Overcome Common Obstacles in Early Recovery

1
Overcome Common Obstacles in Early Recovery
888-979-164824 Hour Toll Free Helpline
www.spiritualriver.com
2
Overcome Common Obstacles in Early Recovery1.
Aversion to Treatment2. Aversion to 12 Step
Meetings3. Social Anxiety4. Lack of Funding for
Treatment5. Lack of Knowledge
3
Overcome Common Obstacles in Early Recovery6.
Lack of Follow Through7. Having Reservations8.
Not Taking Suggestions9. Not Taking Enough
Action10. Overconfidence
4
24/7 Free Addiction Help888-979-1648
1. Aversion to Treatment
Lots of people just have a fear of going to
rehab. If you have something against the idea of
rehab then you simply have to become open to the
idea somehow. There are no shortcuts to
willingness. You are either willing, or you are
not. Addiction has a way of progressing
eventually addict will realize that they need to
try a new approach. All you can do sometimes is
to offer the help, let them know there is a
solution available, and try your best not to
enable the person.
5
24/7 Free Addiction Help888-979-1648
2. Aversion to 12 Step Meetings
This is an interesting problem. I solved it in
two separate stages. In very early recovery I did
not have much choice. If you want to get clean
and sober then you have to play the game. My
solution was to face my fear and go to meetings.
In long term sobriety, I basically figured out
how to stay clean and sober without meetings. The
bottom line is that I had to embrace meetings in
early recovery and then I had to work hard and
push myself to grow enough so that I no longer
relied on them sobriety.
6
24/7 Free Addiction Help888-979-1648
3. Social Anxiety
This goes along with the fear of treatment and
meetings, therefore the solution is basically the
same. You are either willing to fight through
your anxiety or you are not. If you are not
willing then you stay stuck where you are and
probably have no real chance at making growth. I
never overcame that particular fear but I believe
I found a path in recovery that works well for
introverts. Instead of smashing straight through
the problem I stepped around it.
7
24/7 Free Addiction Help888-979-1648
4. Lack of Funding for Treatment
Treatment is not free. If you cannot afford to go
to rehab then my primary suggestion to you is to
get on the phone and make tons of calls. Dont
take a flat no for an answer, instead, keep
digging deeper. Stay on the phone all day or all
week until you have a workable solution. Be
persistent and be flexible and be extremely nice
to everyone you speak with. If you do these
things then you can get some sort of help
eventually.
8
24/7 Free Addiction Help888-979-1648
5. Lack of Knowledge
Rehab exists and treatment exists and they can
help you to change your life and overcome
addiction. But not everyone knows this, and that
is a serious barrier to getting help. There is no
direct way to fix a problem like this other than
to share knowledge. The mainstream media has
helped this cause in recent years by touching on
the topic of addiction and alcoholism in many
different ways. But the bottom line is that you
have to know that a solution exists if you are
going to try to embrace that solution.
9
24/7 Free Addiction Help888-979-1648
6. Lack of Follow Through
This is a big one and in fact is probably the
thing that causes 90 percent of people to relapse
in early recovery. This is a lot like
willingness you either have it, or you do not. I
went to rehab three times in my life and
obviously the first two times were a total
failure. The reason that I failed was because I
did not follow through after leaving rehab. The
third time I went to rehab I was very willing to
follow through and it led to all of the success
that I have experienced since then.
10
24/7 Free Addiction Help888-979-1648
7. Having Reservations
If you have a reservation about recovery then it
means that you are hanging on to the idea that
you might one day be able to drink or use drugs
again successfully. There is no way to deal with
this than to mentally reason your way through
it. It may take a few weeks before you realize
that recovery offers you so much more than your
drug of choice ever did. At some point you have
to put the idea to rest that you might go back to
it some day.
11
24/7 Free Addiction Help888-979-1648
8. Not Taking Suggestions
This is a trust issue. In early recovery you do
NOT have all of the answers. But someone does who
are at least happy in their lives while also
being sober. You just have to reach out and learn
from their experience. This is not something that
you can learn from a thought experiment. You have
to actually ask for advice and then implement it
in your life. It is only by actually doing this
and following through with it that you will learn
and benefit from it.
12
24/7 Free Addiction Help888-979-1648
9. Not Taking Enough Action
Most of us believe that getting sober should be
an average challenge that requires a modest
effort, right? The truth is that it is the
toughest thing that most people have ever
attempted. Therefore a modest effort is doomed to
relapse. The key is to realize that you are in
the rehab for the fight of your life. Instead of
putting forth a modest effort, you should instead
be thinking about using the concept of
overwhelming force.
13
24/7 Free Addiction Help888-979-1648
10. Overconfidence
People who are cocky in early recovery nearly
always relapse. Experience has a way of teaching
us humility. The only way to short cut this is to
slow down, look around, and realize that you are
not Superman. We all need help in early
recovery. Now is the time to ask for help. Tell
yourself that you can be cocky later on, once
youve got some clean time. The disease keeps us
on our toes for the rest of our lives(and
thats a good thing!).
14
Read The Entire ArticleOvercome Common
Obstacles in Early Recovery that Could Lead to
RelapseRead More Articles OnAddiction
Treatment24/7 Free Addiction Help(888)
979-1648