Take Your Time With Drug Treatment

Drug addicts and alcoholics are often so used to thinking in black and white terms, expecting instant gratification.  As I said in another post, drug treatment is a process.  It’s actually about the passage of time with new habits rather than being fixed.  So take your time when it comes to drug treatment.  There’s no finish line.

Frustration and Wanting Results Now

I was talking to my daughter last evening about a writing project she was struggling with.  She had a lot of trouble getting started and felt frustrated.  I advised her to get a lot of ideas rolling and to not worry so much how it would all come out in the end.  She gave me a “I know, but…” type of answer, and I knew my answer didn’t sink in.

Later, we talked about the process of writing and why she was so frustrated.  I told her that before she could make the clay pot, she had to first mix the clay together.  If she made a little bit of clay and tried to turn it into the clay pot right away, it would look all patchy and not take shape well.  Finally, she got it.  She realized there were processes that had to unfold before the desired form would come forth.  She was expecting to have a clay pot appear out of nowhere, missing the entire phase of getting the right ingredients and making the clay mixture.

Drug Treatment and Addiction Recovery Unfolds Over Time

While drug addiction recovery doesn’t exactly reach a final form like a clay pot, the comparison still works.  The desired result doesn’t come from nowhere.  First steps first, then it all unfolds in its own time.  Drug addiction recovery does not come right away at end of drug rehab.  Addicts certainly have goals and desired outcomes.  But the mind and body can take a long and winding path through recovery.  In fact, many recovering addicts consider themselves still “in progress.”

Patience is often something drug addicts need to learn.  Their brains have been chemically trained to expect shortcuts and immediate results.  Endurance and taking a long perspective often does not come very naturally.  Drug rehab does only the first steps of stretching a drug addict’s mind.  In fact, the addict might spend much of drug rehab resisting this stretch.  Only after more time and more personal discoveries does patience get a little easier.

Time Passes And Time Teaches With Drug Treatment

Taking your time is about the last thing you want to do when you go to drug rehab.  You want the hassle over with, you want to either feel better or be left alone, or you just don’t know what you want.  Learning to live with the passage of time is one of the great unexpected gifts of being alive.