Considering rehab? What are your addiction treatment plans?

Most people don’t think that far ahead. They are not really considering what their aftercare plan should be, or if they should do some follow-up counseling or just go to meetings. For most of us, the main plan should be to simply get yourself into treatment, period. You can go from there.

A common pitfall in addiction treatment

Here’s something you might want to consider though: a few days in treatment can really change your outlook. There is a dangerous phenomenon known as the “pink cloud” that can really trip someone up and thus screw up any aftercare plans they might have had.

The pink cloud syndrome usually happens very early in recovery and it’s essentially a result of the physical detox process. The person has made it through the detox process and starts feeling good again. A little too good, perhaps. Thus they become overconfident and don’t think that they need any more help in overcoming addiction.

This is generally a mistake this early in the game. Remember that the two most important strategies in early recovery are networking with others and the emphasis on learning. We have to learn how to live again. Just because we suddenly feel good does not mean that we can go out and conquer the world while sober.

This pink cloud syndrome is actually quite common and I have seen hundreds of people leave treatment early because of it. They get it in their head that they are basically cured, or that the treatment center can not help them any further. They start thinking that there is nothing more for them to learn, so they get cocky and decide to leave. Happens all the time.

Of course, there is always more to learn. In fact, continuous learning is a pillar of early sobriety. If you stop learning then you will never make the transition to long term sobriety (which is a state of living more than a length of clean time).

How to make addiction treatment plans that work for you

If you are considering treatment then my advice to you is to go all out. What I mean by this is that you should not be trying to just do the bare minimum, or make your stay as short as possible, or just get in there and get it over with and be done with it. This kind of attitude will almost surely result in failure.

What you have to do instead is to plan for a lifetime of recovery. Don’t just dip your big toe into treatment, dive in headfirst. Consider long term treatment (something that benefited me tremendously and worked when other treatment programs had previously failed me).

Most treatment centers will assign you a counselor or therapist who can then guide you in your aftercare plans. If you want to go out and relapse then you should ignore these aftercare plans. But if you really want to get into recovery and find a new way to live then you should pay close attention to your aftercare plans.

Recovery is all about action. If you leave treatment and then go sit on your couch all day you’re going to relapse. Simple as that. You have to take action in order to overcome addiction. We live a sober life by doing stuff. If you want to create an awesome new life for yourself, then guess what….you have to create it. This should give you a big clue as to what your addiction treatment plans should be. They should be action based and you need to follow through with them. That’s the whole secret, really.

There is no secret sauce to making treatment work for you. Just hard work and commitment.

So what are your plans?