Addiction Treatment Services & the 12 Steps

A few years back, I was absolutely lost to alcoholism, though I didn't realize it at the time. I knew that my life was in ruins, but I didn't attribute it to the alcohol. If anything, I thought that alcohol was protecting me from the harsh realities of life. Thankfully, the 12-Step method of alcoholism treatment saved my life. I'm going to explain how this happened in hopes that someone else may learn something if they are going through similar troubles.

I received addiction treatment services through an outpatient drug rehab a few years ago when I was 29. I just had my first DUI, and I was given the option of attending a state-sponsored outpatient drug rehab in order to reduce my enormous fines. I didn’t think I needed any addiction treatment services, but I also didn’t want to pay $10,000 in court fees, so I entered an outpatient drug rehab program in Orange County, California, to get alcoholism treatment.

I went to this Southern California outpatient drug rehab that gave addiction treatment services on weekends and evenings, so I could go around my work schedule. At first, I thought I would just attend alcoholism treatment to satisfy the courts, and as soon as I could I would start drinking again. However, through the meetings and counseling sessions at this outpatient drug rehab I learned that I did, in fact, abuse alcohol. What’s more, I learned why I abused alcohol and how it had affected my health, my family, and my career.

As the outpatient drug rehab program ended, my counselors started working on relapse prevention and long-term recovery plans. They turned me on to various 12-Step recovery meetings in my area that I could go to for continued support and informal alcoholism treatment in Southern California. I went to these 12-Step meetings and met some welcoming and supportive friends who helped me through the 12 Steps.

The 12-Step method of recovery is all about accepting that you suffer from the disease of addiction and that—left to your own devices—you will go back to abusing drugs and alcohol. Through peer support and action, the 12 Steps teach you set of techniques and tools to fight your addictions on a daily basis. It's not an easy program of action, but it certainly is a simple one.

Addiction & Suicidal Thoughts

Suicidal thoughts affect most of us at one time or another throughout our lives. Sometimes a bad break-up or a family death can trigger thoughts that you'd be better off not existing. More often than not, these thoughts pop into your head and then they're gone just a few minutes later.

I, however, have dealt with suicidal thoughts all my life. For much of my life I felt broken, like something was wrong with my brain that would never allow me to be happy. I self-medicated this pain with drugs and alcohol for many years. I thought that booze and drugs were the only things keeping me happy enough to stay alive. Boy was I wrong!

A few years ago, in a moment of clarity, it dawned on me that maybe an addiction rehabilitation center could help with my depression and suicidal thoughts. I had a friend just like me who had recently gone to a holistic drug rehab that was a drug treatment program and therapeutic retreat all in one. After he attended the addiction rehabilitation center, he emerged a new man, without the constant thoughts of suicide plaguing him. That’s when I decided it couldn’t hurt to give a drug treatment program a shot.

I went to the same holistic drug rehab he had gone to, and immediately started in on my drug treatment program with its professional staff. This addiction rehabilitation center certainly didn’t look or feel like I thought it would. I found that the Hollywood misconceptions of drug treatment programs were way off. The place was actually incredibly well appointed and maintained.

With the help of the one-on-one counseling at this holistic drug rehab, I learned that my drug and alcohol abuse were actually causing my depression and suicidal thoughts, rather than the other way around. The peer counseling and group therapies at this addiction rehabilitation center taught me that these were normal thoughts for substance abusers to have, and that they could be treated on a daily basis with proper thinking and action. Through this addiction rehabilitation center, I gained a deep understanding of myself and also a supportive social network to help me out.

If you’re having trouble with suicidal thoughts, and alcohol or drugs are a part of your daily life, I recommend giving a holistic drug rehab a shot. After all, it can’t hurt. And if you're lucky like me, it could be just the thing to turn your life around.

Drug Addiction Therapy Programs for Depression

Before I get into the good news, just know that with the help of drug addiction therapy services, my depression went away almost immediately, without the use of prescription antidepressants. My story with drug addiction counseling started when i was actually seeking treatment for a terrible depression. I just couldn’t seem to feel happy about anything. I had a job, a family, a house and the hole shebang, but every day I simply felt worse, like my world was closing in around me. I was drinking quite a bit, but I didn’t really think there was a problem with that. In fact, I was very thankful for alcohol because it gave me a brief break from my depression each night.

For many people, depression is the first sign that they’re losing control over their drug and alcohol use. In fact, many people get into a drug addiction therapy program in a roundabout way by first seeing a shrink with complaints of depression. This is exactly how it happened for me.

I went to a shrink about my depression, and I was surprised when he told me I might have a drinking problem. He told me that alcohol could be causing the depression, and that some in-depth drug addiction therapy services could help solve the problem! I told him I didn’t do any drugs, so I didn’t need a drug addiction therapy program. He told me that drug addiction counseling worked the same for people regardless of their drug or brand of choice.

This shrink turned me on to a drug addiction therapy program where I could get daily outpatient drug addiction therapy services, so I could continue to work and provide for my family while I got better. I started attending these drug addiction counseling sessions around my work schedule.

Just because it was an outpatient drug addiction therapy program didn’t make it easy. These drug addiction counseling sessions were one-on-one and sometimes in groups. We really got down to the nitty gritty of how we drank and why we drank. We were given tools to live our life by, like appropriate ways to handle stress, anger, fear and happiness. At the end of the month-long drug addiction therapy program, I felt brand-new. My depression went away on its own. I had stopped abusing alcohol and self-medicating to handle my depression. As the result of drug addiction counseling I’m now happy, joyous and free!

Addiction Rehabilitation Services for Inhalant Addicts

Inhalants are a class of gaseous drugs ranging from common household items to industrial solvents. Probably the first inhalant ever used to achieve a high was ether, a common medical anesthetic. This class of drugs includes nitrous oxide, or “laughing gas,” along with many household cleaners.

They are administered by inhalation through the nose or mouth, often by covering the airway with a rag doused in the solvent or solution. Inhalants work by cutting off the oxygen supply to the brain, which can sometimes cause a loss of consciousness and a brief euphoric state as hundreds of thousands of brain cells are destroyed. This is called “huffing,” and it is a common drug of choice for kids and teenagers because of its wide availability.

An addiction to inhalant drugs is quite dangerous and should not be underestimated. Without drug addiction treatment, it will only get worse. If you or someone you know abuses inhalants, you should know there is a center for addiction treatment in Southern California that has treated numerous people for this affliction. With addiction rehabilitation services tailored specifically to each addict, this center for addiction treatment has achieved great success with people abusing inhalants.

For people addicted to inhalants, there is an acclaimed Orange County center for addiction treatment that understands your condition. As with any drug, an addiction to inhalants requires drug addiction treatment in order to treat the disease of addiction. There are comprehensive addiction rehabilitation services for people who simply abuse inhalants as well as for those who were led to other drugs via the gateway drug of inhalants.

It’s important to find a drug addiction treatment center that understands the causes and consequences of your addiction. Through individual and group counseling, you’ll learn the details of your addiction, and also get a sense of what will happen if left untreated. If you combine inhalants with other drugs, there are special therapy sessions to help you learn about multiple addictions. On the other hand, if inhalants are the only drugs you abuse, there will be addiction rehabilitation services specially tailored for you.

A Family Treatment Program for Young Addicts & Alcoholics

There’s no such thing as being “too young” for alcoholism or drug addiction. Addiction can strike anyone, young or old. Until recently, young addicts and alcoholics were considered not sick enough to enter most addiction treatment centers. However, there are now more addiction treatment centers that understand young people’s plight against drugs and alcohol. One exemplary drug alcohol treatment center in Southern California has a family treatment program to help the family recover from addiction in step with the young substance abuser.

Addiction treatment centers have started letting in young people because, after all, who says people have to be old, broke and homeless before they can enter an addiction treatment center? People who attend addiction treatment centers early in their lives are less likely to turn into old, withered alcoholics and drug addicts. The common misconception is that young people cannot be addicts, because they don’t live under freeway overpasses and steal to support their habit. This old thinking has got to be done away with! The truth is that the only requirement for drug alcohol treatment is a desire to stop using.

A Family Treatment Program Heals the Family’s Wounds
One Los Angeles-area addiction treatment center has developed a family treatment program to fix broken family relationships and establish healthy communication. The family treatment program occurs simultaneously with the young person’s drug alcohol treatment, so that upon leaving the center the recovering addict has the full support and comfort of family members. This groundbreaking therapy involves in-depth counseling sessions and meetings with licensed therapists.

Young people who nip this disease in the butt early save themselves years of heartache and trouble. Anytime a young person expresses a desire to live a life free of drug and alcohol abuse, they should be encouraged by their friends and family. Drug alcohol treatment at an addiction treatment center gives the young addict the best chance of successfully defeating his disease.

Drug Alcohol Treatment Programs for Multiple Addictions

Many people ask me if there are rehab and medical detox programs to treat multiple addictions. By this they mean addictions to more than one drug or to more than one manifestation of addiction, like overeating, codependence, gambling addiction, etc.

One great Southern California rehab has drug alcohol treatment programs for people who abuse many drugs at once. These people are classified in the addiction treatment community as "polyaddicted." It takes counselors and addiction treatment staff with special knowledge to treat these multiple addictions, and this place has just the right experts.

A Medical Detox Program Keeps You from Harm
A medical detox program is imperative to your health and wellbeing if you abuse multiple substances. Under close doctor supervision, your body is taken off drugs and alcohol safely and comfortably, minimizing any harmful effects of withdrawals. When most addicts try to quit on their own, the withdrawals quickly cause them to return to their drug of choice.

Usually, drug alcohol treatment programs start with a medical detox program to treat drug and alcohol addiction withdrawals. The body is a sensitive mechanism, and it quickly adapts to the presence of addictive chemicals. When you enter a drug and alcohol addiction treatment center, the sudden absence of chemicals in your body could send your organs into shock. Drug and alcohol addiction cannot be successful treated unless the substances are out of your system, so a medical detox program is an absolute necessity for drug alcohol treatment programs.

After a medical detox program
With individual and peer counseling, group therapies, and alternative therapeutic approaches, you can start to understand the inner workings of your drug and alcohol addiction. Knowledge is power, and self-knowledge is key to conquering the disease of addiction. For people with multiple addictions, it usually means that there are more social and emotional triggers for using than those people who simply have one drug of choice. One day at a time, a happy and healthy life is available for any recovering addicts if they don’t lose interest in their recovery.

A Beautiful Addiction Treatment Center

It’s our experience that every alcoholic goes through hell before they seek out alcohol addiction treatment. The search for an addiction treatment center is often the first step in accepting that you have a problem, one that cannot be fixed on your own. This is a tremendous step in the right direction. Unfortunately, the step towards an alcohol addiction treatment center is not one that every alcoholic makes. Most alcoholics die of the disease of addiction long before they get sober. With such a history of pain and anguish, we believe that recovering alcoholics should enjoy life once they enter addiction treatment.

Some alcohol addiction treatment centers have drab facilities with prison-like cells for rooms. We’re not sure where it says that an alcohol addiction treatment center has to resemble a prison, but we’d rather get sober in a place that actually makes us happy to start a new life. Our pick for an alcohol addiction treatment center in Southern California combines all the amenities of a luxury resort, with the therapeutic resources necessary to ensure your success. This outstanding alcohol addiction treatment center radiates positive energy from its facilities and staff, contributing to a truly remarkable atmosphere.

Here you can undergo alcohol addiction treatment in a supportive and relaxing atmosphere, probably the only one you’ve experienced in quite awhile. Through one-on-one counseling with certified therapists and life coaches, you’ll learn the causes of your alcoholism and the triggers that set you back. The alcohol addiction treatment center is set up so that you have the maximum amount of privacy and freedoms while still remaining therapeutic and structured. In our opinion, this addiction treatment center is top-notch when it comes to alcohol addiction treatment.

Entering an alcohol addiction treatment center is probably your first step in the right direction regarding your addiction. This is a momentous occasion and a powerful decision. It should reflect all the wonderful things that are to come if you continue with alcohol addiction treatment.

Addiction Rehabilitation Services for Atheists and Agnostics

Almost all drug treatment programs are non-denominational
Most drug treatment programs use the 12 Steps as a treatment approach. The 12 Steps start with the premise that you are suffering from a disease of the mind. This method focuses on the therapeutic effects of surrendering one’s will to an external source. This is an age-old practice found in various Eastern and Western religions, though it ascribes to no religion in particular.

Many people are turned off by drug treatment programs because they say the programs are religious. However, this is untrue for the vast majority of addiction rehabilitation centers which are non-denominational and focus on no particular theology or ethos. Once you take a good look at the wording of the 12 Steps, it's hard to think that this is some sort of Judeo-Christian cult, as many mistakenly claim.

Then why is the word “God” in many addiction rehabilitation centers?
People in a drug treatment program at an addiction rehabilitation center may feel threatened by the use of the word “God” in a few of the 12 Steps. Rest assured, this is not meant to signify a Christian god, or any for that matter. It is simply a shorthand term for a belief in a power or force greater than oneself.

Atheists and agnostics use the 12 Steps, too!
Even atheists and agnostics can appreciate 12-Step addiction rehabilitation services when you realize that various accepted natural forces satisfy a “power greater than ourselves.” Take electricity, gravity, inertia, the big bang, and evolution for some common examples. The point is not what you believe in, but that you believe in something greater than the power of your own mind.

A good addiction rehabilitation center gives you the tools to beat addiction
Drug treatment programs provide addiction rehabilitation services in hopes of freeing the addict from the destructive power of his mind. Belief in a higher power is a common teaching in addiction rehabilitation centers because it helps addicts get free of their diseased thought processes that will lead them back to drinking and drugging if left unchecked.

Addiction Treatment Services for Non-First-Timers

The sad truth is that most drug addicts and alcoholics never get clean and sober. Most simply die from the disease of addiction before they ever ask for help. By accidents, overdoses, malnutrition, heart attacks, strokes and certain cancers, alcoholics and addicts usually reach a tragic and unromantic demise. The lucky ones manage to realize they have a problem before it’s too late to seek addiction treatment services. Most of these “lucky ones” don’t get clean and sober on their first try, even if they attend drug alcohol treatment programs at a top-notch center for addiction treatment.

Many people scoff at attending addiction treatment services in a center for addiction treatment because they’ve relapsed once already. They may use this negative experience to justify not attending a drug alcohol treatment program ever again. However, it’s important not to let one bad apple ruin the whole bunch, especially when it comes to addiction treatment services.

Now that you know the truth, it’s important not to get down on yourself or someone else if a past effort with addiction treatment services didn’t do the trick. It seldom works the first time around. What’s important is that you get back on the horse and keep trying. Even if you can’t string together months and years of sobriety, every day spent clean and sober is one less day you have to worry about death, jail, pain and anguish. After all, addiction is a chronic and fatal illness that kills most of the people it afflicts.

Armed with that knowledge, it’s easier to see every day spent in recovery as a gift, one which could easily have been taken from you in any one of your unlucky benders. There’s a center for addiction treatment that understands the plight of non-first-timers who have relapsed in the past. A successful drug alcohol treatment program for your scenario will focus on what triggered the last relapse, while addiction treatment services will try to find what was missing from the last shot at recovery. No matter what: don’t get down on yourself! You deserve this, and it’s within your reach.

Alcohol Addiction Treatment and Alcoholics Anonymous

Alcohol addiction treatment usually brings to mind Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), though this is not the only way to treat alcohol addiction. In fact, many alcoholism treatment programs exist which use additional therapeutic methods to discover the causes of one’s alcoholism and to treat the alcohol addiction effectively.

Alternative alcohol addiction treatment methods are of special use for people who have tried 12-Step recovery before with negative results. Some such addiction & alcoholism treatment methods include:

• individual psychotherapy
• guided imagery therapy
• equine therapy
• process group therapy
• art & music therapy

Through these groundbreaking alcohol addiction treatment methods, alcoholism treatment centers can gain an understanding of the causes and consequences of your alcoholism. Armed with this deep personal understanding, you can work on defeating your alcohol addiction triggers and replacing with them with tools to lead a better life.

The role of Alcoholics Anonymous in recovery

By working a spiritual—not religious—program of surrender, acceptance, atonement and reflection one may slowly recover from alcohol addiction. We stress that AA is not religious because you can belong to any creed—or even none at all—and still find the same measure of success with the AA program of alcoholism treatment. The AA program only requires that you believe in something outside of and greater than yourself. This can be a Christian God, electricity, nature, or anything, even a group of recovering alcoholics! This is a simple hang-up that snags many people who reject the AA principles before they fully understand them.

For most people in alcohol addiction treatment centers, AA provides a ready-made support system that can be easily accessed from virtually any locale in the United States and many cities abroad. AA is a common ground where recovering alcoholics of all ages, sex, race and creed may help one another in their daily recovery from alcohol addiction. The AA style of alcohol addiction treatment focuses on the premise that alcoholics suffer from the chronic and fatal disease of addiction; without daily alcoholism treatment, the disease only worsens.