5 Lies That Rehab Centers Want To Sell You On

Every once in a while you come across an article that is filled with so much rubbish that you just can’t help yourself from offering objection. Today we will recapture the brilliant insight spread to the world from the highly trafficked website, PsychCentral.

It is this kind of delusional crap that really gives people the wrong impression of life after rehab. God only knows how many people read this article on PsychCentral and have been so poorly misinformed, so hopefully this revision of their five feel good points will clarity what life is really like after treatment. Everyone falls from that pink cloud sooner or later, and when you do fall, be prepared for the most vile tasting reality and emotional turbulence that you have ever experienced.

The focus of their article was to outline five things that will change in people after going to rehab……. Here comes the crushing reality….Most people don’t change they eventually relapse, the statistics are devastating.

Most people leave rehab feeling well rested and on an emotional high, thinking they can face any challenge that life throws at them with their newly acquired self-knowledge. They then return to their familiar old life with a smile, operating in environments and belief systems that were so conducive to their demise in the first place. But what has really changed? Would it not be fair to say they are still not quite out of the woods yet?

It is no surprise to hear that they revert back to their old conditioned patterns of addictive behaviour within only a short time, and relapse with a vengeance. To imply that people can detach themselves from years of very ingrained habits and perceptions after only spending a month or two in rehab is a complete joke. This is just a classic example of the blind leading the blind. Lord forgive them; for they do not know what they do, I suppose? Or, maybe they might approach things with a little bit more realism and less fluff. The reality is, most of you won’t make it, simply because suggestions don’t seem to apply to you and you truly believe this new found knowledge about addiction is going to keep you clean.

The cold hard facts have proven that addicts have created a massive tailwind of wreckage in their lives and eventually need to face the music of retribution if they are to seriously change their life for the better. In short, an amends-based approach to life is needed to commence immediately, and there are no short-cuts with this approach either. Leadership via a sponsor now comes is high recommendation to help you jump through the hoops. All you need to do is follow their path laid out through the dark forest and you will come out on the other side with freedom in life you only dreamed about. Hard work and diligence will always reward you, no question or analysis needed on that point.

Psych Central’s Article –  5 Ways Rehab Will Change Your Life  

1. Drugs will no longer be your primary focus.
2. You will socialize without being under the influence.
3. You will be happier.
4. You will have higher self-esteem.
5. You will become much more in tune with your actual needs. 

The Reality For People Leaving Rehab

1. Once the pink cloud leaves you, you are left with most or all character defects you had before entering the treatment facility, except  you may be more aware of them now. Let me assure you here and now that life change does not take place after a short 60 day trial period at your local rehab facility, but what it can do is get the ball rolling for you. Once you leave the safety and support of the three doctors, five nurses and handful of facility attendants you get thrown back to the wolves and told to stay safe (Good luck with that). Your emotions then start to stockpile and you reach for the same pampering solutions that you once had at rehab but for some reason they are nowhere to be seen. The pain overwhelms you and you feel all alone…. old conditioning kicks in and the old practised solution of using starts to seem like the only way to quiet these demons…enter drugs and alcohol again… Crash and Burn again… you are once again stuck with the same feelings of failure and hopelessness, sounds pretty fair considering you just forked out $30,000 in hopes of avoiding this situation, right?
2. Your social anxiety seems to now be at an all time high after leaving  treatment. You never learned to interact with people in social settings before, and overwhelming anxiety clearly validates that you are a fish out of water. What makes you think that you could just walk out the doors of Betty Ford and then become the most prolific public speaker? Chances are you will be stuck in fear of judgement, holding the same negative perceptions on life you had before rehab, with the same terrible emotional turmoil that follows those thoughts. You will be standing awkwardly in the crowd, fidgeting, not even knowing what to do with your hands, let alone maintaining a calm mature conversation with strangers.
3. Happiness is not as a result of rehab. It is a result of perception change. It may amaze you to find out that the world isn’t such a big scary place after all. You don’t need to defend yourself at every turn any more. Slowly you will find out that people are actually more consumed with themselves and haven’t been taking nearly as much time out of their day to criticize your appearance as you once thought. But this realization won’t take place until you finish your 12 steps and start living a totally new way of life, so stop dragging your feet and get to work. This may take a couple years of dedicated hard internal re-wiring, so please be patient. The turbulent winds of emotion will be blowing hard for the next couple of years, you must stay your course during these times of hardship to ensure lasting change.
4.  And boom goes the dynamite, the sad reality slaps you in the face again, you absolutely will not have a solidified increase in self-esteem. Just because you have completed your stay in treatment does by no means allow you to climb back on  your high horse of arrogance and finger pointing, the creation of real self-esteem takes great valiant effort and action. Chances are that you will be filled with even more guilt than before rehab, clarity sets in only after a couple of months of being clean and things start to really sharp. The selfish destruction you have caused becomes more obvious and the only cure to this emotional constipation is to right your many wrongs( no short-cuts). The reconstruction of self-esteem comes as a result of correcting  your wrongs and by taking part in the menial tasks of hard work you once thought were too mighty in life to regularly practice each day. Entitlement issues anyone? If you want to feel good about yourself, go help someone else better their life.  Practice step 12 and make the well-being of others the new priority in life. A healthy self-esteem will form as a result of your hard work and consideration of others. Once again, don’t question this point either. You don’t always need to know how everything works, just know that it does!
5. This final point is not as far fetched as the others, but I still think the expectation of being ‘in tune’ with yourself should be clarified. Most people coming out of rehab operate on a very delusional level, and by no means is this a conscious decision, they simply haven’t made enough necessary growth yet. The new recovery recruits need to gear down and stick to the basic concepts of not drinking or using each day. Slowly you will begin to separate yourself from the ego-charged needs that control your every move in life and the basic life needs that are more than available. The coast is not clear yet young grasshopper, the journey is just beginning and unfortunately it is no race. So stop feeling sorry for yourself and start doubling up on the work your sponsor has laid out for you. The redefinition of self is a slow uphill battle in early recovery and can be expedited only through brutal honesty and guidance of a progressive mentor. For more thinking errors, click here.

Now the point of this rank is not to single out PsychCentral for their lack of earnest conviction and to get off the unicorns they have flown in on, but rather to outline the severity of addiction and the challenging work that is required to get back in the flow and abundance of life.

What are your thoughts about maintaining sobriety and well-being after rehab?