Have you have been wondering whether addiction counseling is the right step for you or not? Do you want to know if it will help you solve your addiction issues? Would you like more information about how it works?
Keep reading to find out more about the steps involved:
Deciding to Get Clean & Sober
If you are under the care of a primary care physician, then you should consult with them before you decide anything. Their dependence on drugs, alcohol etc. might make it difficult to withdraw from a substance. The doctor might even be able to recommend a good addiction counselor to you.
Once you start working with the counselor, they might even discuss your case with your doctor to help you better.
Remaining Sober
Your addiction counselor is going to help you in many different ways. One of them would be by coming up with a relapse prevention plan for you. Such a plan views your lifestyle with a pragmatic eye. It is based on different situations and conditions where you might end up exposed to the source of your addiction. It also includes what you should do when that happens. The right way of responding to urges and triggers are another important part of the plan.
An effective addiction counselor would also include strategies that you can use to avoid thinking about your addiction or feeling the way you feel that causes loss of control. Another important ingredient of the plan would be devising different ways that can help you cope if all else fails. This includes contact details for people you can call. It could also involve using coping mechanisms that are not setting-specific.
Since the relapse prevention adopts a pragmatic approach, it will also include steps that should be taken when the plan itself fails.
From Being Sober to Recovery
Don’t think of recovery as a transformation of who you are as a person. You might think you will change and become someone greater than who used to be. You’d want all the friends and family that you have lost along the way to return to you. You might even want to get better quickly so you can go back to working. Such thoughts do not make the right combination for healing.
If you are going to keep remaining sober, then you must look at addiction counseling exactly as you should. It is a process that will help you redefine and realign your priorities. Once you have become sober, you will need to decide what matters to you the most. Then you will have to work to make that happen. Once that is done, you can move on to the next target and so on.
Your counselor can help you decide what your goals should be. They will also create treatment plans around those goals. Some of the goals could be achieved in the short-term while it might take longer for other achievements. The path to recovery and onwards is composed of consistent small achievements.
Think of addiction counseling as a linear progression. Stick with it and you will be on your way to recovery soon enough!
