I have been clean and sober now for over 8 years, and that does not happen on accident for an addict like me. I am blessed to be clean for so long and I believe I was blessed to have had the opportunity to get clean. But early on in recovery I had the chance to make some critical decisions and I made a whole bunch of good ones. Had I not made these choices correctly I am quite sure that I would not have stayed clean and sober for as long as I have. What are these things that I managed to do right? Let’s take a look:

1) I choose to go to rehab – not everyone chooses rehab, and many will stubbornly avoid the idea altogether, insisting that they can do it on their own. Most can’t. We need help in order to recover. I was fortunate enough to give rehab another chance (I had already been twice before and failed to stay sober).

2) I followed up with proper aftercare - this was where I had failed in the past. Treatment centers had advised for me to go to long term treatment and I refused. When that happened I ended up drinking and using drugs again. Finally, though, I became willing to take their advice and attend long term treatment. This was the best decision I ever made it and it set me up for success in recovery. I don’t think I would be clean and sober today had I not gone to long term treatment to get addiction help.

At the time, long term treatment sounded like a death sentence. It was nothing of the sort. It was an awesome opportunity and I highly recommend it. I thought it would be like jail, and that I would lose my freedom if I checked into long term rehab. Instead, I gained back the whole world, and truly became free as they taught me a new way to live.

3) I shifted from a dependence on group therapy towards a life of holistic growth – what does that mean? It means that after I did about a year of 12 step meetings (and used them as my primary recovery strategy), I decided to start looking beyond that and exploring a new way to recover.

Instead of going to meetings every day and talking about my struggles in life, I shifted my focus to one of personal growth. I became more goal oriented and started challenging myself to achieve new things. I also focused on learning as a way to grow in recovery.

These 3 things all made a huge difference for me in recovery. I have seen many others fail who might have benefited from these ideas…..