Drug Rehab Fights

We are not talking about shouting matches or fist fights here... When you enter drug rehab, you are making a commitment to put up a fight. A fight against the disease of addiction. It is going to be a life or death battle. Addiction can be overwhelming. Therefore, the fight against addiction needs to be even more overwhelming.

What kind of fighting will you be doing when you enter a treatment program? That depends on the individual. Sometimes it is a fight to focus on one's own self. Let's face it; it's not usually a fun process to focus on yourself. It is much easier to look at others and their faults. Then there's the fight of "do I really need to be here?" There's the fight of craving. The fight of feeling like you don't deserve to get better. I mean, you've done so much damage already, right? There's the denial.... oh, the denial.... You see, addiction is a very, very clever disease. It plays all sorts of mind games. The mind games all revolve around trying anything and everything possible to get you to not focus on yourself, get you out of treatment, blame others, pity yourself, make excuses, etc, etc, etc!! This is the fight that is going to take place as soon as you enter treatment.

Remember, this fight is normal. Everyone goes through this battle. Just persevere through it. Don't fall for the clever ways that addiction will try to de-rail your recovery (there will be many). Just remember, recovery above all else!

John Neuhaus, M.D.