When I first saw the headline of a recent news story – Study supports call to allow addicts to shape treatment – I thought it was a pretty crazy idea. If addicts were capable of determining their own treatment, wouldn’t they already be off drugs or alcohol? Then I read the story and couldn’t see how it was possible to do a successful alcohol or drug rehab without the basics they were talking about.

The story started with a man who, years ago, finally got up the courage to go to his doctor to ask for help with his drinking problem. The doctor simply told him to “pull up his socks and stop drinking.” If that’s all there was to it, the number of alcoholics and drug addicts in society wouldn’t even be a problem. Most addicts and alcoholics want to quit. But they can’t, without help.

I would hope that doctor has now learned that when a drug addict or alcoholic finally asks for help, you better jump on it. It takes a lot to get to that point.

Finally, without the help of his doctor, the man got help. And he is now helping others in cooperation with a U.K. charity.

What’s the difference between his program and others? In addition to 24-hour support and other community back-up, the program also has a small fund from which recovering addicts can borrow to tend to basic needs like having enough money to take the bus to work.

It’s amazing that something this trivial can prevent someone from successfully recovering from drug or alcohol abuse. But, really, it’s sometimes the little things that trip us up most.

All drug and alcohol rehab programs, to be successful, have to take into consideration all the aspects of a person’s life that could possibly trip them up once they complete their time in rehab and get back into the stream of life. If you’re helping someone through recovery, make sure you ask about and pay attention to the little things.

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Recovery homes – places where people who are trying to stay clean and sober can live during a transition period – are all across the country. Unfortunately, people in some areas are frightened to have this kind of home set up in their neighborhood. They think they will soil the atmosphere and expose their kids to drug addicts. In some cases, that may be true. But the recovery homes known as the Oxford house may offer something entirely different.

First – everyone who’s there has to have a job. If they can’t hold down a job, they can’t live there. They also have to participate in the management of the house - they cook together, clean together, and so on. And if they have even one drink or take one drug, they have to pack their bags and be out of there in 15 minutes.

Only people who are really serious about staying clean and turning their lives around are going to go for something like that.

Some people getting out of drug rehab really have nowhere to go. Not that they were homeless when they started the program, but they may have lived alone or with a dysfunctional family that would drive them right back to drinking or drugs.

They also may have surrounded themselves with people who drank and took drugs and, back with the old crowd, they might not be able to resist temptation – especially when going out with a bunch of guys who are drunk or high when you’re not will put you in a position where you really aren’t in sync with them. They’re stoned, you’re straight. It can be almost impossible to just have a conversation. A stranger in a strange land.

A recovery house gives you a place to live, with a group of people who are also changing their lives. As follow up on a drug rehab program in an addiction treatment center, it may be just what’s needed.

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