Addiction treatment is very much like war. We face an enemy that’s cunning, bold, and uses evasive tactics to try to hit us where it hurts, but each strategy we learn, tool we make, and activity we master in treatment is a numbing blow to addiction’s head.
It’s important that we adopt this warlike mentality each and every day we wake up in treatment. As The Big Book says, everything we’re taught in treatment is merely a suggestion, and we aren’t actually required to do a thing (“A.A. does not demand belief; Twelve Steps are only suggestions.”) That means the job of getting the information we need and learning the skills and strategies to overcome addiction rests solely on our shoulders. Addiction treatment can lead us to the water, but it simply can’t make us drink. After all, if treatment could make us better without our involvement, it would be more like mind control, and not really treatment at all!
Becoming a recovery warrior in treatment means resolving to put our best foot forward in every activity we’re presented with. That means we have to train ourselves, constantly, to be malleable, honest, and willing to get our hands dirty within our own past and in our headspace. We have to realize that treatment isn’t meant to be fun or easy. We have to tell ourselves, as The Big Book tells us, that “pain is the admission price to new life,” and truly remember that when times get hard, we get uncomfortable, or we begin to doubt ourselves.
When we’re addicted, we have little, if any control over our lives. Now, in treatment, it’s time to take that control back, and we’re the only ones that can do it. Everything we do in treatment, the effort we make and the mentality we adopt will directly affect just how well we transition out of treatment and back into the real world. We already know just how dark and unforgiving the world can be, so there’s no time to waste in treatment. It’s time to buckle up our bootstraps, shed anything that may be holding us back, and really push ourselves to be just a little better every day. If we get better one day at a time, we’ll see amazing results before long.
Let’s make today our first day of warrior training.
Thrive Treatment℠ is located in beautiful Santa Monica, California, and we’re determined to make recovery warriors out of every single client that walks through our door. We believe that life isn’t just meant to be lived. It’s meant to be conquered! Call us at (888) 975-8474 to get started right now!
