The best way to quit smoking cigarettes is cold turkey. Now everyone who hears that will probably have some reaction to it, and most people will not like the idea much. They think that cold turkey quitting is for the birds, that it is terribly uncomfortable, and that it has a low rate of success.

Well, I am here to let you know that I tried several different methods for quitting smoking, and for me, the best way to quit smoking was cold turkey. In fact, it was the only thing that actually worked for me.

You see, the other things I tried, such as the patch and the gum and the medications and so on, they were all just playing games. I did not really want to quit smoking at the time, what I wanted was for something to make me want to quit smoking. Does that make sense? I was looking for a magic cure, and it does not really exist. If you want to quit smoking then you have to want to quit smoking in the first place. The drive has to come from deep within. You have to be sick of smoking and really want to change your life for the better. If you do not have this inner drive, this motivation, this deep level of desire, then all of the tricks and gimmicks in the world are not going to help you.

I would go so far as to say that all of the people who have successfully quit smoking with the patch or the gum or the medications, that they would have succeeded even if they had quit cold turkey. The props and the gimmicks are not what led to their success.

And so it is the same with any addiction…..just my 2 cents of course!

The first thing I would suggest is that you take the suggestions from the staff, the therapists, and the other recovering addicts at the rehab (especially any recovering addicts with significant clean time) and actually do what they tell you to do. This is especially helpful if you are younger and attending a teen drug rehab in which everyone thinks they know all the answers anyway.

Your best ideas about how to live and how to be happy got you all messed up and landed you in rehab….so what makes you think that you have all the answers? You don’t….so try listening to other people’s self help story and see what you can get out of it. In many cases you will get something from just about every single person that you meet in rehab if you are only willing to learn from them and see what kind of message they are bringing to you. Even those with toxic ideas and bad attitudes can be shining examples of how not to behave in recovery. If you are open and willing to find the lesson then you can gain a wealth of knowledge from a random group of addicts. This is the magic the process and this is what makes it work so well.

One of the best options by far is to find a treatment center in your vicinity. Give them a call and find out how you would pay for it by this I mean funding and so forth.

Next you will want to get checked in. If you can not afford to pay or have no insurance most treatment centers accept Medicaid.

If you happen to get checked in to the local drug rehab they will more than likely do heroin detox . This should take anywhere from 4 to 8 days. They will use prescription meds to help manage your heroin withdrawals. You might also consider eating a healthy diet during this time of detox. You might even consider some of those protein shakes for dieters that you see just to give you some nutrients.

If you choose this route to it will be to your advantage because if you attend the residential treatment setting they will also show you ways in which you can live clean without the use of drugs and get support from others.

In my opinion if you only detox from heroin you will still have a mental dependence on the drug if you want to beat this you will have to get involved with your recovery. Putting down the drug is just one symptom of addiction.

Heroin rapid detox

There are a couple new ways to detox out there today one of which is called heroin rapid detox and the other is ultra rapid detox.

Do not be confused these to sound a like but they are very different. With heroin rapid detox you are looking at a 3 to 5 day detox that will be managed with medications. Ultra rapid detox is a process where the heroin addict is under anesthesia for the entire withdrawal.

This is idea may sound to good to be true and it may very well be because there are no magic cures. With this procedure you will be detoxed entirely while you are sleeping and when you wake up it is possible you will still have withdrawal.

It is also more expensive than alternative forms of treatment and it is potentially dangerous to be under anesthesia for so long. Some people have actually died during this procedure.

One more option is to go heroin cold turkey. This is where you withdrawal without any type of medications however it is very hard way to go. It would be a challenge to your mind as well as the body.

Which ever method you choose to stop using heroin just remember it takes action to remain clean and sober.

Some would say no, it isn’t. They base this response on some of the following ideas:

1) There is no physical withdrawal with quitting marijuana

2) There is no potential for overdose with marijuana

3) Most people do not get strung out on marijuana to the point that they become homeless, lose jobs, lose marriages, etc. The immediate effects from the drug are not as devastating as with other drugs such as alcohol, cocaine, or heroin.

But in spite of all this, it still makes sense for some people to go to marijuana rehab. If their life is out of control and they are seriously sidetracked from attaining their goals, then rehab might be just the diversion that they need in order to get back on track.

Ideally, rehab for weed would be a long term setting in which a person can get back to living a “normal” life without the lifestyle of smoking weed every day. Getting past this daily ritual is an important part of recovery. We used to self medicate every day by smoking weed, and now we have to learn how to deal with life on our own terms. This is not necessarily easy to do but this is the process of recovery. Our reward is true freedom if we can learn how to live a new way of life. Long term treatment is one of the best settings for doing this, especially if you are a young person. Without long term, it will be difficult or even impossible to walk away from all of your friendships and using buddies in active addiction and start any kind of new life for yourself. It is far easier to just continue to use the drugs for most people.

1) Taking care of self – this is a big thing, especially in early recovery when our self esteem might be low. We need to force ourselves to take good care of ourselves in every way–physically, spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and so on. This is part of how we build self esteem in recovery and start feeling good about ourselves.

2) Push yourself to grow or learn something new - if you can do this every day, it will help you to fight complacency and keep you grounded in recovery.

3) Helping other addicts – nothing is more powerful in my opinion. In fact, this is the strongest predictor of success in recovery….if you are working with other addicts on a regular basis, this provides huge insurance against possible relapse.

1) Go to treatment
2) Go to 12 step meetings every day
3) Call our sponsor or other recovering addicts
4) Study recovery literature or write out step work

And so on. These are the kinds of things that are generally suggested to newcomers in recovery. Why? Because they work. They help people to get clean.

But what happens after a recovering addict has made it to 3 months clean, to 6 months clean, to 2 years clean…..are they supposed to keep doing these same things, over and over again? Are we basically supposed to stay in “beginner mode?”

In my opinion this is not healthy. Now, there are some in recovery who will argue that we should “stick with the basics,” and that it is important for us to keep visiting these same recovery tactics, regardless of how long we have been clean and sober. I disagree with this based on my own personal experience, and also based on what I have observed in others.

The reason for this is because people seem to get stuck in early recovery. They follow the 12 step program and end up using the daily meetings as a form of group therapy (not how Bill W. intended it to be, mind you). Some of these people in recovery get stuck in the same patterns, go to the same meetings over and over again, and basically continue to exist in recovery without making much real growth in their life. This is not the ideal way to live in recovery. If you are just treading water, attempting to stay clean and sober, then what kind of recovery is that? Not a very good one, in my opinion.

Better is to challenge yourself to grow in your recovery and evolve as a spiritual being. What does this mean? It means that instead of dumping your issues and whining in a 12 step meeting every day, you should be spending your energy in more productive ways as you progress in recovery. One way to do this would be to offer addiction help to others in recovery. You might also seek to find new ways to grow outside of the boundaries of traditional recovery. For example, the 12 step program generally focuses on spiritual growth alone. This is a shortsighted viewpoint and to truly recover you need to heal your life in other ways as well, including physically, emotionally, socially, and so on.

It means that if you simply attempt to follow a recovery program without taking ownership of it and making it into your own then you are setting yourself up for failure. This means that you have to get active in the way you design your own life. If someone tells you to go to 12 step meetings and you simply follow what they tell you then there is no long term success in that. You might stay clean and sober for a while but unless you start taking deliberate action in order to push yourself towards growth in recovery then you are not going to stay clean.

Now understand that this can mean a number of things. For example, it might mean that you will make 12 step meetings a big part of your recovery and you might pursue the meetings and the fellowship that comes along with the meetings as an avenue of growth in your life. This is fine if this is your chosen path. I have one friend who has made this his mission in recovery and it is serving him quite well. He sponsors several people and still attends a meeting almost every single day, even after 8 years of sobriety. This is his path and he is living it to the best of his ability, trying to provide addiction help to others. But realize that he chose this path consciously after having had it suggested to him.

In other words, he did it as a suggestion at first, but over time he owned it as his own path of growth. He made it into his own deliberate path of recovery. There are other people who are attempting to work a program of recovery but they are not thinking for themselves or taking action in their lives based on passion or purpose for living. They are like robots who attend meetings and use it as a sick form of group therapy. They dump on meetings and complain and whine about their lives and use it as a sick tool to get some relief in their life. They do this just enough so that they do not end up relapsing. This is no way to work a recovery.

The alternative to this hum-drum existence is to find that in recovery which makes you passionate. Find your purpose. If you can’t find it, then start by trying to help others in recovery. If you can do this consistently and make it into a habit then you will probably find your stride in recovery and good things will start happening for you.

Now those who are heavily involved with the 12 step programs will declare that AA and NA meetings are not group therapy. They distinguish a difference between the meetings and group therapy, saying that in meetings, they “share their experience, strength, and hope with each other.” They claim that this makes a 12 step meeting vastly different from group therapy.

In reality, they are not so different. From a broad perspective, 12 step meetings are one kind of group therapy.

Now this is not to say that 12 step meetings are not helpful, or that you should abandon them completely. But for real addiction help in your life, you have to look beyond group therapy and find other means by which you can push yourself to grow as a person.

Consider the fact that many people who start attending 12 step meetings eventually relapse. In fact, if you really look at the numbers, the vast majority of those who attend 12 step meetings will relapse. Even the published numbers from AA’s ten year census data shows that long term success rates cannot possibly be better than 5 percent. This is not said to discourage anyone, but merely to point out the limitations of group therapy as a recovery solution. A 12 step fellowship makes an excellent support system for early recovery, but doesn’t necessarily provide the best motivation for long term, personal growth in recovery.

I know this from personal experience because I have seen so many people relapse while trying to stick to the 12 step program. I have seen others who have branched out from the strict dogma of 12 step wisdom and found success through other means in their lives. This is not to say that you need to quit going to meetings. What I am saying is that you might want to stop depending on meetings, because that is actually a weakness that is not necessary for you to hold on to in long term recovery.

The freedom that you get from defining your own creative life in recovery is awesome. It is not so much that you are free from 12 step programs, but that you are free to live your life how you have purposefully created it in recovery, regardless of whether or not that includes participation in the fellowship. Seriously, I am not knocking the 12 step programs here. They are powerful and helpful and you should use them and participate if that is your calling. Just realize that there are limitations involved with growing in those programs, especially when you are focusing on long term, holistic growth.

To create your own life in recovery, look beyond the 12 step solution. I don’t care what you do. Go running. Wear magnetic bracelets. Take a class in nutrition. Recovery is more than just spiritual. It is holistic.

If you are a struggling addict or alcoholic then you have come to the right place. What follows are specific action steps that you can take in order to get started on a new life in recovery. Depending on where you are at in the recovery process, different parts of this article might apply to you.

It is therefore important for you to honestly assess where you are at in the recovery process. If you can not get honest with your self-assessment then it will be very difficult to make progress. So please keep an open mind and this information will be much more helpful to you.

Denial

It is possible to be in denial and be aware of it. This is counter-intuitive but it’s absolutely true. For example, if you realize that you have a drug problem and need to do something about it, but fear is still holding you back from taking action, then that is a form of denial.

The reason for this is because we know that we are miserable and we know that there are places that can offer us help, but we are afraid to take action. We cling to the belief that our path of self medicating is safer and more comfortable than that of getting clean and sober. We deny ourselves the truth.

Being in denial is not simply avoiding an admission of our condition, because we can usually still admit that we are an addict. Being in denial is avoiding an acceptance of our condition on a deep level. It is acceptance that we need and not an admission.

Anyone can admit to being an addict. So what? If you can accept your addiction on a very deep level, then you can start making changes. Until you can gain this acceptance, you will remain in denial.

Action steps:

1) Increase awareness – if you are in denial and you know it (you will) and you want to do something about it, then start by forcing yourself to honestly assess how well your addictive behaviors are serving you. This is important so read that sentence again. Say you are addicted to alcohol and you drink every day. If this is the case then part of the solution is to pay very close attention to how well the alcohol is doing it’s job. If you are a true alcoholic then you will notice over time that the alcohol stops working. Instead of getting you drunk and happy you will be miserable most of the time and then you will go straight into a blackout. The “fun” part will be squeezed out entirely. The same will occur with any drug or substance in the long run.

So the key is to pay attention to the fact that the drugs and the booze lose their effectiveness. Your denial hinges on the fact that the drugs are “your solution.” Pay attention to the fact that they are not working and you will break through this aspect of denial.

2) Listen to the crowd - if one person tells you that you’re messed up, they might very well be wrong. But if several people tell you you’re messed up, then they are probably on to something. Denial is stubbornly thinking that you are the only person in the world who can see that you’re not screwed up when everyone else is telling you that you are. Being paranoid that everyone is against you is a losing strategy. So pay attention to the network of people in your life. If multiple sources tell you something, it is highly likely to be true.

3) Get over your uniqueness – part of denial is thinking that we must be truly unique in our circumstances. For example, we believe that no one in history has ever loved drugs or alcohol as much as we do, or surely they would not be able to get sober. We believe we are unique in our passion for drugs and alcohol. Realize that you are not unique and that other addicts and alcoholics have loved drugs just as much as you do and still managed to find a way to get clean.

Active addiction

Perhaps you are still using drugs and alcohol but you have basically worked through your denial and are at a point of surrender. This means that you are willing to ask for some help and are ready to learn a new way to live. You are sick and tired of the cycle of addiction and you’re ready to move on.

It is pretty easy to figure out if you are at this point, because you will not place conditions on how you receive help. In other words, you will be willing to take nearly any suggestion for how to go about recovery. This is what defines surrender – that you are willing to go to any length in order to get clean. If you are still resisting suggestions or help in any way then you have not truly surrendered and you will probably not stay clean at this point.

How do you get to this point? Back up to the section on denial if you’re not there yet. Otherwise, you are ready to take action. Now if you have a loving family or a big support system in place then chances are good that you just have to say the word and they will help you get to treatment some where. But if you’re not in this ideal situation then you will be responsible for finding the help yourself. The good news is that help is readily available in most places if you just ask for it.

Action steps:

1) Ask for help – use whatever resources are available to you and simply ask for help. Counselors, clergy, employers, and relatives all have the potential to help you find the resources you need to seek recovery.

2) Call local treatment centers – and talk to them. Explore your options. No money? No insurance? These are typical circumstances, and most states have programs to fund people in this situation. If you don’t get on the phone and start the process of talking to a treatment center then you’ll never get into one. Sometimes you can find a christian drug rehab or a similar treatment center that has different funding options. The key is to ask for help.

3) Take action. You don’t get clean and sober by sitting on the couch. Go to a meeting, call a treatment center, ask your family for help, and so on. The key is to take action after you make the decision for change. This is known as following through. If you don’t follow through you can’t expect to recover.

Chronic relapser

The chronic relapser is someone who is caught up in a cycle of getting clean and then blowing it. They might get a few months clean here, a few months clean there, but they are unable to string together any meaningful sobriety over the long term. They are addicted to relapse and the chaos that comes with it.

There is a strong element of self-sabotage in the life of the chronic relapser. They have a tendency to sabotage themselves when everything starts to go good in their life. This is largely a self esteem problem based on what they think they “deserve.” The other side of the coin is that the chronic relasper is likely bored when their life starts running smoothly, and their personality demands more stimulation and distraction (another reason they are driven to relapse).

Action steps:

1) Build self esteem – If you are a chronic relapser then you need to find a way to value yourself and your life more highly. This is an integral part of anyone’s recovery because if you do not place a high value on your self then there is no insurance against relapse. Therefore, building healthy self esteem should become priority number one for the chronic relapser. Building self esteem will be different for different people, but one sure way is to help other addicts and alcoholics. Service work, volunteering, sponsoring, or simply offering to help others are all valuable tools for increasing self-worth.

2) Focus on holistic growth – if you have tried traditional recovery programs and they continuously fail you, then why not try a holistic approach to growth instead? Instead of limiting yourself to a spiritual solution, approach addiction as a complex disease and push yourself to grow in new areas of your life. This might mean physical exercise, seeking emotional balance, or even going back to school. The point is to try and grow in new areas of your life because your old approach to recovery has not worked.

3) Try something different – chronic relapse should indicate a flawed approach. Most addicts blame themselves, but if you continuously fail to stay sober by going back to the same recovery program, why not try something different? There are other programs out there for staying clean and sober, many of which do not rely on group therapy as a solution. Try a fresh approach and you might get different results.

Decided the 12 step program is not for you

There are a lot of benefits to the 12 step program, the biggest of which is that it is the “default solution” for recovery and thus there is widespread support. But clearly it is not for everyone, and the published success rates by AA world services are not encouraging.

If you have decided that the 12 step program is not for you then you need to actively create a new solution for recovery in your life. This is not as impossible as it sounds but it does take some work on your part. Here is what I would recommend:

Action steps:

1) Find alternative ways to network – with recovering addicts an alcoholics. Networking is especially important in early recovery and you need to find a way to connect with others for support. As you progress in recovery the networking element becomes less important over time as the focus shifts to your own personal growth and development.

2) Use vision and goals – to actively create a new life for yourself. Find your purpose in life and actively pursue it with enthusiasm.

3) Push yourself to grow. Holstic growth is the key.  That means you try to find growth opportunities in all areas of your life. Physical fitness. Mental training and education. Social networking and relationships. Emotional balance and stability. Push yourself to grow in all of these areas. This is important because our addiction affected us in all of these areas. The solution, therefore, is holistic.

If you need additional help please leave a comment or question below.

Another helpful article from addiction help resource.