Have You Reached Your Turning Point?
When you enter a residential treatment program, you will most likely be resentful of the people or reasons that forced you into it. It takes some time before an addict reaches a point at which he realize he no longer wants to get high, that it is no longer fun. It takes time to recognize the damage it is doing to his life. But he doesn’t know how to develop a program that will help when he reaches that turning point in addiction recovery.
Recovery cannot work when a person tries to put together his own addiction recovery program. Take the story of Ben Rogers, a heroin addict who lived in England. He had loving parents, and for a while he even had a girlfriend, but nothing could beat the monkey on his back. When the chips were down, he loved nothing as much as he loved heroin.
He spent two years filming his life. Walking about with a video camera was his one other passion. He was convinced that every day when he woke up, it would be the first day of his recovery, and so he carried his camera with him to film the start of this exciting event.
After his family despaired of ever co-existing with User Ben—his sister said whenever she saw him she never knew if she would find User Ben or Lovely Ben—they gave up on him and banished him from the family home. He slept about town on park benches for a while until the horror of his life prompted them to take him back. He interviewed his parents on camera about their feelings toward his drug use. Ben’s dad could never afford to retire because he used all his savings on Ben. Ben finally turned himself in for detox, but his body was so weak and his veins were so unstable that he died from a brain hemorrhage at the age of 34. His dad died a few weeks later from cancer.
Ben wanted to stop, so why did he constantly fail? Recovery requires a person who will guide you in your efforts. A substance abuse treatment counselor at a residential treatment center will call your bluff when you’re making excuses and blaming other people. By the time Ben reached that turning point, the ravages to his body were too severe.
As you participate in addiction recovery, you will be assigned a counselor will stick with you, who will comfort you when you confront the ghosts and demons in your life. Every person in treatment requires his own treatment plan for recovery, and when you reach your turning point, you will be ready to stop putting alcohol and drugs into your body. That’s what recovery is, after all, no matter what route you take: One day at a time, you don’t use drugs.
You need to spend time in an extended residential treatment program. You need to stop associating with your old friends. If you can’t change negative things in your past, you need to move on from them. Your counselor will help you understand any emotional diagnoses that you have. You will learn how to find a sponsor and work with someone on your recovery.
For Ben, it was too late when he finally reached his turning point. It’s not too late for you.
Read more about Ben Rogers and watch some of what he filmed at TopDocumentaryFilms.com.
