Importance of Rehab or Counceling

[iljchia]

Do you think it is important for all recovering addicts to get professional help dealing with or understanding their behavior? If so what topics do you think the addict needs to have professional insight to aid in their recovery?

Or can the addict maintian recovery through peer support and discussion?

 

[BlessEwe]

The more an addict learns the stronger their foundation of recovery will be.




Understanding addiction ( which you can learn so much from your peers)

Looking at the things that got you to drink or use in the first place, learning how to deal with these things in a healthy way.

Learning your own triggers that can bring you down and use again, and healthy ways to work through them. This is called relapse prevention.

Getting a sponser to work through the 12 steps has changed millions + of addicts lifes.

Addiction is nothing to mess around with, it is a matter of life or death for many. If the counselor does not understand addiction I would check out other places as well to add to your counseling. Or find a addiction specialist counselor who is credited.
AA meetings will guide you too.

Hope this helped, feel free to ask any questions.

 

[ww2pigeon]

If you can afford it and it is available go ahead and go. It can't hurt. You might learn something. However it is not necessary to go. I am a low bottom drunk, and I never went to treatment or rehab. Cold Turkey all the way. I did start seeing a counselor about a couple months into getting sober. I went to A.A. meetings and tried to do it on my own. After struggling with the program for a long time, God got my attention and I started doing what people where suggesting and not only did the desire not to drink went away but I was given a whole New way to live. And it is awesome.
Here is a suggestion for you Stop Fighting It. Just do it, which ever you chose treatment, rehab or meetings.

 

[TheMainException]

Sometimes rehab isn't always necessary, but seeing a counselor can help you see the reasons WHY you do the things you do. I doubt that many people are addicted merely because they are addicted. There is usually a reason behind it...a reason for the urge to drink or smoke or do drugs or have sex with random people...whatever the addiction, counseling can help a person dig into who they are and why they do something. I don't think too many people can do things that reach into the depths of themselves without help.

 

[LoG]

Do you think it is important for all recovering addicts to get professional help dealing with or understanding their behavior?

No. Medical professionals have not been known to be much help to the real addict/alcoholic. Carl Jung himself admitted as much years ago. See pg 26 of the AA Big Book. From what I have seen over the years, professional help early in recovery can be potentially detrimental since it places the agent of recovery on man himself rather than on a Power greater than himself. Plus it puts the focus on self knowledge which will avail us nothing in staying clean and sober.

If so what topics do you think the addict needs to have professional insight to aid in their recovery?

Well a good Step 1 through 12 has been known to produce millions of miracles. For that, a professional who has done the Steps themselves, is an essential requirement.

Or can the addict maintian recovery through peer support and discussion?

Well it is still working for me after nearly 15 years.

This is not to say that counseling may not be of some benefit after one has developed some stability and strength.
In the program we have a saying that God will not give us more than we can handle. If recovery is viewed as the layers of an onion then each layer is gently peeled away to expose the next layer. Each layer is a little more challenging and builds on the lessons learned in the previous ones. When too many layers are ripped open at one time then the problems start because it is more then we can handle at one time and the potential for depression, anger and bitterness increases exponentially. It is these negative feelings that can push us back out to self-medicate or get on the anti-depressants, neither of which is an attractive option.


The opinions expressed here are strictly the authors and do not necessarily represent those of AA or NA as a whole. Take what you need and leave the rest.

 

[BobW188]

Speaking personally, my inpatient rehab speeded the recovery of my physical health and got me off the streets and away from temptation for five weeks. I'm not sure I'd've made it without that. But, so far as what went on there, a one hour AA meeting was more useful than the other 40-or-so hours of the week.

Later, I spent much time with a clinical social worker; but the issues we worked on were more those that contributed to the drinking or arose from it than the abuse itself. It helped to get a focus on where I was and which direction I should go; and I continued it for awhile even after things were going very well. (We drunks, active or retired, can be so good at ruining things that are going well.)

I'd never discourage someone from rehab; but the major influences in my case were AA and just being out of circulation.

 

[TealTuesday]

Do you think it is important for all recovering addicts to get professional help dealing with or understanding their behavior? If so what topics do you think the addict needs to have professional insight to aid in their recovery?

Or can the addict maintian recovery through peer support and discussion?

Hi,I have to tell U something I personally believe and hope I don't go on & on here but truthfully when you try and stop being a drug/alcohol user alone u will come up with 1000 ways to convince yourself that's not u. Rehabilitation saved my life. I saw myself on video weeks later,the same girl admitted is not the same girl released and seeing myself stays in my head because u know u can always slip back if u go right back to the same friends,same situations,that got you there. You belong to God. You don't belong to this world,the very world that drags u down will keep u there. Peer support is very much a part of my weekly lifestyle,meetings,my continued journal and music do set me ahead of the others that aren't there yet. I don't need a drink or chemical substance to learn how to deal with my emotions anymore. The work i did in rehab was all about loving the girl God made.