Fear and Self-Discovery at a California Rehab Center

“Driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking, and self-pity, we step on the toes of our fellows and they retaliate.” AA Big Book, p. 62 “How It Works”

When we first arrive in a California rehab center, we may feel alienated from our family and friends, we are doubtless filled with anger and resentment that they, our employers, or the entire world just haven’t treated us right and don’t understand at all.

What we begin to realize when we choose one of the 30 day rehab programs and begin work with recovery professionals is that we are not without fault. When we have detoxed from drugs and alcohol and our mind and body begin to clear, we are able to take a look at our relationships, our feelings and ourselves in a way that has eluded us for so long. The more work we put into our recovery, the easier it becomes to be honest with ourselves. When we work a 12 step program addiction becomes something we are able to move beyond.

As we begin to take an honest look at our selves and our behaviors, the ways in which we have allowed fear to control our lives and drive us to do things that damage our personal and professional relationships becomes more readily apparent and through the “searching and fearless moral inventory” described in the fourth step of Alcoholics Anonymous we are able to work toward setting those relationships right and not repeating the same mistakes in sobriety that we made while we were active in our addiction to drugs and alcohol.

Support for the Family of Addicts – Are You Enabling?

Struggling to get a family member in to an addiction program in Los Angeles? It’s time to consider that your enabling may be standing in their way. Enabling is simply the act of providing resources or opportunity to make living in the disease simpler for the addict.

Often, when family and friends believe they are “helping” an addict, they are actually allowing the disease to take firmer hold. So, what’s the difference between “helping” and “enabling?” Helping is simply doing something for someone that he or she incapable of doing themselves. Enabling is doing stuff for another person that they can and should be doing themselves . Enabling means one thing – that is the addict ultimately avoiding the consequences of his or her actions. As long as the addict knows that no matter how badly she or he screws up, someone will be standing by to pick up the pieces, it is quite easy to deny that a problem even exists. Only when the addict is forced to face consequences, will the addict realize that they have a serious problem which requires drug or alcohol addiction help.

Enabling includes things such as paying bills, excusing behavior and providing them with shelter and food. Ask yourself the following questions, to learn if you’ve been unknowingly contributing to the addict’s problem:

Have you ever called in sick on behalf of the addict.

Do you avoid conversations about the addicts behavior because you’re afraid you’ll “upset” him or her?

Have you ever bailed the addict out of jail?

Have you ever paid the addict’s household bills or loaned him or her money?

Have you finished a project, job or homework for the addict?

If you answer “yes” to any of the questions, you’ve been enabling your loved ones addiction. Preventing a person from the consequences of their actions is not helpful to that person in the long run. Allowing an addict to hit rock bottom may ultimately save their life. Standing firm and no longer enabling the user won’t be easy. Read recovery testimonials California, and lean about how former addicts have overcome their addictions and are leading happy, healthy lives thanks to California rehab centers. The sooner you stop enabling, the sooner they’ll know they have a problem that needs to be faced.

Making the Decision to Seek Alcohol Addiction Help

Making the decision to change everything and go to a drug rehab in California isn’t easy but will be one of the most rewarding you ever make. Maybe right now, everything feels hopeless, your career and family aren’t what they could be, you’ve destroyed them or you’ve never created those things for yourself. Maybe you have thought that you didn’t deserve them or have tried but only been brought down again and again by the forces of your addiction. Now you’re ready for alcohol addiction help.

When you walk through the doors of one of the residential treatments centers California has to offer, you will be surrounded by professionals who understand and are able to help you end your addiction and the vicious, self-destructive cycles that go along with it. In groups, you will undoubtedly learn that you are not alone and discover that the way you are feeling and the seeming utter futility of life is something most alcoholics and addicts have in common. When you make the decision to change, and embark upon the road to recovery, you will begin to see a new hope in your life everywhere you turn.

You will be able to build new relationships and repair some of those you have harmed in your addiction, you will be able to grow in your chosen career path, choose a new one or begin the one you have always wanted.

Once you make the decision to walk away from drugs and alcohol and into a life of recovery, you will have the freedom of CHOICE because you will no longer be a slave to your addiction.

How to Change Your Life – Help for Alcohol Addiction

Looking for California alcohol rehab? If alcohol addiction is ruining your life, you’re doing the right thing. Scientific studies have shown, time and again, that the odds of getting sober on your own – and staying that way – are slim. The battle against alcohol addiction cannot be waged with willpower alone.

Start by having an honest conversation with your family or loved ones. Sit down with them and let them know you’re ready to get sober. Chances are, they’re more aware of the extent of your problems than you realize, and will respond with caring, concern and relief. Don’t make up excuses. Don’t put the decision off and plan to figure out the details “later.” Don’t procrastinate. Find some rehabs that take insurance, and get ready for your wonderful new life to begin.

Although it is true, for relatively small percentage of people people, attending 12-Step meetings is enough – most addicts need more help. Your addiction didn’t happen overnight, and there are no short cuts to recovery either. Some alcoholics, such as those with inextricable family or work commitments, join outpatient programs.These programs closely monitor and test participants for drug and alcohol to make sure they are not using between sessions. They can work – but for most, an inpatient 30-day rehab program (or longer) will be required. This stay in a neutral environment free of temptation helps people break free from destructive patterns and change their mindset from that of an addict. Participants gain insight about the root causes behind their drinking – maybe for the first time – and learn a great deal about themselves and others.

During your stay in residential treatment centers California, your relationship to alcohol will shift. It will no longer be the center of your universe and you will come to face the great costs you have paid to maintain that relationship. Eventually, your attitude about yourself will begin to change and you can start to develop the self-respect and enjoyment of life which will carry your sobriety forward.

Sound good? Contact us. Find out how great life can be! Get alcohol addiction help now.

Early Sobriety and Emotional Nature

When we are newly sober, we will doubtless encounter a barrage of feelings that, in some cases, seem wholly unfamiliar and in others, remind us of why we drank and used to begin with. Sometimes they are things we have been consciously avoiding other times, they are things we didn’t even know were there. Throughout our sobriety, and especially in the beginning, we are confronted with and explore a wide range of emotions and experiences.

For most alcoholics and addicts this is a very confusing time. 30 day rehab programs provide an excellent beginning and path into recovery.  The professional staff of rehab programs in California are trained in many facets of addiction treatment including the best ways to guide you through the unfamiliar territory of navigating emotions and situations without drugs and alcohol.

While we were drinking and using, we became so accustomed to reaching out to drugs and alcohol as our first coping mechanism that, once we are without them, attempting to control our emotional nature seems all but impossible. We are, at times, ebullient and at other times morose and often have little idea as to what has set us in one direction or the other. By working with professional counselors, attending 12 step meetings and working the 12 steps, we are able to come to a clearer picture of what our feelings are, why we are having them and how to address them in a healthy way, honoring our feelings, our selves and those around us.

The Alcoholic and Powerlessness

“At a certain point in the drinking of every alcoholic, he passes into a state where the most powerful desire to stop drinking is of absolutely no avail.” – The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, pg. 24.

This is Powerlessness.

Our souls beg us to cut out the drinking.  There is attempt after attempt to engage our will to halt the madness of the drink and no matter how hard we try, we cannot.  The body sends signals that the drinking isn’t doing what it initially did; the mind, fully conscious that nothing but misery is at the bottom of every glass, is incapable of overriding this burning need.  Even feeling all of these feelings and intrinsically knowing that all of these more-than-obvious clues scream STOP, we continue to imbibe.  We gamble our very lives, and as we lose over and over, we watch, almost as outsiders, any and everything loved and cared for slip away.  It still isn’t enough.  We plead with ourselves; we make promises, fully meaning them at the time; we swear on all that we have or don’t have and yet, we cannot stop.

Why is this?  It’s the allergy of the body which is triggered by the drink itself and subsequently it ensnares our mind causing an obsession that overrides EVERYTHING else and that, in turn, relies on and continues our spiritual bankruptcy.  It is a threefold catch 22, which is the disease of alcoholism.  And, our very starting point is our Powerlessness over alcohol.

In early Recovery, this first half of the first step can be difficult to grasp, to truly learn how insidious this Powerlessness is.  The California alcohol rehab staff has an intimate understanding and can clarify and expound on this, going so far as to give examples of what this looks like and how it manifests.  If we don’t have a thorough comprehension, there is the possibility we may still hold to the idea that somehow, someday, we can control our drinking.  As alcoholics, we must grasp this fundamental truth.

The Start of Recovery is the Decision

“But the moment I made up my mind to go through with the process, I had the curious feeling that my alcoholic condition was relieved, as in fact it proved to be. Quite as important was the discovery that spiritual principles would solve all my problems.” The Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, Page 42

Ask nearly any alcoholic or addict you have ever met and there is one thing upon which most of them will agree: the beginning, the making a decision to give up drugs and alcohol and begin the road to recovery through the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous was one of the most difficult parts of recovery. You have to say Yes to the life you want and the process before you can begin to recover.

Though it seems frightening and a life without drugs and alcohol may, at first, seem like no life at all, the rewards are far greater than most alcoholics and addicts even dream when they embark upon their journey.

For those caught in the perpetually downward spiral of drugs and alcohol, feeding addiction and chasing escape – a solution that begins with merely a decision seems impossible. We are here to assure you that not only is it possible, but it is the only way. The decision to recover is yours and so is the life you want and deserve. There are drug and alcohol rehabs that are staffed with fully trained professionals who understand where you have been, what you are going through and what it will take for you to move forward. But they cannot make the decision for you. That, you have to do on your own.

 

Willingness, Honesty, Open Mindedness and the Spiritual Experience

“We find that no one need have difficulty with the spirituality of the program.  Willingness, honesty and open mindedness are the essentials of recovery.  But these are indispensable.” (Appendix II of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous)

When many alcoholics and addicts first venture into recovery, they are put off by the mention of God and the spiritual component of the AA Big Book and Alcoholics Anonymous. After all, many of them have lived through very difficult times and had many struggles. Most alcoholics and addicts can easily come up with a few ways in which God – if there is one, they might say – has failed them. Some will keep drinking and using because they just don’t think they can be a part of anything that talks about God and spirituality.

Lucky for suffering alcoholics and addicts, the only requirement for AA membership is a desire to stop drinking. One need not believe in God in order to be sober or to be a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. Many people find that, over time, their perceptions change and they come to their own understanding of a power greater than themselves. Some choose to call that power God. Still others refer to that power as the Universe and other names. It does not matter what you call it. It is truly about finding what works for you and what you can believe in.

In the Appendix II of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, it is explained that the most important tools of recovery are willingness, honesty and open mindedness. What many alcoholics and addicts have found through the work they have done at CA drug rehab centers is that when they travel the road to recovery, founded on willingness, honesty and open mindedness, they find themselves with a higher power of their own understanding, having a spiritual experience they didn’t think they wanted, happier than they ever thought they deserved to be.

On Alcoholics, Addicts and Resentments

“Few people have been more victimized by resentments than have we alcoholics.  It mattered little whether our resentments were justified or not.  A burst of temper could spoil a day, and a well-nursed grudge could make us miserably ineffective.  Nor were we ever skillful in separating justified from unjustified anger.  As we saw it, our wrath was always justified.  Anger, that occasional luxury of more balanced people, could keep us on an emotional jag indefinitely.  These “dry benders” often led straight to the bottle.”  From the Alcoholics Anonymous Twelve & Twelve, pg. 90.

When anger and resentment are the foundation on which a life is built, it is a life most futile.  There is nothing sturdy or sound about that platform.  We seethe, wrapping ourselves in a cloak of what we believe to be justified ire.  However, that is not the plush coat which keeps us safe and warm; instead it is actually a threadbare sheet which lets the wind rip through the fabric of our flesh, tearing at our very soul.

While angry, there is no chance of being present for those around us.  We cannot be accessible and of service to others in that all-consuming state.  This compounding fury, which may have been a minor transgression on the part of someone who wasn’t even aware of doing or saying something wrong in the first place, can lead us to the drink.  As opposed to recognizing a feeling of being wronged yet continuing to work toward the greater good, the potential to get trapped in and obsess about said incident is highly plausible.

How does that lead us to drink?  As we run through that moment in our mind, over and over again, the pull toward needing a release, coupled with the desire for a sense of ease and comfort brought to us by the needed release, grows exponentially.  If we are not staying connected to the world by working with others, we supplant being spiritually grounded and opt for this inflated dissension in the rhythm of our world.  As we continue to dodge being of service then we are not available for anything other than our own self-seeking schemes.  We relive the moment, staying in the past while pretending what we would have said or done actually happened.  Maybe we are fantasizing about the future with what we will say and do next time; our motive of getting even grows larger and larger until it’s the only focal point in our lives.  Where is the relief in that?

California rehab centers teach us that there may be moments where we are uncomfortable yet those feelings are not facts on which to base a life.  We learn that our anger justified or otherwise, isn’t going to serve anyone else.  It doesn’t even serve us.  It keeps us selfish, on that carousel of self-righteous misery, which can only, eventually, be abated by our old behaviors in the search for ease and comfort.  Los Angeles rehab centers show us that even while being uncomfortable the cure for that discomfort isn’t found by putting our lips to the bottle but by extending ourselves to another person.  In these actions of being available for another, we learn to cement our sobriety.

“We Aren’t a Glum Lot”

“ … we aren’t a glum lot.” – The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, pg. 132

In the lives of many alcoholics and addicts who have begun the path to sobriety and a new life are many fears. One of them is often that we will never enjoy ourselves again.  This question, “How will I ever have any fun without a drink or drug in hand?” is based on our reliance of substances to provide for us things we think we have been without.

For many there was, once upon a time, the feeling of instant invincibility and the idea that we could be friendly and fun, attractive and well-liked when we had that drink of drug and now, without that drink or drug, we believe we would never be able to feel comfortable enough to have fun and let loose again.  In effect, we began to use drugs and alcohol as a way to treat this symptom, the belief of an inability to fit in. We believed that drugs and alcohol allowed us to suddenly become the vision of who we so wanted to be. Finally, we thought, not only do we fit in but the lampshade on our respective heads amused everyone around us.  Or so we thought.

The truth is that through our newfound and ever-evolving sobriety, we learn more and more that fun is there for the taking.  Maybe we always wanted to engage in an activity to which we were drawn but never sober enough to follow through on to even make the attempt.  In sobriety, all doors open to us, we are able to seek our heart’s desire and enjoy ourselves along the way.  We learn how to throw our heads back and laugh.  In the dawn of our Recovery, we begin to realize we have a bond with others who suffered in, possibly, the very same way.  The staff at this Los Angeles drug rehab understands the root of this fear and teaches us that enjoying oneself is paramount as well as shows us how to do just that.

Laughter and joy are waiting for you on the other side of the darkness to which alcoholics and addicts have become so accustomed.  We move together, meeting new people all along the way who encourage us on our journey into our new life where we will find ourselves happy, joyous and free.