Drug and alcohol rehab programs are about learning how to deal with life in new ways. Substance abuse reduces your coping skills down to one basic behavior, and that is substance abuse. When something goes wrong for you, you turn to drugs and alcohol. If something goes right, you turn to drugs and alcohol. You develop many harmful behaviors and habits to support this, usually including lying, manipulating, and isolating yourself. These things are all destructive, and they are all done in the name of your addiction.

In a treatment center, one of the major points of being there is to develop the skills for solving your problems and celebrating your successes without substance abuse. Of course, you will also have many more successes when you are sober than when you are fully engaged in an addiction. The rehabilitation program will teach you what you need to know, but simply having the knowledge won’t help much.

You have to develop these skills and habits as soon as you can in order to implement them. Treatment centers provide a safe environment and an ideal situation for doing this. Any time you have a problem that you aren’t sure how to handle, whether it is a draining phone call with a family member, wondering how to find new and more fulfilling work, or a personal emotional situation, you are surrounded by professional substance abuse counselors who can help you with specific details on how to deal with these things successfully. It can even be helpful to look for situations that you can use to practice the new skills that you’re learning in the rehabilitation program. This will give you great practice for solving problems, managing stress, and creating major changes in your life after you return home from a drug and alcohol addiction treatment center.