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1. Substance Abuse Treatment Is It Enough
In the summer of 2005 I was court ordered to a substance abuse treatment facility after being
convicted of armed robbery. At this time it would be my first attempt to get clean and it was my
family’s first time they would come back to help me after letting me make my own choices and not
enable my drug addiction. It seems that when you go through substance abuse addiction in the early
trying to get clean stages everyone is really niave to the whole ordeal. What I mean is, you think that
a doctor can give you a magic pill, a rehab facility magically cure you or because you’ve experienced
some hardships that you will start making new choices and avoid all the drugs and desturction. In my
experience this is not true and it causes me to raise a question, is substance abuse treatment
enough?
I know for myself and my parents I think we all wanted to believe that because I went through a 12
step inpatient program for 3 months that when I got out I was was to be sober. The harsh realities
were that upon exit I was able to last maybe 4 weeks before I relapsed on drinking before getting
into a fight and needing surgery on my hand, which came with a free vicodin prescription. The
vicodin began the cravings and the cravings sought a fix and so began the whole cycle of chaos again
in my life, or did it ever stop?
Looking back on how i’ve acted over the years it’s clear to me that my behavior was a mechanism for
attention. The desire to be accepted if you will, something I think that every human is wired to want.
My behaviors were general responses that became habits over time that I have discussed in previous
articles but underneath those responses are the roots. The roots to emotions, self worth and my
general perception of who I was and my place in the world. I can always recall having suicidal
thoughts as a young boy or feeling like I never fit in or that I was so much different than everyone
else and it really was hard for me to deal with. These were issues that needed to be dealt with,
issues that needed to be massaged like a bruised muscle and in the early years of my addiction they
were completely neglected.
Don’t get me wrong, substance abuse treatment facilities are necessary and the importance of clean
time and a structured daily routine should never be overshadowed or considered less important
because the truth is every addict is different and situations need to be treated dynamically for each
and every person uniquely. However, speaking in terms of my home town I think more of these
substance abuse facilities need to incorporate stronger substance abuse conselling. I’m talking real
deal counselling too, not just the 5 minute chit chat but real daily or weekly sessions with qualified
specialist that can help get to the root of a persons response system and take it head on. In my early
years I did not recognize that my lack of self worth or feeling out of place was playing into my
behaviors that would reach out to a negative group or that I would try to hide those feelings by
abusing drugs and frankly i’m quite lucky that through constant meditation and studying of positive
word I was able to locate those roots myself. Not everyone is capable of doing that and we need to
step up to the plate as a community striving to decrease addiction and start utilizing the couselling
piece more directly with the addict and helping them exhaust all of their emotions and life
experiences to help find a root cause to their need of drugs.
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