Category: Holidays and Drug and Alcohol Abuse

Memorial Day in Newport Beach, Orange County is often one of the most fun days in the little town because it kicks off Summer.  Summer in Newport Beach, Orange County means that most of the houses on the Newport Beach peninsula become Vacation Rentals for people all over the World.  Newport Beach during the Summer becomes a party town. The Newport Beach, Peninsula is infamous for its house parties.  Consequently, Newport Beach is also known for its many drug and alcohol rehabs.  It is strange mix of people.  Half of the people staying on the Peninsula in Newport Beach are there to party and get drunk, the other half are there to get sober.  The houses on the Newport Beach Peninsula are crammed tightly together while one house may be full of people trying to stay away from drugs and alcohol, the house right next door is having a kegger.  

During big holidays like Memorial Day in Newport Beach, Drug and Alcohol Treatment Facilities (i.e., Drug Rehabs) in Newport Beach often ship their clients/patients out of town to avoid the Newport Beach mayhem that often ensues during holidays on the peninsula.   Non-holiday weekends during summer in Newport Beach are often full of parties, but nothing compares to holiday weekends in Newport Beach.  The little temptation that occurs during non-holiday weekends can be helpful to a person’s sobriety.  They can deal with the temptations and learn how to live soberly, but during holidays (the biggest being Fourth of July) the temptation is too overwhelming for people getting sober and the clinical value of minor temptation, is replaced with potentially harmful major temptation.

So if you are in Newport Beach on the Peninsula during one of the Summer Holidays like the one coming up this weekend (Memorial Day) and you see a vacant house on the Peninsula chances are it is a residential drug rehab sober living house that has been evacuated for clinical reasons.

New Year’s Eve and Drug Addiction Treatment is a dangerous time.  At NTS we do not allow any of our clients to take passes for New Year’s Eve because of the dangers the night entails.  New Year’s Eve is the one night during the year when non-alcoholics behave like alcoholics.  On New Year’s Day the entire world experiences more hangovers than at any other time of the year.  For seasoned alcoholics and addicts, New Year’s Eve is the one night during the year when they blend in with the rest of the crowd and their drinking/drug use can go largely unnoticed.

For alcoholics and addicts in recovery, especially the first year of their recovery, it is vitally important that they attend some type of sober event on New Year’s Eve.  The temptation to drink or use drugs on New Year’s Eve is greater than on any other night of the year – all holidays included.

At NTS we plan New Year’s Eve carefully and thoughtfully.  We want our clients to experience sober fun on New Year’s Eve and if they can get through one New Year’s Eve sober, then they have a better chance at staying sober the next New Year’s Eve.

Maybe not all people in drug treatment during Christmas time are Christians, but many still celebrate Christmas in one way or another.  Spending Christmas in Drug Rehab can be very depressing, but it doesn’t have to be.  It’s just another day, and addiction treatment facilities do their best to make Christmas in drug rehab enjoyable, but they also strive to emphasize to their clients that it is just another day in treatment, another day they have to try and stay sober.  Many people in drug rehab during Christmas want to go home to their families, but we strongly recommend that they don’t.  Going back in to the family system is not advised.  It can be a strong trigger for alcoholics and addicts to return to their families during Christmas time.  We tell our clients to relax and remind them that if they miss one Christmas while they’re in drug rehab it’s not the end of the world.  There will be many Christmas’s after drug rehab.

Spending the holidays in drug rehab at NTS can be fun.  We often allow our clients to take passes to visit with their families.  If it is not clinically recommended for the client to take a pass home for the holidays, then we plan a fun day of activities at NTS for those clients who are staying with us during Christmas.  Every one of our properties has a Christmas tree decorating party and participates in a “Secret Santa” party on Christmas day.

Getting through the holidays sober is a big deal.  The first time is often the hardest, but the holidays are much more fun sober.  At NTS we emphasize fun in sobriety so we try and plan fun activities such as the Newport Beach Boat Parade for our clients to participate in.  Spending Christmas in Drug Rehab is not the end of the world and can be the start of something new and fun.

Halloween in drug rehab/addiction treatment can be a dangerous time for people addicted to drugs and alcohol. Halloween is notorious for partying. In drug rehab we call this seasonal, holiday, partying, amateur hour, because this is when “normies” attempt to drink and use drugs like alcoholics and addicts. The day after a holiday party, whether its halloween or the fourth of July, “normies” get to feel how addicts and alcoholics felt on a weekly basis. So, when the people in drug rehab begin to reminisce about the “good ol’ times” when they used to be able to drink like a normal person, I tell them that Halloween is amateur night. They have been there and done that more times than normal people will do their entire lives. It’s not that they can never have fun again during holiday parties, in fact they will eventually have more fun, but the ‘old days’ when a holiday like halloween gave them the excuse to drink and use drugs without being judged, or with judging themselves, are over. Party Holidays like halloween were the only times when alcoholics and addicts felt normal because everyone around them drank and used drugs like they did for a few days out of the year.

Since the holidays are here it’s time to consider what happens in drug and alcohol treatment during the holidays and more importantly what happens to alcoholics and addicts during this prime relapse time period during the year. I got sober after the holidays so when this time rolled around I had some significant sober time under my belt. I have empathy for those who have to enter drug and alcohol treatment before or during the holidays because there is more family pressure and guilt than would normally be the case at any other time during the year. We at NTS suggest that people in treatment during the holidays stay in treatment during the holidays, but there are those exceptions. 

Holidays for alcoholics and addicts can be trying times. Drinking alcohol is often the norm, even for non-alcoholics during certain holidays. Halloween is one of the biggest drinking and drug using holidays there is. When a person is in treatment during the holiday season, focus is placed on the triggers of the holiday season. Sober events are often planned for residents in treatment that teach clients how to have fun without drinking or using drugs during the holiday. There are many sober events in the local Orange County Community that people in recovery attend during the holidays. Halloween is particularly difficult because unlike other holidays that happen during the daytime, Halloween parties are typically night events and the Halloween party environment is typically filled with sex and drinking alcohol. These can be major triggers for the person in recovery and it is not suggested that anyone with less than a year of sobriety attend functions of this sort without sober friends in accompaniment or not at all. One of the reasons why the first year of sobriety is so important is because a person is able to experience all the holidays sober for the first time, making it easier the next. Navigating a holiday sober is difficult even for non-alcoholics and addicts, let alone alcoholics and addicts. Many Alano Clubs have 24 hour AA and NA meetings during holidays. There have been many times in my early sobriety when I would leave a family holiday party, or a Halloween party to attend one of these round-the-clock AA meetings. Halloween can also be used in a positive way for many alcoholics and addicts new to recovery. Halloween gives a newly sober person the opportunity to disguise themselves and feel more comfortable at a party than they might feel without the disguise. When I was new in sobriety, I wore a mask so no one could see me, and I danced for the first time sober. I wasn’t afraid of how I looked or what people thought of me, because they couldn’t see me. So it was a great opportunity for me to learn how to dance in sobriety!