Your Direction And The Coming Clean Today Addiction Recovery Discussion Board

One can only work with the tools that they have, and the recovery process requires that one aquire as many new life's tools as is necessary to fulfill our goals and dreams.

"You are in the driver's seat of your life and can point your life down any road you want to travel. You can go as fast or as slow as you want to go. . . . and you can change the road you're on at any time."

Jinger Heath

Sobriety and the road to recovery can be somewhat overwhelming for those early in the recovery process, and the Coming Clean Today addiction recovery discussion board is here to help guide you along the way.

Getting clean and sober is just a beginning.

If you have completed a formalized treatment program, have enrolled in private therapy or counseling sessions, or attend a 12-Step program or other self-help group ... a warm congratulations. While it's of little comfort for what now lies ahead, there are plenty of folks who never make it this far.

However, the necessity of a structured, formalized Aftercare Treatment Plan cannot be understated. While one stands little chance of making a life for themselves while substance involved, the long-term future without such a plan in actuality has not proven to be any brighter.

A hands-on example of this can be seen when one is prescribed an antibiotic from their family physician. Let's keep it simple: the sore throat went away after only two days of taking the medication. While the Doctor cautioned you about taking the medication for the full seven (7) days for which it was prescribed ... you stopped taking the pills after only two days. You felt better, your throat stopped hurting, and besides ... now you have some pills left for the next time you get a sore throat. Unfortunately, and quite predictably, your sore throat returned in a day or so ... and then developed into a strep. infection. Your return visit to your physician and the ensuing three days in the hospital left you with approximately $800 in medical bills. And this was AFTER your insurance paid it's prescribed portion. Get the picture???

RELAPSE is a part of recovery ... for too many ... BUT IS NOT REQUIRED and DOES NOT have to be!

There are many shades of gray when it comes to the recovery process, though when it comes to certain aspects of overcoming a substance-use disorder ... there's either the right way, or the wrong way.

The vast majority of those individuals who have received some form of treatment and have relapsed and returned to drug, alcohol, and other high-risk seeking behaviors (i.e. gambling, food, and compulsive sex to name a few) have done so because they have failed to care, believe, or understand that the investment in oneself AFTER they have received formalized treatment far outweighs the effort that they expended in formalized treatment.

Another hands-on example of this can be seen in the student who majors in Engineering in college. While he does graduate with a formalized degree, "How can he/she claim to be an Engineer until they have worked in the field? Held a job or position whereby they were able to apply what they had learned in the classroom?" While they can claim to be an Engineer the day that they graduate ... it would be both appropriate and accurate to state, "I have completed the necessary education to work as an Engineer." Get the picture???

Those recovering from a substance-use disorder need to develop new ways to think and to problem-solve, and the aim of the Coming Clean Today addiction recovery discussion board is to assist our subscribers in doing just that.

The addiction recovery discussion board at ComingCleanToday.com is a great place to get more grounded, get your bearings, and begin to make some fabulous plans for your future in recovery.

I's pretty hard to get where you want to go if one either miscalculates where they are starting from, or simply don't know at all.

Once primary treatment has been completed, a thorough assessment of our weaknesses, inadequacies, insecurities, as well as our strength need be determined ... for reaching an intended destination is impossible if one does not know where they are starting from.

And while one may have a very good idea of where they want to go ... knowing how to get there might be a horse of a different color altogether ...

Everyone in recovery must have some idea of where they want to go, or expectations about your future will never be adequately fulfilled.

IT'S A PROCESS ...

Weed Through Some Of Your Assumptions

Weed ~~Through~~ Out Some of Your Assumptions

Weed Out ~~Some of You~~r All
Misguided Assumptions

Distorted thinking is a common characteristic of active substance-abusers, and while one may stop their alcohol or other drug-taking behaviors ... those distortions into long-held misconceptions need be addressed and explored one at a time.

Once the drug and alcohol seeking behaviors have come under control, now one has an opportunity to reexamine the basis for many assumptions that were often held for far too long.

Undoubtedly, there will be some recognition that for at least some of these (distorted) assumptions ... there is no longer -- if there ever was in the first place -- any basis-in-fact for continuing to believe in them. Misguided assumptions commonly had a negative impact upon past behaviors, and the ultimate weight of the consequences that were held to bare.

GET PLUGGED-IN
&
STAY PLUGGED-IN

The addiction recovery discussion board at Coming Clean Today intends to stimulate the thinking of all subscribers, providing new and beneficial ways to think about and approach their overall recovery process.

Your participation on the Coming Clean Today discussion board can really keep you plugged-in.

Remember all of the direction that you were given when you were completing the initial phases of your program? In the 12-Step world, it's an important responsibility to stay in touch with your Sponsor or other peers that you are close to within your home-group. So, it's known that staying plugged-in is a vital aspect that can contribute to continued emotional growth and personal development.

And if you are already involved in an Aftercare program, whether it be as an outpatient or within the rooms of a 12-Step program ... who is to say that the levels of personal examination in those modalities is more focused or intense than it might be right here ... at Coming Clean Today.

Please consider the notion that there's no such thing as TOO MUCH insurance ...