Hopes and Dreams

“When I was a young child I had many hopes and dreams, I wanted to go to college and play sports, meet the girl of my dreams, get married and maybe have children. But then at the tender age of eighteen I found something that made me feel better that anything I had experienced before, crack cocaine. The euphoria was unbelievable but what I didn’t know is that it would take everything I owned, and then it took my soul. It took away all the moral and values I had when I was young.

I went through numerous rehabs and went to jail numerous times. What crack didn’t tell me was that it would take away every hope and dream I had. My addiction told me it would stick with me and make my problems go away, including feelings, it took my soul away, and once it was done with me it tossed me away like a piece of trash.

I am not the only one, millions of people suffer from the disease of addiction and most need help to stop, without this help most will end up in jails, institutions and even dead. How many people do you know that have lost their battle to this disease and lost all their hopes and dreams?”

Sunday; No Time to Rest

It's Sunday. A day of rest. Yeah right!

Addiction does not take a day off. It is relentless and tireless. It never keeps moving. It never gives you a break. It wears you down and it becomes increasingly more difficult to stop the momentum. Becoming an addict is never a conscious choice. The use of drugs is, but becoming an addict is not. There are those who do not believe this. They are typically the same ones who believe that homosexuality is a choice. It is not. Who would possibly choose such a devastating world as the world of addiction. Science tells us more and more that people who are addicts are often put on that course by their underlying disease state and it is that disease that we must address in order to change the course of their lives. What must, however, become a conscious choice is rehab.

It is a rare phenomenon that an addict can change their stars without help. Occasionally in the absence of underlying pathology an addict can turn their life around by themselves. That is the exception not the rule. The rule is that addicts must be treated like any one else with a chronic disease state. They need help. and they need help within the structure of a well constructed treatment program. One that deals with every aspect of their disease and every aspect of their family.

Addiction never takes a day off but you have the opportunity to change its course.

Addiction: Is it "god's" Fault or Yours?

So what is the answer? What does "God" have to do with it? Is it his fault that you became an addict? I think not. Then is it His responsibility to participate in your recovery? I think not. God did not have anything to do with picking up your first drink or ball of heroin. He did not hand you your first oxycodone or light your crack pipe. He did not misaligned the planets to create the set of circumstances which were so grave that you had no choice but to relapse. He cannot in any way be held accountable for your addiction. And so because of this you cannot ask "God" to hold your recovery in His hands. Like it or not, that is all on you!

Steps 2 and 3 of the the 12 Step Program bring "God" into recovery. First, in step 2, by saying that it is a higher power that will in essence set you free and then, in step 3, by saying that it is "God" specifically who will guide you on your path to recovery.

I am a Catholic. Raised in a traditional Catholic Italian small town family. I attended Catholic school from kindergarten through graduate school. I am not an addict, but I have "lived' in that world for the past 8 years and I can tell you one thing. "God" has nothing to do with your recovery.

Addicts often say that their recovery is in "God's" hands. That in the midst of their recovery they are "blessed". We are all blessed and the course of our lives is in our own hands. The higher power that will drive you to recovery lives in the power of your mind and spirit which creates the determination and drive that you need to change the course of your life. That to me is known as spirituality. It is not the spirit "above " us but rather the "spirit" within us. Every addict is responsible for their addiction and therefore they are responsible for their recovery. It is equally their responsibility to utilize the tools around them--therapists, doctors, family, programs, sponsors, and themselves--to assist in that recovery. But don't put it on "God's" shoulders. That just gives you someone else to blame if you relapse. Take control of your own life. Be the source of your own power.

No High Feels as Good as Sobriety

Today while seeing a patient for follow up of her drug addiction treatment she echoed the words of virtually every addict who has entered a program and put some clean time behind them. She simply said that she had forgotten how good she could feel while she was sober.

There is a saying amongst people who are dieting that "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels". For addicts it is about how good sobriety feels that should help them stay on the straight and narrow. "Chasing the dragon" is a real concept and no addict will ever achieve the perfection of the first high. Not just those doing heroin, but those doing cocaine and crack and oxy also. For addicts and alcoholics it is not just the "high" time that cannot measure up to sobriety, but perhaps even more importantly, it is the dry time which is the hardest. That is when you feel your worse and yet is the period in which you spend the most time.

Nothing feels as good as sobriety. It is giving sobriety a chance that is the challenge and being strong enough to not get on the train that takes you away for the real world. But rather to face the real world sober. The interesting thing is that when you do face it sober you actually find out that it really isn't that bad and that you will feel better than you have in years.

There are many other facets to the above statement and stated as it is above is clearly too simplistic. Sometimes simplicity is good and keeping things simple is always an advantage to complicated. so in keeping with that remember that I promise you that all things considered and accounted for--you will never feel as good as you do sober.

Addiction Trauma and Recovery Drama

Trauma creates drama. It is unavoidable. In so many addicts when we peel back all the layers and finally get to the answer to the question "why" it is often related to trauma. The answer to the question "why" must always be found in order for recovery to occur but the answer is often a difficult one because that answer can cause so much pain. The trauma comes is all forms. Everything form family dynamics to sexual abuse to legal problems to psychiatric disorders. And so it is almost inevitable that unveiling that trauma will bring with it lots of drama.

Treatment success comes with keeping that drama to a minimum and not letting it interfere with the work that must really be done. In my time as a treating physician to those with a diagnosis of addiction I can absolutely tell you that the clients with the least amount of drama have the highest success rates. Two patients with the same circumstances surrounding their trauma may have completely levels of drama in their lives. I wish I could tell you what predisposes one patient to higher levels of drama than another but I cannot. It is occasionally a personality disorder. It is occasionally a psychiatric disorder. It is occasionally those "helicopter" parents--the ones who hover and coddle too much.

Today in the treatment center was a perfect example of how drama gets in the way of recovery. A patient who was doing so well for her first couple of weeks in the program let her drama disrupt not only her own program but the program of all those around her. The power of the mind is incredible and psychosomatic symptoms are over powering but it is really all just drama. Drama is more prevalent in the pessimistic personality--but how do you make a person optimistic?

I continue to look for the answers to the questions regarding the cure for drama. In the meantime keep the drama to a minimum and you will speed your recovery process.

Decision Making; Heart or Head

"Go with your heart" or "Think it trough, use your head". Which is it? Emotion or sensibility, which one leads to a better decision.

Too often in the world of an addict it is their decision making which leads disaster. the decision making process of the addict is often extremely flawed and because of this their life snowballs in the wrong direction. The inertia is often too hard to stop and one bad decision begets another one. Poor decision is without a doubt the biggest obstacle to sobriety.

So how do we change this paradigm? How can we improve the decision making skills of an addict. It is often hard enough to do it when the process is not complicated by neurochemistry clouded by drugs and psychopathology. The first step is to create some distance between the addict and his drug of choice. This alone often creates some clarity of thought. Most importantly, however, is to treat the underlying pathology.

the importance of dual diagnosis cannot be understated. Insight and honesty are tow characteristics for which bipolar patients are not well known and clearly good decision making cannot be made in the presence of untreated bipolar disorder. We cannot simply ask addicts to put their disease aside and "just make a reasonable decision" You cannot ask them to use tools that they just do not have. Poor life skills and pathology have prevented them from having the right tools and we must give them back to them while in treatment. Treatment is not just about sober time and 12 steps. It is about psychiatric treatment and skills development.

Take the emotion out of decision making and give an addict the right tools and there is a chance that they will choose sobriety.

Sobriety: Won't or Can't

If you had a child with Down's Syndrome would you insist that they change their IQ from 65 to 95? If you had a parent who was diagnosed with Dementia of the Alzheimer's Type would you ask them to snap out of it? Of course not.

So if you have a child or loved one with addiction can we simply asked them to get it. To get sober as if sobriety is a conscious decision. That one day they will wake up and turn on the switch which leads to sobriety. The simple answer is that many can do this but that many others cannot. It has long been my contention that in many individuals addiction is acquired but that in many others addiction is genetic.

Much like an Alzheimer's patient and a Down's Syndrome patient many patients with addiction are born with a limited ability to prevent or control their disease. In these patients sobriety may not be an option. At least long term sobriety. This doesn't mean that we give up on them entirely but that we approach them in a way in which both we and them have realistic expectations about what sobriety looks like. Given the limitations of such incurable diseases as bipolar disorder, schizo-affective disorder, and certain personality disorders patients can expect to control their disease at times but are severely at risk of multiple relapses.

Recognition of these co-morbid conditions allows us to create a framework by which we can maintain a relationship with our loved one in a way that may have to have some room for their disease, including their addiction. Very few are willing to accept this and fewer are able to accomplish this, but in reality what may give the highest degree of sanity to an insane condition is to have realistic expectations. Under these circumstances not every addict would get the death penalty in they cannot maintain sobriety. Instead, we living in the sober world can welcome them into our world when they are sober and set ground rules for when they are not.

I believe very strongly that one of the reason that addicts have a high suicide rate is because they actually get it. They recognize the above scenario. they know that their underlying disease limits their ability to ever achieve permanent sobriety. That realization then leads to hopelessness and suicide becomes the most viable option to living in addicted world as an outcast forever. Let's not outcast them. Let's look at them with fresh glasses. You would never insist that a Down's Syndrome child will his IQ to be higher. Not all addicts can will themselves to be sober.

Sunday; No Rest for Addiction

Addiction never takes a day off. It is relentless. It just keeps coming. Always moving towards you. It never slows down or takes you out of its sight. No matter what you do it will keep throwing punches and challenges you to either get back up or give in. In that respect it is not unlike many other aspects of life. Life challenges us as well. It is our character that enables to get back up. True character enables you take the hit and get back up. It is not how hard we hit but how hard we can be hit, brush ourselves off, and keep moving ourselves.

So recovery requires strength and character. You have to want to get better. You have to be willing to take the hit. To get back up and keep moving forward. You've got to want it bad. If you do then at least you have a chance. If you don't or if you can't take the hit then perhaps you should stay out of treatment. Going into treatment without the right mind set pollutes a treatment program. It is not fair to the people who are in your program who are willing to take the hit. Recovery is hard enough when you have all the right conditions for you but when there is negativity and drama in the program because someone is disrupting the program then it becomes even harder.

That is why I dislike the concept of halfway houses. You are surrounded by many people who just aren't ready to recover and therefore they jeopardize your recovery. The relapse rate is so high in halfway houses because there are so many who just don't belong there and they are happiest when they can pull someone into relapse with them. Choose your halfway house carefully. Assess the environment closely. Meet the clients and look at the services the program offers. Discuss their drop-out and relapse rate before you unpack your bags. Recovery is hard enough. Don't make it harder.

Power: Who needs it?

Which is better? Powerless to your addiction or full of power to move forward and through it to a world of recovery? Out of control and letting your addiction take your wherever it wants to or in control of your life and choosing a path that takes you toward a world of independence? Independence from your addiction. Independent enough to say that " I want my life back". To say "I have left that person controlled by drugs behind and now I will enter the world the way people free from addiction know it".

Traditional 12 step programs ask us from the very beginning to admit that we have no power. That we are out of control. that the disease is a stringer entity than we are. Is that true. Is a person who decides to take his or her life back from an addiction really weak. Or do they possess the strongest of all powers.

At some point in the recovery process a conscious decision must be made that an addict will take his life back. That you will leave your addiction behind and never revisit those demons again. a decision must be made that life will be lived in the mainstream. A job will be held. A rent will be paid. A bank account will be opened and a family will be spared. Spared the emotional and financial turmoil which has been brought into their lives without invitation by the decisions of an addict.

When your ready to get clean it will be time to take your life back. Take control. Embrace the power of recovery and walk through the door that allows you to enter the real world.

Spirituality; who needs it?

We all do! Even if you are an atheist. But what does it mean? How does spirituality play any role in my rehabilitation? If there really is a "God" why did he let this happen to me? Where was He when I was alone and drunk or using and out of control?

The questions are easy. The answers are harder. Spirituality is not about God. It is about inner peace. It is about achieve a thought process which is healthy rather than destructive. If a belief in God allows you to achieve that peace then so be it. But a belief in God is not a prerequisite to being spiritual. Nor does a belief in any higher power. My apologies to those who are staunch 12 step supporters. For many you need go no higher than your own cognitive thoughts; to your own prefrontal cortex. Spirituality means taking responsibility for your thoughts and your actions and holding your self responsible for your own behavior to the degree that you are willing to set a course for your life which honorable and respectable. One in which you can be proud of your thinking and your actions--even if no one is around to see them. It is character which best benefits form spirituality because when there is peace then all good things flow from there. Remember that character is defined by own actions when no one is watching. If you can proud of those actions then your character is intact.

In reality a belief in God can have both a negative and positive impact on spirituality and character. An extremist member of Jihad would tell you that it is his belief in God that justifies his behavior. Yet most of us would say that only a revengeful god would condone that sort of behavior and there is no room for a revengeful god in the life of someone who is truly spiritual. Spirituality equates in my mind with peace. If your god gives you that peace then He will be an important and helpful participant in your spirituality. If not then you need to check that god at the door and take a fresher look at what will help you change your dynamics.

Religious or not spirituality plays a large role in assisting you on your path to sobriety. Peaceful thought leads to peaceful behavior. Spirituality is contradictory to addiction. Make spirituality an important part of you rehabilitation program.

Addiction, is Addiction, is Addiction.

It is not the "what", it is the "why". Pick your poison--Alcohol, opiates, cocaine, Meth, inhalants, gambling, or sex. It doesn't matter. It is the "why" that matters. Understanding the triggers to your addiction and understanding the dual diagnosis driving toward your addiction that is what really matters. the agent that you are addicted to is meaningless.

You can go to AA or NA or GA and the process is the same. the key to any addiction recovery program is to help the addict understand the "why". The groups listed above only allow you to feel comfortable in a group that shares your "drug" of choice but they don't offer unique insights to unique characteristics shared by alcoholics or drug addicts or gambling addicts. It is the process of recovery that matters rather than where you started. And it is therefore the end result that matters--recovery and sobriety. Sobriety is not unique to drug addicts or alcoholics. Sobriety can apply to sex addicts and gambling addicts. sobriety means getting away from your addiction of choice and getting clean.

In reality it may be best to blend people with different "drugs" of choice is a common program. It has been my opinion in the past that the best treatment programs mirror real life and don't isolate addicts in an unreal world. It may better help every addict in their recovery process to see addiction from various angles and points of view. When looking for a treatment program don't isolate yourself with people with like addictions. It is not the addiction that matters, in terms of the drug or agent, it is the disease that matters and what it is going to take to recover. Every addict faces the same hurdles and obstacles. Look at the quality of the program and it's therapists, that's what really matters.

Honesty: To Be or Not To Be

Last week while evaluating an alcoholic as to whether or not she should continue PHP(Partial Hospitalization) treatment or move on to IOP(Intensive Outpatient)treatment my decision was based on one simple element; honesty. My feeling was that if the patient could not be honest about her alcohol and drug use 3 weeks into her treatment then she was not ready to graduate to less intensive therapy. If an addict cannot be honest with themselves first and then their therapist and their family (not necessarily in that order)then they cannot move effectively from abuse to recovery. Honesty is perhaps the most important element to effective treatment and at the same times perhaps the biggest obstacle.

Addicts have spent the entirety of their substance abusing lives being dishonest to anyone who will listen. the only truth they know is that they can never tell the truth. they spend all their time hiding their illness from everyone they know and love. Not necessarily because they don't want to get better but because it spares them from conflict and pain.

Perhaps the biggest challenge that addicts face when it comes to honesty is their employer. Families and friends are easy. They are more forgiving and more loving and more nurturing. Employers, however, are rarely any of those things. you can't entirely blame them. They have a business to protect. But when we preach so strongly that every addict must be honest at all times the question presents itself that how much honesty is an employer entitled to and how much t=can they handle. Employers will often associate substance abuse with a character flaw and make personal judgments about the employee's character that are often unfair and unfounded. Every addict deserves at least one chance to go into treatment and get it right without the fear of losing their job. Employers need to be educated about substance abuse and dual diagnosis so that they can be supportive in an addicts efforts to get clean and sober. That is rarely the case and it needs to change.

Get Clean, Get Arrested, or Get Dead

It sounds harsh. It sounds a bit cold. It sounds a bit matter of fact. But it is rally very simple. And it could not be more true. No matter what your addiction, drugs or alcohol, you really only have three choices. Families usually don't see it that way and in many respects it is the most clear and concise way to frame it. Families are often frustrated and tired with the whole process. The drug use and the battle toward recovery is one that can at times be more difficult for the family than it is for the addict. In the midst of that they often want to believe that perhaps there is another path that the addict can take. Emotionally and financially spent families may be forced to abandon the addict. It is understandable at times, but before you make that choice just remember that these are the only 3 paths that an addict can take. If you are prepared to accept that then you will be better prepared to make a decision.

As hard as it is for the family to come to grip with the three paths, it is even harder for the addict. Moat of them feel as though they can live a "normal" life with their drug or alcohol use for a very long time. Eventually however many of them get it. They know that they must get clean. and they know what will happen if they don't. The smart ones get it sooner and they also know that they can not do it alone. they hope that their family has not given up on them at this point.

When your ready, as either a family or an addict, to get serious about getting clean, it is at this time that you must find a treatment program who understand both the addict and the family. They must also understand the urgency to get clean and sober and to address all the issues which have lead to addiction including dual diagnosis and family dynamics. Synergy Group Services is that program.

Recovery: Slow it Down

If there was one very significant and meaningful piece of advice that I could give every individual who is entering a treatment program it would be to SLOW DOWN. More so than any other obstacle to full recovery it is an addicts sense of urgency to rush the process that gets in their way. Addiction did not start over night. It did not last just a couple of days or even weeks. Yet, when every addict enters a treatment program the question that is paramount in their mind is "When is this program over?"

The simple truth is that you cannot rush the process. Recent science tells us that it takes a minimum of 90 days to change a behavior. Teaching an old dog new tricks takes time. It also takes a team of talented, committed people in a well structured treatment program. These people are handcuffed if an addict tries to rush the program. Keep in mind that someone (family, loved ones, insurance companies, charities, and the government) is paying a lot of money to get the ball rolling and put an addict in such a program. Yet invariably the addict will try to rush the process. The addict will insist that they are OK and on their way to recovery. But it takes time. Every addict needs to take a breath and slow down. It is the speed at which they want to run through the program that becomes their biggest enemy.

It is completely understandable. Good therapy is uncomfortable. It is difficult to face your demons. It is difficult to see where you have been and struggle to get where you need to be. Success will be enhanced significantly if you slow down. Your brain is not paint color on a wall--it will not change with a simple stoke of the brush. Addiction behavior is the manifestation of complex physiologic, hormonal, endocinolgical, and even anatomical changes within the brain and that process typically took years to take the shape that it has on the first day of treatment. To change that dynamic is one that takes time. In Orthodontics teeth move within hours of placing of the braces yet the braces stay in place for many months to ensure stability of the mouth. That analogy is appropriate for the brain as well. The wheels of motion of change are set in motion in the first couple of weeks but change takes months to become permanent.

Slow down. Take a breath. Recovery is a process that cannot be rushed.

Powerless vs. Powerful; You choose

Which is better? Powerless to your addiction or full of power to move forward and through it to a world of recovery? Out of control and letting your addiction take your wherever it wants to or in control of your life and choosing a path that takes you toward a world of independence? Independence from your addiction. Independent enough to say that " I want my life back". To say "I have left that person controlled by drugs behind and now I will enter the world the way people free from addiction know it".

Traditional 12 step programs ask us from the very beginning to admit that we have no power. That we are out of control. that the disease is a stringer entity than we are. Is that true. Is a person who decides to take his or her life back from an addiction really weak. Or do they possess the strongest of all powers.

At some point in the recovery process a conscious decision must be made that an addict will take his life back. That you will leave your addiction behind and never revisit those demons again. a decision must be made that life will be lived in the mainstream. A job will be held. A rent will be paid. A bank account will be opened and a family will be spared. Spared the emotional and financial turmoil which has been brought into their lives without invitation by the decisions of an addict.

When your ready to get clean it will be time to take your life back. Take control. Embrace the power of recovery and walk through the door that allows you to enter the real world.

Addiction Behavior; Is It a character Flaw?

Sometimes. But in the majority of cases that is simply not the case. Many would argue that addicts have control over their behavior and can control their addiction like a light switch. I would suggest that until an addict is given the proper tools they are no more in control of their addiction or their thinking than any person is of any other illness. Cancer patients can not will their cancer to go away and an addict cannot will their addiction to go away either. People even in the medical profession have not come to grips with the fact that addiction, like any other psychiatric illness, controls the person who has it and not vice versa. Addiction and psychiatric illnesses are real diseases that require real treatment. People want to believe that they can control their minds but that could not be father from the truth. It takes work. It takes counseling and therapy in combination with an individualized medication regimen to give an addict the proper tools to achieve recovery.

Once an addict has been given the proper tools, meaning having controlled their dual diagnosis to achieve clarity of thought and insight, then and only then does the true recovery process start. It is at that moment that an addict can start to take control of their lives. If under those circumstances an addict fails to exhibit clear and rational thinking and continues to choose drug behavior over clean behavior it is at that point that you are dealing with a character flaw. In medical terms a character flaw is really defined as a personality disorder. personality disorders are the most difficult to treat. They require years of intense psychotherapy and a willingness on the patients part to accept change. Thats the difficult part.

Truth or Dare

Or should I say, "Dare to tell the truth". Why is that addicts lie? Last while speaking to an addict, who had just returned from a trip to his home town for the holidays where he spent two weeks with his parents, he told me that he had had a "minor slip up" and had "used" on one occasion. Yeah right. Today he told me that he was lying (no surprise) last week and wanted to set the record straight. The "minor slip up" included 180 Lorcet, 180 Percocet, and 60 Xanax in a period of two weeks. Not only did he find a bottle that he had stashed at home but even paid a visit to his local doc for a script for the Percocet. Shame on the doc for writing the script! He assured me when he got back to his treatment program that he had been off the narcotics for the past week but had taken much more Ultram than he had been instructed. Upon leaving the office he told me how much better he felt that he had cleared the air. Before he left the office I found out that he lied to me again!!!

If you put an addict on an operating table and opened hem up you still could not find the truth. It happens everyday in my office and in our treatment program. Last week an alcoholic told me she only drank one day over the past 30. her husband told me today that she was sober only one day over the same period.

Obviously the primary motivating factor behind the lies of an addict is that they just don't want us to know how much they are using. But why minimize it? What purpose does it serve once you have decided to proceed with treatment. In the midst of lying an addict does their greatest disservice to themselves. They are really just lying to themselves and until they come to grip with the truth then recovery is just a myth.

Early Recovery;Are Relationships Appropriate

One of the basic suggestions for people beginning their recovery is that intense, serious relationships with the opposite sex should be avoided for at least a year.
Observationally over twenty years I have seen numerous situations develop that would certainly support this recommendation. There are a variety of reasons why people in early recovery should avoid this type of relationship. The first and foremost is the development of lack of focus for recovery when these relationships develop. When these relationships occur in early recovery the focus now is directed towards the relationship and recovery now is relegated to a secondary priority. Recovery from addictions especially in the early stages must be the primary focus with 100% of energy directed toward this goal. Once addiction recovery is no longer the primary focus and goal the individual is doomed to fail.

Secondly, when addiction recovery takes a back seat to this new found relationship ones ability to think more effectively about positive decisions needed for addiction recovery to be successfully accomplished are hindered. Also many of these relationships that develop while in the early stages of addiction recovery become very intense very quickly. Often times these relationships occur between two people that are attempting recovery. This combination in the relationship usually leads to more problems and consequences that either party had anticipated.
Two people entangled in an intense relationship of which neither is capable of dealing with appropriately at this point in their addiction recovery. Relationships under normal circumstances can challenge the most stable person. Dealing with the potential of numerous stressors can derail the most committed person in recovery.

One additional problem that can occur with relationships existing between two people early in the addiction recovery process is that the relationship is often among two people struggling with their own lives and issues essentially not really making this relationship a match made in heaven.

Conventional wisdom suggests that people in recovery do not even consider this type of relationship for at least a year. After reviewing some of the pitfalls of some of these relationships one can easily come to conclusion that conventional wisdom regarding serious relationships is wise advice. A person in recovery should gain a significant amount of clean time as well as being well on their way with dealing with and understanding the issues that contributed to their addiction.

The wait may be well worth it by allowing the person to have a totally different perspective on relationships and the type of person they might want to have a relationship with.

Negative Thinking, Part II

"If you change the way you look at things then the things you look at will change."

Any comments?

Negative Thinking; What's the Cure?

What makes the glass half empty? Why is it that one person has the "worst day ever" while someone else has "just another day" when in fact they had mirror image days? What makes one person a positive person and another a negative person?

The answer is, there is no simple answer. It is DNA, it is personality, it is attitude, it is a choice. It is a multitude of things bundled up to create who we are. The real question is whether or not it can be taught and whether someone who is a negative thinker can ever change the course of that thinking and become a positive thinker. I believe that the answer is yes. But it takes work.

The fact that it takes work in of by itself implies that there must be a conscious decision to stop being negative and start being positive. That alone may be an impossible task because it takes a positive frame of mind to invite change. Negative thinkers may be doom from the onset because they may be too negative to think that change is possible. They may say, "What's the use" or "Why should I bother".

Addicts are very prone to negative thinking but they are clearly not alone. One thing is clear; more successful people and happy people are positive thinkers rather than negative thinkers. Life is short. Too short to be negative. Too short to be unhappy.

If you are negative it is time for a change. No one wants to be infected by the negative thinking of someone so feed of the positive energy of a "half full" person and change your course once and for all. It is amazing how your life will change. Remember that there really is no such thing as good luck and bad luck; just positive thinking with preparation and negative thinking.

It's Easy to Stay Clean in Rehab

Ever wonder why that is. An addict can go on a binge for days or weeks, or an alcohol can drink for years , but then they enter rehab and they become a model citizen--until they are discharged.

It is really quite simple. Being in rehab is often like being in the land of OZ. Nothing about it is real. An addict or alcoholic is taken away from all their stressors and triggers and can focus on just one thing; themselves. Real life was checked at the door. For the first time in quite some time, and for once justifiably so, all about them. Nothing else matters except getting clean and staying clean.

Unfortunately this idea world doesn't get to last long. For many reasons outside of the control of the addict it will only last for 28 days. It is nowhere nearly enough time. Studies show that in order to change any behavior, no matter how trivial it is, takes at least 90 days.

That is a formula for disaster. It is perhaps one of the most common reasons for relapse. place an addict in an environment which gives hem a taste of success and then pull the rug out from under them and ask them to go back to all their stressors and triggers and stay clean. It is almost impossible. It also doesn't help that addicts get a false sense of security after a brief period of sobriety and thing that they are completely recovered. It can't happen that quickly and it drives home the importance of aftercare, IOP programs, and the notion that you must slow down the recovery process.

Staying clean in rehab is easy but don't let it fool you.