance abuse.