Life Skills Crucial for Preventing Relapse
Most often when a person attends a drug rehab program, the life they left behind is far from optimum. They are usually unemployed, may have large debts, and are alienated from friends and family. While in rehab it is easy enough to focus on recovery and abstaining from drugs and alcohol. But what happens when an individual then returns to the real world and the life they left behind?
According to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) the lack of life skills is one of the barriers to social reintegration following drug treatment and maintaining long term sobriety. This is an obvious fact—without the ability to communicate well with others, make sound decisions, evaluate and choose the right associates, an individual recovering from addiction is bound to fail. Lacking these skills, he or she will not have the stability to hold a job, which can then lead to financial insecurity and a hopelessness from which drugs or alcohol will provide an escape.
It is also true that many people simply lacked these life skills early in life which then led to drug or alcohol use in the first place. Without the skills to deal with difficult situations that life presented, they turned to drugs or alcohol as a coping mechanism or to avoid dealing with these situations at all. Whether it was a little cannabis each day, a few drinks each night, or the euphoric release obtained from heroin, whatever they were faced with could simply be avoided for the time being.
When someone begins using drugs at an early age, they also arrest their growth and development of skills they need as an adult. Education is often stunted, interpersonal skills never formed, and their ability to make sound decisions becomes clouded by their substance abuse. Without these core abilities that one can use to succeed in life, it is easy to see how someone would have a difficult time escaping the trap of addiction.
Competency Gained for a Building New Life
Anyone looking for a drug rehab program should make sure that it contains a thorough life skills component. At Narconon we know the importance of this and devote an entire segment of our program to the Life Skills courses that guide a person step by step to develop the skills they need to succeed in life. As one progresses through part of the program they are able to take responsibility for and correct past actions and take a fresh approach at creating their new sober and drug-free life.
