Drug Rehab...Why Do You Need Professional Help?

Fundamentally, it seems ridiculous, when all that's needed is to just stop doing something harmful, why can’t you just do it on your own?nnIt's very hard for anyone who has never been addicted to understand what the problem is, and when we start losing our careers, our families and even our health; why can’t we just stop? nnAnd the truth is, many of us who are addicted don’t have a good answer for this one; we just know that when we try we fail, and we fail so badly that it all just seems hopeless.nnThere is hope; we just can’t do it on our own.nnTo get better, the vast majority of us need professional care and therapy, and most of us need it on an inpatient basis. nnOnce drug or alcohol abuse progresses in severity to addiction, there occurs a slight change in the functioning of the mind. The pleasure and reward center of the brain exists deep within, in an area beyond our conscious control or awareness, and once we are addicted it is the influence of this deep preconscious part of our mind that keeps us heading back to use and abuse.nnWe can’t control it, we aren’t even aware of it, but constant impulses from this area (the mesolimbic) explain why although our actions appear willful and decided, we truly act as though puppets; and the drug is the puppet master!nnNow the brain does show incredible resilience, and the brain will heal itself, but it takes time, and often many months or even years are required to get back to a normal state of functioning. It's during these initial months of sobriety that we are at our most vulnerable to the impulses of our preconscious mind, and because of these preconscious impulses…we need professional help for any real hope at getting better.nnWhy does drug rehab help?nnA month or more of enforced sobriety gives us a great head start towards the healing of the mind, and staying away from access and temptation for the first period of abstinence gives us a far better chance at making it through the very tough initial month.nnAdditionally, although we cannot control what we are not aware of, we can learn strategies to reduce the influence of our deep mind, and also strategies that can save us from relapse if we do find ourselves on the brink of use.nnThrough the therapies of drug rehab, we learn how we must control not only our actions, but even our thoughts if we want a real chance at sobriety. We need to stop those thought processes that lead us into trouble before they get us exposed to known triggers to use.nnAnd since we cannot hope to banish all temptations from our lives on the outside, we need to learn concrete and effective strategies that will keep us sober, get us out of very dangerous situations, and leave us ready to fight another day. It does get easier in time, but without the skills to get past the start, we can never make it through to the end.nnSome people can quit on their own, most of us cannot. If your drinking or drug using is making your life unmanageable, and brings more pain than it does pleasure, you need to make a change. Try it on your own, but if you can’t stop, understand that you are no longer in complete control over your actions, and get into a safe place to learn the things you need to know to get better.n