For many addicts, making it into treatment involves overcoming a plethora of irrational, deep-seated fears embedded in the back of every addict’s mind. To begin with, the prospect of entering into any form of drug rehab program is daunting, and the idea of submitting to a residential treatment program seems like an addict’s worst nightmare. An addict’s overriding concern is his own comfort, and comfort for the addict is closely aligned with control. Addicts want complete control of their environment, and this desire for control motivates the addict to continue to use; the addict uses drugs to control feelings and emotions, to limit the amount of interaction with the “real world” that the addict must face. Even when all logic tells the addict that his addiction must end or he will surely die or wind up in prison, the addict fears the end of the addiction more than he fears those consequences. Why?

Because the addict has spent a significant period of time using drugs to avoid the real world, he has lost touch with what real life is like. He has become a stranger to what he thinks of as “normal” life and is afraid of the great unknown that it represents. In “normal” life, all sorts of unpleasant things occur, from deaths to simple arguments with loved ones, and “normal” people cope with those events. The addict either never developed or long ago abandoned coping skills in favor of utilizing drugs as tools for buffering the unpleasant parts of life. He does not face deaths or arguments; instead, he gets drunk or stoned and thereby avoids having to feel the often painful emotions that go along with bad events. The addict fears being cast into a world full of potential pain without the tools (his drugs) that he normally uses to cushion the blow.
Presented with the idea of entering a drug treatment center, many addicts steadfastly avoid enrolling, while life on the outside continues to crumble toward total ruin. Too often, it is only at the point when the addict’s life has come crashing to rock bottom that finally, faced with utter defeat, the addict reluctantly turns to treatment as the only remaining path to take, other than death or jail.

In reality, drug treatment offers the addict his first opportunity to taste true freedom and take control of his own life. Once his mind is free of the immediate influence of drugs, an addict finally has the opportunity to take a look at where he has been, to evaluate his options, and to choose to move forward in recovery. In treatment, he makes the startling discovery that he is neither unique nor alone. Help is available, and he does have the power to seek it out. All of life opens up before him. Thus, treatment is not the dreadful end that the addict had envisioned; instead, it is the miraculous beginning of a journey down a road of endless possibility.