You’ve made the decision to get help for opiate addiction. Your next focus should be on addiction relapse prevention. Savannah, GA, offers many options for avoiding relapse, and you can strengthen your recovery by finding out about them before you need them. The best defense, after all, is a good offense, and you’ve got to attack the risk of relapse with everything you’ve got.
Addiction relapse prevention in Savannah GA, begins when you start working the 12 steps. The doctor at your Savannah methadone treatment program may or may not ask you regularly what step you’re working toward. If you’ve decided to opt for Suboxone—generically known as buprenorphine—then your doctor is required to ask you if you’re going to meetings and if you’ve met a sponsor yet.
AA or NA?
You can work on addiction relapse prevention in Savannah GA, by participating with either Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous groups. Both of them have basically the same 12 steps. The people of the Savannah Low Country Area of Narcotics Anonymous on the SLCANA website write that NA freely borrowed its 12 steps from AA.
The message posted by SLCANA is that any addict can stop using, lose the desire to use, and find a new way to live. Many people who decide to achieve recovery through a methadone treatment center worry whether they will be accepted at NA because NA promotes drug-free recovery.
However, there are many people in NA who will greet you and welcome you openly because you have put yourself forward to give up illegal heroin or prescription drug abuse. They know you are worried about addiction relapse prevention in Savannah GA, and they want to be there to help you stay sober.
Yet others in NA will question whether your recovery is real if you are taking methadone or buprenorphine as a way to avoid addiction. Relapse prevention in Savannah GA, they will say, begins with total abstinence. But stop and ask yourself if your medication is their business. People in general accept the fact that their medication and what goes on between themselves and their doctors is private. So you are under no obligation to divulge to someone that you attend a methadone treatment program. That’s personal and private between you and the doctor. It is your choice whether to share that information.
To be blunt, you will want to share that information eventually with the person you choose as your sponsor. Addiction relapse prevention in Savannah GA, requires honesty. In recovery people often say that you are only as sick as your secrets. So, when you find the right person, you will know it and you will feel comfortable talking about your methadone program with that person.
On the other hand, many people believe that members of AA are generally more accepting of methadone patients. Most of them will not question how you are staying sober as long as you are. Remember, methadone is not a substitute for heroin or pain pills. Is insulin a substitute for diabetes? Or is it the medication that controls diabetes? It’s the same for methadone. It helps you to control your addiction. Relapse prevention in Savannah GA, becomes possible as you work on the 12 steps and participate in individual therapy. There are plenty of AA meetings in Savannah.
The Steps for Addiction Relapse Prevention in Savannah GA
How do you begin to work the 12 steps? People who want to work on addiction relapse prevention in Savannah GA, are often overwhelmed by the idea of memorizing and accomplishing the 12 steps. But you only take them one at a time.
Actually, the first three steps are all related to one another. Read them below and think about why they are similar:
- We admitted we were powerless over alcohol and that our lives had become unmanageable.
- We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
- We made a decision to turn our will and lives over to the care of God as we understood him.
All three of these steps refer to the process of beginning recovery. You know you can’t do it by yourself. You believe that a higher power can restore you to sanity. You decide to turn your will over to that higher power, whatever you understand that higher power to be.
Secular Organizations for Sobriety
You don’t have to accept God as that higher power. Addiction relapse prevention in Savannah GA, does not depend upon a religious awakening for you if you are undecided about the existence of God. There are also 12-step groups for people who do not want to talk about their higher power as a spiritual supreme being.
If that describes you, then visit the webpages of Secular Organizations for Sobriety. This group’s 12 steps are just a little different:
- We admitted we were powerless over alcohol and that our lives had become unmanageable.
- We came to believe and accept that we needed strengths beyond our awareness and resources to restore us to sanity.
- We made a decision to entrust our wills and our lives to the care of the collective wisdom and resources of those who have searched before us.
SOS does not have meetings available to help those interested in addiction relapse prevention in Savannah GA, at this time. However, you can write to one of the SOS coordinators and give them your zip code if you’re interested in meeting others who share your beliefs.
Completing the first three steps of AA, NA, or SOS will take approximately the first three months of your recovery. Only then can you move beyond to the remaining steps, learn how to forgive yourself, and achieve real recovery.
Treatment Engagement
As you work on your recovery, your counselor at the methadone treatment program will engage you in one-on-one counseling sessions. At some programs there are also group therapy sessions. It is important for you to participate in those sessions if you want to prevent addiction relapse. Prevention in Savannah GA, or anywhere means understanding why you became addicted and discovering the person you were a long time ago, before addiction ever happened. Can you even remember who that person was? Accepting yourself and coming to terms with the negative people or influences in your life will lead you to happiness and sobriety.
Get started now on your recovery. You can become and remain sober through a methadone treatment program in your community. Don’t be afraid to call, because the person who answers the phone will be happy to help you get started.
