“You Have to Want to Quit”

I have heard this line from parents and those who are in recovery so many times I have lost count. It strikes me as a bit odd—for one major reason: If my parents had waited until I wanted to get off drugs, I would be dead.

I was an IV heroin addict for several years before I ended up in treatment. I didn’t just up and decide I wanted to go to treatment. Addiction to any drug makes it very hard to decide that you want drug treatment. It took professional help and lots of pushing from my family to get into treatment.

I know many others who are the same way. They didn’t want to quit at first. It took an intervention or a family member really putting their foot down for them to get into drug treatment.

It was once they were in rehab that they realized life could be better—that they weren’t a lost cause and didn’t have to be a drug addict for the rest of their life.

So to say someone has to “want to quit” before they can ever start to get clean, doesn’t make sense to me. When you are on drugs you’re not in your right mind. You don’t make rational decisions evidenced by the fact that every day you decide to keep using. It wasn’t until I got clean and realized I didn’t have to have a terrible life that I wanted to quit. Funny enough it was after I had already quit.

If you want to learn more about the program that saved my life and what you can do to get your loved one to want to quit, call us today or fill out the form below.