This is a story about people, addiction, alcoholism, and most importantly about \”HOPE\”. This is about human beings with a soul, sons and daughters, grandparents, wives, husbands, aunts, and uncles who have given up \”HOPE\” and self-medicated with drugs, alcohol, sex, food, gambling and a variety of other forms of self-destruction.

The loss of \”HOPE\” and its deepest pain might not be what we have come to expect, the gutter alcoholic or the homeless drug addict. Instead it is the 19-year-old who comes from a good family and has just taken his mother\’s last Oxycontin or Xanax. It is the successful lawyer, doctor, or other professional, who is so ashamed of not being strong enough or smart enough to stop on his own. It is the homemaker who manages to get the children to school and the dishes done, but cannot stop drinking for even one evening and embarrasses her family at a social function. All have lost \”HOPE\”. It is this, the feeling of \”HOPElessness,\” a tense, sad, almost catatonic sense that nothing can ever get better. This is what brings so many alcoholics and addicts to treatment.

\”HOPE\” is a feeling of expectation. \”HOPE\” is a desire for a certain thing to happen! \”HOPE\” is a belief that you truly can have something that you deeply desire. When you come to alcoholism treatment, the word \”HOPE\” means to trust, to have faith, to expect something good is going to happen. Therefore, an important part of recovery is restoring \”HOPE,\” particularly \”HOPE\” in oneself. \”HOPE\” is not just for the addict or alcoholic. \”HOPE\” is for the family and friends, employers, probation officers and judges. It is for anyone who cares whether an addicted person can live a life in sobriety.

When an addict comes to treatment, he may feel as if life has become nothing more than a war inside the heart and soul and mind. When an addict acts out in destructive ways, he sets himself up to be in an ongoing battle between his thoughts, his compulsions, and his feelings. He may become suicidal, lost, homeless, ashamed, and full of guilt for the things he cannot understand. When he comes to treatment, he is asked to turn his life, his will and his spirit over to a new \”HOPE\”.

No matter how long the battle, how terrible it has been, the war can start to be won when he comes to treatment and finds out that there is still \”HOPE\”. In my work, I have never met anyone that was hopeless. I remind myself of this fact, no matter how difficult a person\’s situation might be. It is this thought, this constant \”HOPE,\” which keeps me always grateful and always communicating through hugs, a smile, or a kind word. Addicts and alcoholics do have the power of internal healing. There is always \”HOPE,\” even when there seems to be little else.

Addiction and alcoholism treatment is a process of committing our life to something greater than ourselves, learning to love ourselves again, appreciating that no matter how bad things have gotten, we can make it better, and that \”HOPE\” will help us change our lives.

With the battle, the powerless dependence that goes on inside every alcoholic and addict, we can feel trapped and so can those who care about us. Treatment can bring deliverance, an opportunity to remember the person we once were or the person we want to be. Though the powerful, boundless power of \”HOPE,\” we can restore inner beauty and become drug and alcohol free at last.

Go to www.valleyhope.org to learn more.

Annie Bryie
Counselor at the Valley Hope Association

Go to http://www.valleyhope.org to learn more.
Annie Bryie
Counselor at the Valley Hope Association

Author Bio: Go to www.valleyhope.org to learn more.

Annie Bryie
Counselor at the Valley Hope Association

Category: Wellness, Fitness and Diet
Keywords: alcoholism treatment, addiction, alcoholism, hope, sobriety, addiction recovery