Will I get cured from addiction in rehab?
Will I get cured from addiction in rehab? The short answer that you may not want to hear is – no. There is no cure for addiction. And it is a lifelong condition that all addicts have to learn to live with. However, what you will get in rehab is this: you will get well and you will get recovery. This too can be lifelong if you choose to keep it. It will be yours to keep or throw away. You need never drink or use a drug again.
Getting cured from addiction is a myth
People who are not alcoholics and addicts themselves will never truly understand addiction. They cannot imagine why us alcoholics and addicts cannot control our drinking or using. Why we cannot just cut down. They will never understand the power of the craving. And the mental obsession we have with alcohol and drugs and the power it can have over us.
The issue for us – and why we will never be cured – is that that reaction we have to alcohol or drugs is still within us. We may no longer be drinking or using – but if we pick up a drink or drug in the future, the craving will kick back in. We cannot safely have a drink or drug ever again! The simplest way to consider it is as if it is some sort of allergy which will provoke an allergic reaction. If you had a dangerous peanut allergy, would you eat peanuts? No. You would not risk even one. So just one drink or drug will lead to similarly disastrous consequences, even if not immediately.
Will power alone is insufficient
We all have will power – we are not weak people despite what some may think. So we may be able to have one drink, one joint, one session on one day. We may think we have got away with it. But that very thought will inevitably lead us to try that again. And next time it might be 2 drinks, 2 joints or a bigger session – and very soon we will be back to our old destructive pattern of drinking and using. Even if we manage controlled drinking and using for a while, the mental effort it takes to control it will take away any pleasure.
If we accept total abstinence – and acceptance is the key – life becomes much easier. However we are still not cured as if we take a drink or drug we will be back to square one. So we have to learn to live without it. This involves never forgetting where we came from and how bad our active addiction was – and also making sense of that emotional pain we went through by helping others who have the same illness.
Abstinence and recovery
So in rehab we will learn the tenets of how to live clean and sober and to be happy. We may well be introduced to the 12 Step Programme of Alcoholics Anonymous / Narcotics Anonymous as by following this programme we can maintain our recovery. The vast majority of people who take the instruction / advice given in rehab and who get a sponsor, attend 12 Step meetings and who work their programme do not relapse.
You too can take advantage of this opportunity to obtain recovery. You may be able to get it by attending 12 Step Fellowship meetings but if you are still finding it difficult to stop and stay stopped, consider rehab in a private rehab clinic. It is not cheap but may be the best value for money of your life. A cure is not guaranteed but recovery is – if you want it enough.
