It seems to be the most hopeless of situations: statistics deem success impossible; numbers swear that failure will occur. An addiction can’t be countered, you’re told. It will instead simply grow, force relapse after relapse. You’ll suffer from a disease for the rest of your life and that… is enough to make you submit to what seems to be inevitable. You can’t win, after all. Instead you can only falter — and there seems to be no sense in even trying. No good can come of it, only disaster.
And so you don’t seek out rehabilitation centers. You don’t try to find treatments. You simply yield to an addiction, believing there is nothing else to do.
There is — you must enter a program and try to counter an illness, without allowing the statistics to concern you.
Addiction is a self-perpetuating disease: it begins with a choice but then becomes a compulsion; and individuals will find themselves unable to battle it effectively alone. Aid is then needed. Support must be found. But too often do the supposed facts of relapse cause addicts to refuse this. They learn that 50 percent of all individuals will fail with their first programs, while 33 percent will then be unable to complete their second ones. And, when they hear that 90 percent of individuals will have to become involved with lifelong therapies, they wonder if the effort is even worth it.
It is.
Relapse cannot be predicted. While there are endless facts and figures offered each year, there is one truth that must be remembered: you define your life. Healing is not a guaranteed process unless you choose to make it so. Self-motivation will shape your recovery, not statistics. You must therefore ignore them, allowing yourself instead to focus on conquering an addiction.
Choose to be positive about your treatment. Allow rehabilitation centers to ease the transition. And refuse to be undone by percentages. These do not reflect you; they merely reflect the masses — and you are to separate yourself from that, remembering that you are uncommon.
Numbers aren’t important. You, however, are.