A couple weeks ago NTS had its first Snow Day in the local California mountains.  We took over 25 clients snowboarding and skiing on a Wednesday.  It was snowing/raining, but it turned out to be a beautiful day with no injuries.  Some clients went just for the scenery.  Taking 25 clients anywhere is difficult, but taking them on a two hour drive to the local California mountains is another story.  Not many addiction treatment programs as large as ours can facilitate something like a Snow Day, but NTS is not like other programs.  California has had a great snow season so far and we hope to take advantage of our close proximity to the local Southern California Ski Mountains.  At NTS we like to encourage fun in sobriety as much as possible.  We have formal activities twice a week and our school program (The Academy) sometimes has 3 activities per week.  Last week The Academy at NTS took all their  students to Universal Studios for the day.   We like to encourage people who participate in activities like snowboarding and skiing to try those acitivities sober.  Snowboarding and skiing is often associated with alcohol and marijuana.  In fact, when we entered the Big Bear Mountain parking lot we could smell the marijuana smoke in the air, but our clients were safe and sober and that was the important thing.  They made it through the day sober and learned how to snowboard and ski sober. 

Labels: Activities, Fun Addiction Treatment, Snow Day, Snowboarding and Skiing in Treatment

Activities in drug and alcohol treatment are an important part of drug rehab. Learning how to have fun in sobriety is one of the most important aspects of long-term recovery from addiction. If a person cannot learn how to have fun in their new sober life, then their motivation to remain sober will eventually deteriorate. Some people who have a long history of substance abuse, particularly methamphetamine abuse, will suffer from something called Anhedonia. Anhedonia is an inability to experience pleasure from normally pleasurable life events such as social interaction and sexual activity. 

Labels: Activities, Anhedonia and Substance Abuse, Fun Addiction Treatment

So you've decided to enter addiction treatment... Perhaps you've been forced into treatment by your parents, or sentenced to treatment by a sympathetic judge. Either way you're stuck now and you think that the life you had has been put on hold and the fun is over. No one told you addiction treatment would be fun, well maybe they did, but you're now probably thinking they would have said anything just to get you into treatment...Let me be the first to tell you, if you haven't been told already, that Addiction Treatment is not an easy journey to take, but it doesn't have to be entirely un-enjoyable. In fact treatment can be fun. Not "fun" as in going out with all your friends at night, drinking to the wee hours of the morning, and sleeping with someone you met at 2am "fun" (and lets face it, that wasn't really fun anymore), but the type of fun that's true, meaningful, and doesn't leave you with a guilt ridden hangover in the late afternoon sunshine when you finally awake from your inebriated coma. Often times it's refferred to as Sober Fun, but to me, after 11 years in sobriety, it's just FUN. I know, it's sickening to hear, but it is. In fact, the 9 Months I spent in treatment was the most FUN I ever had. Now that I have a "Life" as they are called, I wish I could spend a month or two in treatment again, just without having to relapse to get there.

Like I said, I was in treatment for 9 months and at first it seemed like I was merely waiting to get my life started. What I came to realize was that my life was starting. In fact a whole new life was starting for me, and the brief (it seems brief now in hindsight) amount of time I was in treatment turned out to be the most profitable and rewarding time of my life. I deal every day with people who are sentenced to treatment, or who are forced into treatment by their parents, and I try and tell them that it's not as bad as it may seem. Usually my encouragement falls on deaf ears, but over time changes do occur and things do get better. The important thing for people in addiction treatment to remember is that there are actually worse things they could be doing, and having a curfew, being driven around to meetings and groups, and working on yourself for however long your afforded the opportunity, is not so bad. Most people who do have "lives" would jump at the chance to be able to take the time to work on themselves, their relationships, and their future. Of course this perspective is not easily adopted when you're in treatment with all the rules, meetings, and groups, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Trust me, I've been there. It may seem like you're in treatment forever, but it's a short time in the grand scope of the rest of your life. Sincerely, The Helper

Labels: Fun Addiction Treatment