The rising need for heroin addiction & treatment isn’t just an indicator of how anyone can fall prey to circumstances, make poor choices, and misread their own personalities. In the present day, it also vividly highlights the destructive habit society has formed regarding impulse and immediate gratification.

It’s almost a daily occurrence that a major news source televises the relapse, or fall-from-prominence of a famous movie star, artist, or politician. The focus is never about the proliferation of drug and alcohol addiction, it’s always about the failure of that person to cope with the stress of life.

On one hand, things like heroin retain an awful stigma. On the other hand, its widespread use is not completely a result of illicit use. Legal forms of drugs like heroin, which is a powerful analgesic, are regularly prescribed by doctors who are helping people overcome the side effects and dependence of other drugs. The addiction cycle, and society’s misconception of drug addiction, are empowered by these occurrences.

Combined with a culture of immediacy, addiction is something that is ever-changing and mutating. Technology and economy condition people to believe that gratification in every way is automatic. This includes the availability of substances that temporarily alleviate stress, or facilitate relationships—even the bad ones.

Furthermore, when someone is facing an addiction, the same society that helps create the problem (do not misunderstand, forming an addiction is 1% circumstance, and 99% choice), the person is thrown into a legal and psychological meat grinder. Without a focus on how to cultivate resilience in early recovery treatment, hope becomes far less of a realistic outlook for the addict.

Medical prescriptive assistance is always a good idea in early recovery because it minimizes the stress of withdrawal symptoms. Achieving personal resilience however, requires a deeper and more “humane” combination of counselling, self-reflection, and behavior changes.

The power of personal resilience is formed early in life. A strong sense of self can prevent poor habits and addiction later in life. The misfortunate lack of instilling awareness can consequently lead to a personality that is drawn to the false comfort that drugs and alcohol can bring. This is precisely why addiction is particularly prevalent in people who were victims of child abuse, or were raised in homes with addicts. In all people who replace a resilience nature with what society offers as coping mechanisms, unplanned and uncontrollable addiction is a possibility.

This is why early addiction treatment for people who use drugs like heroin, must include very close work with counsellors who can help build resiliency and self-examination skills. This treatment protocol involves intense behavioral and cognitive therapies including:

* Rebuilding an addict’s lost, or forgotten expression of desiring a normal and prosperous life.

* Retracing events, relationships, and resolutions that led to the decision to open the addiction door.

* Resolving questions about life, especially those formed in childhood like,
– Why did I feel so unloved?
– Why was it me who was abused, neglected, put-out, or ignored?
– Did God abandon me? Why did my life growing-up feel like a game of chance?
– Where were my family and community when I had questions?
– Why did I always feel drawn to dangerous things I knew nothing about?

* Identifying talents, uniqueness, and personal strengths that have been masked and made impotent by addiction.

* Building a network of professional and lay people who will commit to being sources of inspiration, information, and non-judgemental acceptance. This is possibly the most powerful tool for an addict to rediscover how strong he, or she can be in getting through the early phases of intervention and treatment.

* Renewing a sense of personal spiritual foundations.

Developing a personal ownership of having authority over one’s life is the key to resiliency. Drugs like heroin always slowly erode an addict’s outlook, and blankets the notion of control. This includes control over the choice of environment, friends, intimate relationships, and which coping mechanisms are allowed to enter the picture.

Strong resilience is part experience, part thought patterns, part logic, self-worth, sense of belonging, tempered emotional strength, and an unclouded view of the truth in all things. Reigniting the resilience capabilities inherent in each person, is the springboard to their future successful addiction treatments and life of sobriety.

Comprehensive treatments that focus on utilizing resiliency as a main tool in early drug and alcohol addiction treatment, are the hallmarks of recovery centers that offer detox, counselling, intervention, and aftercare services.