Rachel Lane, LMHC, NCC, MCAP, BCC
Making The Difference
The allure of treatment facilities ranges from yoga, massage, and acupuncture, to kayaking, hiking, and horseback riding on the beach. Oh, and you can find addiction treatment too: professionals addiction treatment, relapse prevention, stress management, trauma treatment and psycho-education about the complex brain disease of addiction.
If you or your loved one has been to treatment more than once and you’re considering treatment again, what do you think would make the difference this time around? In my 17 years of recovery, both personally and professionally, I’ve attended numerous trainings and been awarded several national credentials in the areas of financial planning, mental health counseling and life coaching. Many of my clients who have been to treatment before could run my groups for me. As they tell me, “I know what I need to do, I just need to do it.” Yes and no. They may have followed their after-care plan to a T, found a job, a homegroup and all the rest, but they’re still struggling to find satisfaction in their day to day lives over the long run.
First of all, don’t be ashamed if you’ve relapsed and have been to treatment multiple times before. You’re definitely not alone. And you could’ve been doing everything you were told to do when you got out the last time; you’ve even stayed away from getting into a relationship! But you’re still not feeling fulfilled. You learned how to get sober, feel better emotionally, physically, even more spiritually aligned, yet you haven’t found fulfilling work that provides enough money to be self-sufficient. Maybe you’ve never asked yourself, what’s your true life purpose? That’s not typically a treatment topic that can be explored to the true extent it needs to.
The Importance of Case Management in Treatment
Case managers are well-versed in providing community resources, and you can go online to look at job boards all day long. But talk about stress! Especially if you’re not confident you’ll pass a background check, you’ve been out of the workforce for a bit due to your addiction and recovery process, and you’re in debt, needing to get back on your feet ASAP. If you just take the first or maybe the only job that responds to your Indeed application, it may not be conducive to your recovery over the long-term. I’m not talking about working at a bar. I mean, working somewhere that doesn’t align with your values and personal aspirations. Maybe you’ve noticed dishonest business practices, and you know “the AA program” is all about “vigorous honesty.” Or the management style is punitive in nature and that triggers past trauma, or you were hoping you’d be really helping people and most of what you do is data entry or analysis.
Like a new relationship, anything can seem exciting and perfect in the beginning especially if you’ve been alone or out of work for a while, but if you soon become bored or feeling incongruent with the management style, it could lead to relapse just like a toxic relationship.
So what can you do?
Toward the end of treatment or in recovery, don’t be afraid to seek help from a career counselor, life coach, or therapist, ideally with specialized knowledge in money management and addiction recovery too. (At Coalition Recovery, our staff has this expertise.)
Finding your ideal career that matches your values and provides lasting fulfillment is a process just like recovery itself. The same principles apply: don’t rush it and ask for help. Unlike the vast majority of Americans who dislike their jobs yet stay for the money, people in recovery can’t afford to be bored, unhappy, or angry at their boss for long. (Remember, resentment is “the number one offender.”) Be true to yourself in recovery, work and all other areas of your life as well!
