by Caroline Tigeress

Created on: June 27, 2009   Last Updated: July 02, 2009

Getting successful treatment for your drug and or alcohol problem requires one and only one thing. Brutal, ruthless honesty. You need to be very upfront with first yourself, and then your prospective program in order to get the help that you need to shake this monkey off your back.

You have to identify your problem, if it's drugs, alcohol, or some combination of both. You need to track your drug use, writing down, being completely honest dates, times of use, your emotional structure during that point of time.

Then you start to hunt around. You have to consider the difference between inpatient and outpatient care, each have their benefits and balances.

Inpatient care generally requires you to literally sever yourself from the environment you're in. It can be very valuable because when you go inpatient, you don't have to worry about things like seeing all your old drug buddies. This can be inherently valuable. The converse to this, of course, is that you're going to be paying a lot more money, if you're not able to get it seen by insurance. Inpatient treatment structures have a tendency to be somewhat more successful than outpatient structures.

Outpatient care is nice because you can maintain your external friendships, it costs less, and if you're employed it can allow you to keep your job and work with your employer. If you're lucky enough to have insurance then outpatient will be far more inexpensive. The disadvantage is that you may find yourself running into individuals that you purchased drugs from, or other drug users that you socialized with. You need to be prepared for that concept and you need to work with your counselors in developing coping skills or simply avoiding these persons.

If you are lucky enough to know of other people in your life that have gone through this process, then word-of-mouth is supreme here. Always consider another individual's opinion as valuable.

Also always remember that you are the consumer. You have rights, you also have an obligation to check out the track record. Go to the Better Business Bureau and look at their track record. Make sure that they, and those that work with them are correctly licensed, especially dealing with medical doctors and the like. Make sure that all of the counselors are legally licensed. Check their credentials. Most times, when you go into therapy in counseling, they are required to disclosed to you their educational path, and this is critical.

The more you learn, the greater the likelihood that your addiction program will be successful, and in the end, that's what you're after. Taking that problem in your life, learning about it, working through it, and taking empowerment. Then and only then will addiction cease to be an issue in your existence.

Learn more about this author, Caroline Tigeress.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.