Why You Should Seek Alcohol Treatment
Most alcoholics eventually get sober, with emphasis placed on eventually. Far too many people have endured many years of alcohol abuse and its many side effects until the demon disease was satisfied with its pound of flesh. When alcohol’s use is out of control, it harms everything in its path including health, wealth and relationships. Something alcoholics who have been in recovery frequently mention is how they wish they’d sought help sooner. There are several clear and urgent reasons to seek alcohol treatment. Kindly consider them — because you are worth it.
There are many reasons why it is a good idea for people to treat alcohol abuse sooner rather than later. Life on earth is a finite resource, and learning to spend it wisely is best learned sooner rather than later. Beware thinking that you can stop drinking on your own. Has it been done? Sure. But the chance of relapse far higher when the user goes “cold turkey” and the misery suffered is greater. Recovery treatment typically involves developing new ways of thinking, as well as alternative behaviors.
The reasons why alcoholics drink vary, but one thing they all seemingly share is the desire to be in a different mental and emotional state. In fact, being in an uncomfortable state is also what causes an alcoholic to reach for the bottle in the first place. Arguably, these individuals need training in recognizing self-defeating thoughts as well as the feeling states they create. One of the primary reasons people fall victim to alcoholism is their tendency to repeat cycles of self-defeating thought. Alone, the alcoholic is apt to be the victim to his own erroneous thinking processes, but the individual will gain a new perspective with alcohol treatment.
Addicts tend to hang out with each other, but isolated from the rest of society. As a result, someone trying to stop drinking alone will likely be alone when they need help, companionship and someone who understands. Those most affected by alcoholism, the alcoholic and his or her family, often feel the most isolated, even when surrounded with other people. A newly sober alcoholic desperately needs to find a peer group of other recovering alcoholics. Only someone who has walked the alcoholic’s alcohol-treatment path can understand what he or she is thinking and feeling during the recovery process.
In addition to a peer group of other recovering individuals in treatment, an “outpatient alcohol treatment near me” offers the trained mental health professionals available on call around the clock. Much of an alcoholic’s “dis-ease” originates in flawed and faulty thought processes. When provided with regular feedback and education from trained experts, many of whom are successfully recovering from various addictions themselves, people begin to initiate and nurture new ways of thinking that ultimately leads to their making vastly different and much more profitable choices in life.
Professional alcohol withdrawal treatment eliminates the loneliness that many alcoholics feel when they first stop drinking. Quality therapy for alcohol addiction is a life-changing experience.
Deep down, most alcoholics have a sense that they need to stop drinking, simply because of the sheer unmanageability of their lives, but they don’t all reach the point of seeking help for their drinking at the same time in life. Some individuals instinctively realize that they’re not going to be able to navigate this pathway on their own, so they seek to treat their disease sooner rather than later. Others seem determined to admit the obvious only after hitting “rock bottom.” Regardless of when the alcoholic has his moment of reckoning, the alcohol abuse warning signs are generally consistent and are easy for a trained observer to recognize.
Some individuals who abuse alcohol have caring friends and relatives willing and able to stage a compassionate intervention. Others have relatives who have developed issues of their own directly as a result of the alcoholic’s behavior.
Instead of reacting to the opinions of others, consider asking yourself the following questions. If any of your answers is yes, consider that that may be your sign.
- Have you ever driven an automobile while under the influence of alcohol?
- Have any of your friends and family expressed concern about your drinking?
- Do you have memory lapses when you drink?
- Do you drink alone? Secretly?
- Are you afraid you cannot quit?
A yes to any of these questions should cause you to worry about alcohol abuse.
Alcohol is a substance that is both mentally and physically addictive. This means that not only is there the emotional, mental and psychological withdrawal to be endured, but also a physical withdrawal. This phase of recovery isn’t without danger, and anyone detoxing from alcohol needs to seek appropriate monitoring and treatment. No one should ever go through alcohol withdrawal treatment cold turkey. Modern alcohol rehab centers provide patients with all the help they need to navigate this phase of their alcohol recovery successfully. Medical doctors on staff will monitor your vital signs, prescribe aid as required, and make sure you stay well below established crisis points.
It would be misleading to treat recovery from an addiction such as alcoholism as a life event that, once realized, is left in the dust as you’re off to pursue other improvements. It doesn’t work like that. While the day you first searched for “alcohol treatment centers near me” is a day that may well go down in your personal history as a major turning point, your recovery will not. This is because your recovery isn’t an event; it’s a process that you’ll recommit to every day for the rest of your life. While you never truly “recover,” the good news is that you’ll find yourself growing at an unprecedented pace, emotionally as well as spiritually. As a result, your life will change. In making different choices, you’ll begin to experience different results.
Many addicts in days gone by were brought into rehabilitation programs kicking and screaming. Some were commitments, some court-ordered appointments, penned no doubt as a last ditch effort by a hopeful judge. While it is true that some individuals return to their former ways, others exit alcohol treatment programs grateful to have had such an opportunity. They discovered that rehab treatment wasn’t anything at all like the awful things they’d imagined, right about the same time they learned that alcohol’s smooth promises, upon close examination, weren’t nearly as attractive as they first seemed. They also discovered that “rock bottom” is a myth, and an unnecessary one, at that. Anybody can begin the process of recovery anytime. Waiting until you’ve hurt yourself or someone else is not required.
When you state your intention to become sober and to heal yourself by seeking alcohol treatment, you identify the elephant in the room and take away its power. Suddenly, it is okay to talk about things again. Many professionals in the field of substance abuse counseling believe that the alcoholic’s chances of a long-lasting recovery are greatly enhanced when the family seeks help. It has been said that every alcoholic who stops drinking and enters recovery invests in the sobriety of his or her children’s children.
Long-Term Support Network
Perhaps the best part of functional recovery is that you gain access to a community that can easily be compared to a large and extended family. It is a network of support that exists for you no matter where you go. It doesn’t matter whether you spend a week, a month or a year in treatment, you eventually reach the point where you cannot underestimate the importance of outpatient aftercare.
Sometimes the knowledge that there is structured support waiting for you when you need it is comforting. This is particularly true after you’re once again living out in society. Never underestimate the support given you by those who have shared the depths of your pain on life’s addiction path.
The best thing about initiating recovery when treating alcohol problems are all of the new beginnings it births. People reclaim their lives. They have the sense that their purpose is restored, and they enjoy an increased sense of personal power and worthiness.
You’ve resolved to take what is sure to be an amazing new step in this journey that you call your life. Alcoholism can be likened to an inexorable downward spiral, one guaranteed to continue until the individual affected gets so sick and tired of being sick and tired that they choose to change their behavior rather than stay on their current path. That is the official moment of transformation, for it is in that moment of choosing that healing begins.
Call Lake Detox & Wellness Center now if you’re ready to take that first step.
