Drug Rehab and Freedom Go Together
Drug rehab and freedom go together. That may sound like a paradox to you, something that doesn’t quite make sense. To a drug addict, drug rehab might seem like the last place they would feel free. Why would they want to be boxed in by other people’s expectations?? Read on and I’ll tell you how this works.
Freedom From Drugs Or Freedom From Your Life
Freedom can have various meanings – freedom from tyranny, freedom from control, freedom from responsibility or obligation, freedom of choice, freedom from commitment. None of these things are bad in and of themselves. However, an active drug addict might see freedom differently than a drug rehab counselor.
An addict is ruled primarily by their emotions and impulses. The addiction keeps them focused on what’s happening in the very next moment to make them feel bad or good. Immediate gratification often trumps anything deep or long term. If they need a hit or something to balance out their mood, they take care of it right away. Anything that imposes on their impulses and emotions can seem like control, even tyranny.
Too Much Emotion With Drug Addiction Not Enough Balance
It’s not healthy for a person to be living by their emotions in this way. No, it doesn’t feel as good to ignore drug cravings or be patient with mood changes. A drug addict is using drugs to that degree because of pain they are dealing with. The emotions were already more intense than they knew what to do with. Drugs and alcohol have made them worse. An addict actually needs more controls in their life to balance out their impulsive nature.
Laws and rules are around to help protect society from themselves. If we had no controls or obligations, society would break down around us and put everyone in great danger. In that same manner, using self-control and respecting healthy limits from others is a positive way to go through life.
Drug addicts fear having to give up their addiction because it may be the one thing they feel connected with. They needed to cover the pain, and for a while it has helped. Addiction thinking helps to maintain the addiction even when the addict can see some problems developing. When it has already looked so bleak, giving up their drug may feel like too much to ask.
Freedom From Drug Addiction Tyranny With Drug Treatment
Freedom in drug rehab can mean that the addict doesn’t hand over the reigns to the addiction anymore. They acknowledge the addiction is still there and that it has some influence. However, when the addict works with their most important emotional and behavioral issues, they can experience a freedom unlike anything their addiction has ever given them.
The addict may have been wishing for freedom from responsibility and obligation to others and to their own life – those things get in the way of instant gratification. However, drug treatment enables them to earn healthy freedoms in their life. They can get through their legal obligations with fewer problems, thereby regaining social freedoms they may have lost (drivers license, probation restrictions, etc).
They can have more choices in their lifestyle because they can now keep a job and have money consistently. They have more freedoms to grow as a person because their emotions kept in check. They can go back to school, rediscover a beloved hobby, get reconnected with family relationships, all things that help expand a person’s spirit.
Though drug rehab and freedom may sound like opposites, they are very compatible together. What’s your definition of freedom anyway? If you are considering drug rehab, you may need to think about that.