You're as Sick as Your Secrets

Feb. 2, 2015 - PRLog -- So you’ve made the emotionally difficult decision to get help in drug addiction treatment. You’re tired, you’re spent and you feel like you’re knocking at the door of the last house on the block.

At the moment of the lowest low of your life after years of substance abuse, you might be more than a little hesitant to trust people right away. Therapists, counselors and your parents have encouraged you to stick with the program and let your walls down long enough to let the message sink in that recovery is possible. But as much as you want to trust the process of drug rehab and begin a whole new life, the thought of opening up and spilling your guts to a total stranger isn’t really on your bucket list.

Most rehabilitation centers will line you up with a sponsor before you leave to make the transition as seamless as possible. Unique to The Authentic Treatment Center, a drug and alcohol rehab center located in Los Angeles, California are treatment strategies that use the social aspects of the residential setting. Alcoholism is in part a disease of isolation from loved ones, friends and family. The social component of addiction treatment is vitally important, and 12-step groups organically create an environment in which a chemically dependent person learns to express feelings, process emotions, successfully resolve conflicts, and essentially learn to develop and maintain healthy relationships that will be crucial to their long-term recovery.

This is where a relationship with a sponsor comes in, which is important as far as building trust, since they’ll be listening to your fourth step, a written inventory of your resentments and shortcomings.

You’ve heard all about it, and you’re already dreading this step. Why? Maybe because there are certain things you’ve done in your life you’ve never told anyone? Or because you think once you get halfway through reading your inventory to your sponsor they’ll run screaming out of the room? (Can’t I just read it to my dog? ...Um, no.)

They told you at drug and alcohol rehab how critical this step is to maintain your sobriety, so you try to keep an open mind, and remind yourself how far you’ve come.

You’re seeing other newcomers you know from drug rehab moving forward, going through their steps and looking happy and free. It occurs to you they’re high again, or they’ve been brainwashed or they’re faking it because they’re too afraid of what transgressions may be unearthed during what is supposed to be a majorly liberating step.

Your secrets aren’t as bad as you think. There’s always going to be someone in the room who can relate to you, and someone who’s slipped further down that same slope of full blown addiction, self-destruction and shame. It’s not as if it’s a  requirement in 12-step groups to stand in front of 50 people and declare your fetish for cross dressing. But guess what? You wouldn’t be the first.

The 12 steps are designed to give you freedom from the isolation, the remorse and the fear-based lack of faith that holds you back. Trust yourself, and give yourself space to make mistakes, ones that you can choose to learn from.

To know more click here http://arctreatment.com/