One of the most common reasons for wanting to leave treatment, especially among female clients, is “I miss my children; I want to be with them, and they need me.” Her desire to be home with her children is what she wants, but what they need is a clean and sober mother, and that means remaining in treatment. Sometimes clients in treatment will say, “I’ve got to go!” They don’t give a reason. They just have the “got to goes.” In this situation, even though a person may not be thinking of using, the risk of relapse is high. The one option available outside of treatment that is not available inside of treatment is the option to use. The client may be in denial of his or her desire to use. When the client is in denial, the hard choice cannot be made because the addict is head-over-heels in his or her addictive thinking, and sober choices are not a reality. This is part of what makes addiction such a frightening illness. One of the most difficult choices for addicts is staying in touch with the seriousness of their disease. Since addiction is a disease of denial, it is a daily, conscious, and difficult choice to be able to call up at a moment’s notice that time when an addict’s disease was most painful, frightening, or humiliating. This blog post is an excerpt from Finding a Purpose in the Pain – A Doctor’s Approach to Addiction Recovery and Healing – by James L. Fenley, Jr., MD; Published by Central Recovery Press (CRP).
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