Rehab and recovery from drug and alcohol addiction can require you to make big changes. In particular, if your neighborhood or living circumstances contributed to your addiction, for example, by placing you close to a drug supplier or to friends who encouraged your addiction, you may need to remove yourself from those temptations for the best chances of a successful and long-lasting recovery.
Moving is not Running Away
If you do move out of a neighborhood that trapped you into addiction, you should realize that you’re not simply running away from a problem. You need to accept responsibility for your addiction and stick to your commitment to overcome it. If you place the blame for your addiction on your neighborhood, you are avoiding your commitment for your own recovery. You should therefore think of moving as a positive step in your rehab and recovery because you are affirmatively putting distance between yourself and your temptations.
Your friends may think that you are abandoning them. If they are trapped in their own addictions, you won’t be abandoning them as much as you’ll be abandoning their harmful lifestyle. Good friends will provide a social environment that supports your rehab and recovery. If your old acquaintances only lure you back into your addictions, they are not good friends, and you need to put them and your neighborhood behind you.
Moving is Not a Cure-All
You should not hold onto delusions that moving will solve your problems. Addicts and substance abusers are adept at finding new sources of drugs in any neighborhood or environment. When you are in recovery and begin to consider whether to move, you should reach out to your recovery counselors for advice. They can help you assess the extent to which your neighborhood and living conditions contributed to your addiction. In major part, your recovery is driven by the friends and neighborhood that can support your efforts. If you and your counselors determine that your current neighborhood and social network are providing the support you need to deal with your addictions, you may be decide that moving is not the right decision.
The great intangible in recovering from drug or alcohol addiction, however, is the benefit of getting a clean start somewhere away from where your addictions began. You won’t feel any stigma from old friends and neighbors who may be judging you on account of your addictions. You can find support groups in any new neighborhood through churches and other community organizations. Those support groups will respect your privacy without judging your past actions, and you can decide how much of your past you want to share with them if you share anything at all. Your desire for a fresh beginning in a new neighborhood can be the best move you make to beat your addictions.
If you want to speak with a recovery counselor about the benefits of moving away from old temptations and into a new neighborhood, please contact our staff at Hired Power at 800-910-9299. We can give you suggestions and help you to find a strong new community that will support your recovery efforts.