The key factor in getting success from rehab facilities is actually more up to the individual in recovery more than anything else.  In fact, the key to recovery really starts when the addict or alcoholic leaves rehab and goes back into their normal, every day environment.  Can they stay clean and sober through drawing on the tools that they have learned about in rehab?  Can they use networking, meetings, sponsorship, and so on…in a way that produces meaningful recovery for them?

The fact is that most people who leave rehab simply do not follow through with what is recommended to them.  Ultimately they end up relapsing due to a lack of action and a lack of initiative.  They do not do the work that is required to stay clean.

Think about the success stories that you hear about in recovery.  People who have found long term sobriety will tell you what they did in order to achieve success.  They will say things such as:

* “I stayed in a long term treatment center for several months.”

* “I attended 2 to 3 meetings every single day for most of the first year.  Instead of doing 90 in 90, I did 180 meetings in 90 days.”

* “I found a sponsor and called them every day for 30 days.  I actually worked through the steps with this person.”

* “I got involved with service work and started helping other addicts and alcoholics.  My sponsor had me taking meetings into jails and institutions on a weekly basis.”

And so on.  Do we think that these people are just doing these things for fun?  We hear about success stories, and we hear about what it took for them to stay clean, but we imagine that this only applies to them.  That they must be special and that they needed extra help, but we will not have to do that much work, or put in that much effort, in order to stay clean.  Or so we think.

The truth is that every addict and alcoholic who attends a traditional or an alternative drug rehab has to find these action steps that will lead them to a life in recovery.  It is not easy for anyone.  Every addict has to struggle to build a new life in recovery.  We are fooling ourselves if we think that it will be easy and smooth but only for us, and that other people will have to work really hard to enjoy the benefits of recovery.

Recovery = hard work.