Heroin has exercised a major control over your life in recent weeks, months or years, and you’ve finally realized that need to stop. You see what it is doing to your health, and you feel how it is hurting your job and relationships with loved ones. Still, you’ve never had these problems with alcohol, and you wonder if you can continue to consume alcohol while you’re in rehabilitation.
To get to the short answer quickly, no, you cannot consume alcohol at a rehabilitation center. If you are a resident, you are required to put all of your alcohol and drug habits aside. While exceptions might exist at certain programs, this procedure is a fairly standard one for a number of reasons. However, in the event that you are an out-patient 21 years of age or older, the facility may strongly recommend that you stop drinking, but likely has the power to actually make you do it.
Addictive Personalities, Heroin, and Alcohol
You are now probably wondering why you need to give up alcohol if your problem is with heroin only. Individuals who have addictive personalities might be quite susceptible to developing issues with alcohol even if they never had such problems in the past. Therefore, at the current time, you might not have a problem with alcohol, but it can quickly escalate. You may find yourself need rehabilitation for alcohol issues if you cannot give it up during your stay in rehabilitation for heroin.
Noticing a Problem Before it Starts
As of right now, you might feel insistent that you should be able to consume alcohol while you are undergoing treatment for your heroin accident. However, the very fact that you are so insistent about drinking alcohol shows that you might have a problem with it. When you go into rehab, you want to focus your attention on the problem at hand as opposed to creating new ones or allowing recent issues to develop even more. When you are unable to give up alcohol for a period of time, this is a major sign that you might have an alcohol abuse problem too.
Understanding Why You Use Heroin
During your time in treatment, you are going to work toward avoiding heroin, but you are also going to work toward understanding why you use heroin in the first place. Many people use this powerful drug as a way to avoid problems or to cope with certain difficult situations in their lives. When you are learning about the reasons why you abuse heroin, you may also begin to see that you use alcohol in the same manner. Abstaining from alcohol during your time in treatment will help you to see this issue more clearly.
Developing an Overall Health Lifestyle
Rehabilitation isn’t just about getting rid of this one drug from your life. Instead, rehab focuses on helping you to become a healthier person overall. Consuming alcohol in small quantities is not necessarily bad for you; however, it can be when you already have trouble with addiction. Additionally, drinking a lot of alcohol is not good for your health even if you are not abusing it. Excessive amounts of alcohol can lead to diseases, which will only make your recovery from heroin addiction all the more difficult and stifling.
Willingness to Commit
With all of these problems developing in your body and mind, you need to make a commitment to get better. If you are still consuming alcohol, then you are not fulling committing yourself to a healthier lifestyle or to the goals of a rehabilitation facility. You are showing yourself that you are unwilling to commit, but you are also sending the same message to everyone around you. All of those who have supported you through your addiction is going to feel as though you do not really care about your health and you do not really want to get better.
Drinking alcohol while you are in rehab for heroin might not seem like a bad idea to you. However, you are likely using drinking as a coping mechanism or an excuse for certain behaviors. Let your life begin again and get rid of all the substances that have held you back.
