Trying to escape from the grasp of drugs is hard and you need to make the right choices to help you do it. If your problem is severe, one of the choices you should make is to seek help from an outpatient drug rehab center where you can get professional counseling and support. However, this doesn’t mean they will provide you with a magic bullet that will make all your problems go away, you need to be committed to the processes they will teach you to get away from drugs and you need to take certain actions that will help you become successful. Here are a few things you can do to help you achieve success in an outpatient drug rehab program.
Show Up
There will be times when you don’t feel like going to meetings or counseling sessions you will be asked to attend. Do not let these feelings control your actions. Once you get into the habit of not showing up, you’ll usually start to lose the strength you started out with that helped you to avoid using drugs and you’ll fall back on your addictive behaviors to cover up your feelings of disappointment and failure.
Build a Support Network
The struggle to avoid using drugs is hard and there will be times when the temptation can seem to overwhelm you. This is not your fault. The brain gets used to the escape drugs gave you before your life fell apart and it will typically yearn for that escape once again. A support network of others going through the same thing you are is essential to stop the yearnings. Find others who have been in the outpatient program for a while and have developed successful techniques that help them avoid drugs. These will be the people who know what’s you are experiencing. You can call them when the struggle gets hard for you and they can help you to control your urges.
Restore Your Family Network
Drug abuse typically causes problems in your family relationships and restoring these relationships will help you feel better about yourself. There may have been times when you stole from close family members to get money to feed your addiction or you acted inappropriately with them while on drugs. The guilt you feel when you start to reflect on what you have done can drive you back to using drugs to escape the feelings you can experience. Making amends and re-establishing positive relationships, if possible, will help you feel better about yourself and help you find the strength to avoid going back to bad habits.
Going to an outpatient drug rehab is a good first step to changing your life around. However, there will be work you’ll have to do to make things better. Developing good relationships and methods to handle the feelings you will experience will increase your chances of experiencing long-term success with your program.