When you start drug and alcohol treatment, it can feel overwhelming. You may be at a rehab center, surrounded by people you donât know, telling you things you donât care about. While you want to get sober, you may feel lost and like youâre never really going to get it.
Instead of getting down on yourself, itâs time to step up and fake it until you make it.
What Faking It Til You Make It Really Means
When starting out in recovery, you may hear this saying a lot, and thatâs because itâs designed to give you the opportunity to stop going back to your old, destructive habits even when youâre not sure of another way. Starting out in treatment and the 12-step programs can leave you confused. You may not be comfortable in meetings, you donât know the steps, and you feel like an outsider.
It can take a while to understand or see results from attending treatment, but it’s important you do it anyway.
But so does everyone in the beginning. Instead of throwing in the towel and giving up, the 12-steps encourage you to fake it until you make it. This doesnât mean that you should pretend and just go through the motions. Instead, it means to just do it. Go to meetings. Follow the steps. Even when youâre not sure of what youâre doing. As time moves by, youâll start to see progress and the program beginning to work.
If you need drug or alcohol addiction treatment, call 888-646-0635Who Answers? to find help.
What It Doesnât Mean
Some people take the âfake it until you make itâ slogan as a way to not commit to recovery, and thatâs why some suggest changing to âdo it until you get it.â When you first start your journey to sobriety, you still need to be open and receptive to change. You still need to go to meetings. You need to participate. You need to learn about the 12-steps and how to incorporate them into your life.
Basically, you need to go through the motions even if you donât quite understand why. Thatâs what faking it until you make it means.
Science Says It Works
While AA and other 12-step programs have been saying fake it until you make it for decades, science has shown that it works. When you fake a positive outlook, you tend to move in the direction you pretend to be going. For instance, when people put on a fake smile and pretend to be happy, chance are theyâll become happy and then the smile is no longer fake. And thatâs exactly what the 12-steps is hoping for. You make a commitment. You go through the motions. And soon, you reap the benefits and no longer have to fake it, because you know it works.
For those who continually struggle with chronic relapses, making the commitment to fake it until you make it may be just what they need. It gives them the ability to get through the first few months of recovery with a place to go and a built-in support system, and may keep them from falling into self-defeating behaviors.
If you or someone you love is ready to get addiction treatment, but you donât know where to turn, call 888-646-0635Who Answers? for help today.
It can be very troublesome to watch your husband, the absolute love of your life, drink his life away to mere disaster but how can you help? Many wives struggle with the idea of trying to find help for an alcoholic husband who has simply spiraled out of control and, although some do muster up….
Realizing that Co-occurring disorders are often at the root of many addiction cases, Seasons Recovery Center helps addicts break the cycle by providing treatment for co-occurring disorders. It may come unexpected but Seasons Recovery Center of Malibu, California has seen the situation occur hundreds of times before – it all begins with an addict struggling….
Many people have a distorted view of rehab that it is a place where conformity and unsolicited advice for personal and interpersonal situations permeate the atmosphere, but, thanks to decades of proven research and studies, the SAMHSA has determined that âcontrolled clinical trials place confrontational approaches among the least effective treatment methods.â It takes a….
Anxiety is most commonly described as a person who is in a recurrent state of extreme nervousness; it is often accompanied by compulsive behavior. . According to the National Institute of Mental Health anxiety disorders affect about 40 million American adults age 18 years and older each year and causes these people to be filled….
When you enter rehab you will quickly learn that the foundation of all types of addiction treatment is based on counseling. Rehab centers use many different types of counseling to ensure the complete recovery of those suffering from addiction to drugs or alcohol. In most cases you will encounter some combination of the following three….
Drug rehab is a great opportunity for you–if you take it for what it’s worth and work with it! If you simply walk into drug rehab with the intention of not doing your part, then there’s a good chance that the treatment won’t do a whole lot for you. It’s an investment in your future, an….
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), there are approximately 20 million people currently suffering from behavioral or addictive disorders. Of these people, less than 10 percent are actively being treated through a program. Roughly 40 percent of these people are unable to receive treatment because of the high cost involved…..
Alcohol addiction is one of the most, if not the most, difficult addictions for a person to overcome. Alcohol addiction requires treatment for most people. Fortunately, there are various types of alcohol rehab from which a person can choose. When a person develops an addiction to alcohol, which is the compulsive need to continually seek out….
According to The National Institute on Drug Abuse, drug addiction is a chronic illness that cannot be cured in a few days. Research has proven that drug addiction treatment is the most effective way for a person to learn to manage their addiction, and helps them to stop using drugs, prevents them from relapsing, and….
A quality treatment facility will be best equipped to deal with the transition from treatment to recovery. But, that doesn’t mean that recovery tips only come from rehab centers, counselors, and addicts. They can actually be found in a number of unlikely places. Animal Kingdom: Accept That Addiction Is Part of Your Make-Up The New….
