One drug addict and alcoholic told me recently, “There’s no such thing as an ex drug addict.” This happened after I discussed the possibility that someone we both knew had returned to former habits. Now, the possibility of a previous drug addict or alcoholic returning to their former addiction later on is actually quite strong. In fact, many times during recovery, an addict may slip, and even after years of rehabilitation, particularly stressful life events such as divorce or a death in their family or among their close friends can bring on binge drinking or abuse. Even if it is temporary relief to their pain and really is cleared up after a while of grieving, the frequency of abuse in the short term can escalate so high that it becomes really life threatening and extremely dangerous. Respiratory or heart malfunction are two of the most likely things to occur during this binging period.
Returning to addiction is pretty easy to do. Hence, the comment about there being no such thing as an ex addict. All you have to do is let go and stop fighting. All you have to do is stop using your internal muscles and your internal strength and stop treating yourself with dignity and respect. This is easy for a former addict, because they have created such a hard ingrained habit within themselves of treating themselves with carelessness and disdain and disrespect.
Returning to addiction is no laughing matter. In addition to strengthening formerly destructive habits, the addict has one more destructive self perception: that they are so much of a loser that they cannot even pull themselves out of the mud. They begin to see proof that they are, in fact, too weak to resist the temptation. This self annihilating thought penetrates even during short-term drug abuse. It only adds to their pain.
You cannot control what an addict does with their own life, but you can control whether they behave this way on your jobsite. Onsite drug and alcohol screening throughout Australia is just what you need. Call Mediscreen today for more information: (+61) 1300 79 70 40.
http://www.mndaily.com/2012/05/03/back-where-it-started-addiction-campus
