Are You Motivated to Succeed at Opiate Addiction Treatment

The amount of personal motivation that you have becomes very important when it's time to make a change in your life.

But what exactly is motivation, and how can you know if you have what it takes to succeed with opiate addiction treatment? Is attending a treatment program regularly and hoping that you can make an improvement in your life enough, or do you need something more?

The treatment team that you are assigned to work with you throughout the process of overcoming your addiction will have a great deal to say to you on the topics of motivation and change. It is especially important, however, that you understand that there are numerous psychological steps to making a change in your life.

These steps include the following: 

The Precontemplation Stage: When you first begin to consider opiate addiction treatment, you may not believe that you really have much in your life that requires a change. After all, there are people who have much more severe addictions than you do, and you certainly don't need treatment as much as they do. Your addiction isn't even really all that bad. Or, your addiction may have made your life so bad that you're unable to see how any type of change could even begin to make a difference.

The Contemplation Stage:  

At this stage, you start to be able to ponder how your life could improve if you stopped using narcotics. You still have a long ways left to go, but this stage can be the beginning of real change. It can take an individual quite some time to get out of this stage - some even take years.

The Preparation Stage: At this stage, you have started to identify the ways that you can change your life. You are beginning to see the ways that those changes are clearly better than continuing to use drugs. You can begin to think about the choices that you have in your life, and you are able to see that you can make a change in your own life and alter things for the better.

The Action Stage: During this stage, you are actively working on making changes and you are facing the challenges that you encounter during the process. You may find that your identity and self image are beginning to change, as well. After you reach this stage, you will likely stay in it for at least six months.

The Maintenance Stage: This is the long term part of your life where you are actively living in recovery and working to maintain the changes that you have made. Your main task once you have reached this stage will be to constantly keep an eye out for things that could send you into a relapse and guard carefully against this happening. Reaching this stage may take several years, and the recovery process is life long.

As you ponder your options for starting treatment for opiate addiction, remember that the professionals at local treatment programs have training to help guide you through these stages. If you take the time to learn about these stages, you can understand them and work through them with less fear. You are the one in charge of your recovery process, so you'll be moving through these stages at your own pace.