You go to rehab you spend a ton of time and even more money to get your addiction
to drugs and alcohol under control so why is it that so many people fall through the
cracks and go right back out to using as soon as they leave rehab because
you've worked way too hard to get this thing under control to have to start all over again
I do not want that for you for those of you who are new here welcome to put the
shovel down I'm Amber Hollingsworth and this YouTube channel is all about helping
you understand the science and psychology of addiction so you can get your family and
your life back on track get back out there and live the life that you want to live
if you want to be back in control of your life subscribe to this channel
and I'll make sure you are always five steps ahead of addiction and
don't forget hit the little bell if you want access to the bonus episodes
now let's take a look at some of the really common reasons why people fall through the
cracks after leaving a drug and alcohol program sometimes people fall through the cracks right
after leaving it because like the whole time they were in there or part of the time they
were in there they were literally counting down days planning and waiting to go use
now if this is what you're doing you've already made your mind up to do that so it's really
difficult to stop I'm not even talking to those people I'm talking to the people who
actually want to stay sober they want to keep on the right track because they've worked so
hard already they've worked really hard and they're tired and they're ready for a break
so all they can think about is just like getting home relaxing for a little bit
but this is not the time to let your guard down with your recovery because
most people that fail this is when they're gonna fail it's in the transitions where
people fall through the cracks and I don't want that to happen to you
so as hard as it is when you leave treatment I want you to hit the ground
running with your aftercare program now what do I mean by that before you ever
leave I want you to have these things lined up more than just like on your
little relapse prevention plan right now I'm going to go to some meetings or something
that's not what I'm talking about I'm talking about have appointments have
them scheduled for the day you leave and the day after and the day after
whatever it is that you're going to do now different people work different
programs some people go into an I O P program some people go into sober living
some people go and have an aftercare counselor other people do go to 12
step meetings or they get a sponsor or whatever it was go ahead and make those
appointments and if at all possible another thing that you can have set up before you
ever leave treatment is you can have your system for accountability set up
now what does that look like that can look like recovery monitoring systems if you're
a professional recovery like if you're like a teacher a doctor a lawyer like you
have a license of some sort you can set up recovery monitoring program you can set up
with your family or with some outside agency to do regular drug and alcohol screening or
if the problem is alcohol you can choose to go ahead and arrange and have it already set up a
Soberlink device have you heard me talk about Soberlink if you watched a lot of my videos you
might have because Soberlink is a sponsor of this channel but more importantly than
that because I love Soberlink seriously I have been using soberlink for years and years and it
is one of my top recommendations for anyone trying to stop drinking what Soberlink is
it's just like a high tech breathalyzing device where you and your support system
you come up with a schedule of when you're going to be tested usually like three times
a day and you can decide a schedule that works for you usually you're going to
want to test in the morning somewhere in the middle and before bed at night
and don't worry you won't forget because you get a text message from the Soberlink
system that just says Hey heads up you gotta test in 15 minutes or whatever and
don't freak out because you have longer than 15 minutes you actually have an hour
from your test time if you'll set up Soberlink and have that going before
you even get home from treatment your chances of success are going to skyrocket
cause once you get the soberlink hooked up you're not going to drink because you're
going to get caught if you do and it like takes it off the table as an
option now I'll put the links to Soberlink in the description below if your issue is
not alcohol but it's drugs on the other hand there are other ways of screening
we mentioned drug screens before we mentioned other recovery monitoring programs there's also
something out there called a drug patch which is like this big bandaid you put on yourself and it's
24/7 monitoring through your sweat so there are definitely ways to do this accountability
now the other big thing I want you to do to make sure you do not have
a relapse and you don't have to start over is I want you to make sure that you are in
alignment with the people around you about what's going to happen when you
get home that could be family that could be work that could be friends
if you'll go ahead and set the stage properly you're going to save yourself a lot of stress
and fighting and arguments which is the other big thing that leads people to relapse if you
know you're only going to go to three meetings a week because that's what you've decided is best
for you but your family thinks you're gonna go to a meeting every day and you went along with it
because you just didn't want to start anything because you want to leave treatment when you
really need to focus on make sure your recovery is solid and steady those first few weeks because
if you'll get in that rhythm immediately and you'll stay in that rhythm it's just
easy because you're already in that rhythm and you can keep it going now up next I
want you to watch this video about different kinds of aftercare options because that'll
definitely help you sort through what's helpful and maybe what's not so helpful
and as always there are more resources in the description including the Soberlink link