The most difficult step in finding recovery is the first step; making the decision to change. The second hardest step is actually going to drug rehab. And once you’re there, you have a purpose, a goal, and if you are unwilling to do whatever it takes to find that recovery, you’re wasting everyone’s time, including your own. When you walk through the doors, you need to be willing to commit to doing anything and everything you’re told to do because once you leave, you’re on your own. Well, maybe not totally, because if you’re sincere, the recovery community will be there for you. But you need to get to that point first.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a psychotherapeutic approach to addressing certain mental and emotional disorders. It’s a combination of behavioral and cognitive treatment modalities, hence its name. While the behavioral side examines just that, namely behaviors, the cognitive side studies how people perceive, remember, think, speak, and solve problems. CBT has been found to be very effective in a variety of disorders, including, but not limited to, mood, anxiety, eating, substance abuse, psychotic, and emotional. It unravels the irrational thought patterns that play a significant role in substance abuse. Negative thoughts and feelings are changed into more positive feelings with a positive outlook, and it promotes self-esteem.
Rehab isn’t a place to relax and hit the hot tub. It’s not about the buffet for lunch or the lobster and steak for dinner. It’s about recovery, humility, and honesty. It’s about learning how to live a sober life and dealing with everything that may have brought you to the point you’re at. If you don’t take a long, honest, hard look at your life, you’ll never move on. Without therapy, you won’t get there. You can’t do it alone, and if you try, you’ll wind up back in the same shoes; they’ll just be a little dirtier, a little smellier, and a whole lot worse-off because you didn’t deal with the problems when you had the chance. But the good thing about recovery is that if you miss the boat, there may be another one coming if you’re ready to board it.
Finding recovery is a wonderful thing. It is a ticket toward freedom, a way to release the chains of addiction that bind you in every way to the monster that embraced you. When you have CBT during rehab, you give yourself the opportunity to address multiple levels of your addiction at the same time. The benefit of this approach is that you aren’t fixing one level, then fixing the next, and while addressing the second one, letting the first slip backward, then returning to it, and the second one slips again. No. It’s a Gestalt approach, where the sum of the parts is greater than the components. It addresses most or all of your “issues” at the same time and correlates them to each other.
When you peel back the layers of your life, like an onion, you begin to understand the pain and suffering that brought you to today. By opening your mind to the causes, you also open yourself to healing. And without the motivation to use, you can recover. CBT is a great form of therapy. The right rehab is a great place to heal. Together, they can bring you home healthy and sober.
