Drug and Alcohol Recovery - Little Creek Lodge
THE TIME FACTOR IN RECOVERY
The American public is obsessed with misfortune and gossip. The disease of addiction promulgates both. Our tabloids and television magazine shows put the drug and alcoholic behavior of celebrities on daily display nationwide. Unfortunately these problems are not unique to high profile personalities and millionaires. Physicians, lawyers, clergymen and counselors confront endless cycles of addiction and insurmountable waves of relapse in all segments of American society. There are reluctant to recover addicts and alcoholics of all colors, creeds, ages and occupations. It has become painfully obvious that these cases require an effective continuum of conventional detox and twenty-eight day rehab programs.
The transition from a treatment center to a long lasting straight and sober lifestyle is difficult, but critical to those in recovery and their loved ones. I share the belief that addicts and alcoholics cannot change the past but they can change themselves so it won’t happen again. This cannot be accomplished until the individual is chemical free for a minimum period of seventy two hours followed by no less than ninety days of physical, emotional and spiritual restoration in residence at a sober center of their choice.
Sobriety does not come naturally for the afflicted. It must be planned, fostered and nurtured…over time. The individual must first regain physical health through proper nutrition, exercise and rest. This provides a foundation for coping with the torturous mood swings which become less frequent and less intense over time. Over time, a change of value begins. Balanced living with gratitude replaces self-centered, self-willed extremes. A concept of service replaces entitlement. Over time, truth replaces alibis. Peace of mind replaces panic. Security replaces fear. Hope replaces remorse. The addict and alcoholic will come to view recovery as a reward not a punishment. In my opinion all of this will take a minimum of ninety days.
Recovery is an intense, painstaking, result oriented process that includes daily prayer and meditation sessions, educational lectures, personalized counseling, group work and nature therapy. Addicts and alcoholics enter recovery as uncaring, manipulative and self-indulgent creatures. They must be placed in a highly structured environment that encourages them to courageously address their character defects, thinking disorders and repeated patterns of negative behavior. In time, they will be blessed with positive feelings of acceptance, surrender, humility and, above all, spiritual awakening. Day by day the recovering discover an increased desire to “let things happen rather than make things happen.” They let God control this universe and their lives. They lose interest in judging others and take a searching and fearless moral inventory of themselves. Over time impulsive behavior is replaced with responsibility.
The person you are concerned about is often hostile and resentful, concerned only with his own world of getting, using and finding ways to continue getting and using. Addiction has insulated that person from his outside interests and isolated him from you and others he loves. Extreme crisis requires extreme measures. Encourage the addict and alcoholic to step into a safe haven for ninety days. In a professionally monitored transitional living experience lives of despair and destruction are refilled with freedom, personal growth and creative action.
Andrew J. Pace
Program Director
