The holidays are the most wonderful times of the year; at least that’s what popular culture tells us.
But it doesn't have to be that way. Help is available, and the holiday season is a better time than any to seek treatment. We can rattle off dozens of reasons to do so, but here are 10 that we hope help you make a decision to walk out of the darkness, so that future holiday seasons offer you as much hope as they do everyone else.
1) New Year, a New You: Why wait until Jan. 1 to put a resolution into action? If you're planning to set a goal of recovery for the new year, get started early. Call today, get help and put the tools into place that help you maintain that resolution for a lifetime.
2) Give Yourself a Break: If you're trying to maintain a job or an education, the holidays are often a time when things slow down. Take advantage of down time to get your life back on track.
3) Escape the Stress: Few things are more stressful than the holidays for all of us — but if you're battling addiction, that stress is even worse. We're late to holiday functions, if we show up at all; we're trying to come up with cash to buy presents and resent that we have to give up our vice to do so; we plan ways to sneak away to drink or get high while everyone else is gathered around the table. It's an exhausting charade, but it's also one you can let go of.
4) A Gift That Keeps on Giving: The longer we try and maintain a lifestyle of addiction, the more our habits are exposed to those who love us. We may think we're hiding our problem, but our family members usually have us figured out long before we're ready to do something about our problem. In fact, addiction is often a family disease, meaning that our behavior and our actions often make those around us sick — with worry, with fear, with anger. Combined with our inability to buy even the simplest of trinkets to wrap up for Christmas, we often feel our presence is unwanted during the holidays. But it doesn't have to be that way — a new lease on life via treatment is the greatest gift we can give to everyone, from family members to ourselves.
5) Winter Is Coming: Few things are more miserable than trying to chase drugs when it's cold, wet and nasty outside. Rehab not only offers a place to sleep and meals to eat, it can provide a place where you can be comfortable and warm, where you can make friends who share your journey of recovery, where you can find gratitude for a roof over your head instead of the misery of walking slush-grimy streets, trying to fend off withdrawal symptoms.
6) Go Where You're Wanted: On occasion, addiction takes us to places where even those who love us the most don't want us around. We damage relationships and burn bridges, and if our addiction is known to our loved ones, it often takes center stage during holiday gatherings. What are supposed to be times of peace and unity devolve into fights and tears, if we're even allowed through the front door. In our treatment facility, our staff members have often walked in those same shoes, and they want to help you. More importantly, they want you to know that you're worthy of a new way of life, and they want to help you obtain it.
7) A Blanket for Your Soul: Christmas evokes a myriad of emotions — but most of them, for addicts and alcoholics, aren't positive ones. Instead of joy, we feel crushing despair. Instead of love, we feel isolated and alone. Instead of good cheer, we feel surrounded by the blackest of clouds. In a time when everyone seems to be basking in the glow of another year's worth of blessings, we become keenly aware of our own lack of accomplishment, and we may even flirt with the idea of ending it all. But it doesn't have to be that way. We don't have to feel that way, because treatment helps us see that there's light at the end of the tunnel, and that the darkness we come to regard as omnipresent can be banished when we take the necessary steps to do something about our problem.
8) Now Serving: Drug and alcohol treatment centers around the nation often have long waiting lists — except during the holidays. In fact, there's a greater chance of getting a bed and receiving more personal, individualized care during the holiday season than during any other time of the year.
9) Denial Is Not a River: As addicts, we're experts at refusing to recognize we have a problem. During the holidays, it becomes almost impossible to do so. When goodness and love are the centerpieces of the season, the wreckage of our own lives is dragged into the spotlight. It's hard to look in the mirror and lie to ourselves any longer about how we have things under control — and what better time than during those moments of clarity to call for help?
10) O Holy Night: Treatment may seem like the last place you would want to spend the holidays, but we can assure you — there's something wonderful about the love and community shared in a treatment center during the holiday season. Patients surround themselves with the warmth of community; staff members find gratitude in their roles as shepherds; family members breathe a sigh of relief because the addicts in their lives are in a safe environment. Few things are better received during the holiday season than being able to lay your head down at the end of the day and feel that everything just might turn out OK.
It can, and it will — if you make the effort.
Please … start your holiday season now, by calling Cornerstone of Recovery today. 1.855.920.HOPE