During cocaine addiction, addicts make mistakes. They hurt people they care about, say things they later regret, do things that hurt themselves and others – often things that are criminal. Guilt over these mistakes is a common theme during cocaine addiction treatment, and dealing with that guilt in an effective way can mean the difference between real healing and progress in recovery and ultimate relapse. Recognizing the guilt for what it is and processing it during cocaine rehab is a great start, but making amends and learning how to deal with that guilt after treatment is crucial for a sustained recovery.

Recognizing Guilt During Cocaine Addiction Treatment

Anger and depression in cocaine addiction treatment are often directly related to guilty feelings around behavior during cocaine addiction. Many addicts have the feeling that someone who did the things they did during addiction doesn’t deserve to get treatment and have a good life. In these cases, the anger and depression are symptoms of guilt and when the guilt is recognized for what it is and dealt with accordingly, these symptoms will fade without medication or further treatment. Identifying root causes is one of the biggest things you’ll do during psychological addiction treatment, and simply identifying what is hurting you can help you make strides in recovery.

Processing Guilt During Cocaine Addiction Treatment

Once you’ve identified feelings of guilt and the incidences that caused that guilt, your next step is to start processing those feelings during psychotherapeutic treatment. Depending upon what happened, there may be a number of different foci during treatment. If your actions caused death or pain to someone else, you may talk through those feelings and consider reaching out to those you hurt. If your children were neglected or abandoned as a result of your actions during cocaine addiction, you may consider including them in family therapy and giving them the opportunity to heal as well. This isn’t an easy process and it’s far from pain-free but taking the time to talk it out, discuss your feelings about what happened and consider the feelings of others, you can begin to let go of the guilt you feel that threatens your recovery.

Guilt and Cocaine Addiction Treatment: Making Amends

After cocaine addiction treatment, feelings of guilt often remain, even if you did a great deal of work to process through it during treatment. Coming face to face with some of your mistakes after cocaine rehab can reopen the wounds. But it also gives you a great opportunity: in some cases, you can make direct amends for your previous behavior. For example, if you stole money from a family member or roommate, you can begin to pay it back. Getting a job and paying a portion of what you owe until the debt is gone can really help you let go of the guilt – and help your relationship with the person you stole from.

Cocaine Addiction Treatment at Orchid Recovery Center

If you have not yet chosen a cocaine rehab, consider Orchid Recovery Center for women. Located in Florida, we provide a comprehensive treatment program designed to meet your detox and addiction treatment needs. Contact us today for more information.

Cocaine is a truly dangerous drug.  So dangerous that many people consider it just a street drug, or sometime a drug that is used by daredevil celebrities.  However, women are using cocaine more, and for some surprising reasons.  A certain amount of addictions may begin because of genetic predisposition and family history, regardless of a person’s current socio-economic status.  Money, social connections, or a good job doesn’t necessarily prevent family problems, nor would it protect someone from an addiction if the right conditions appeared.  What else could cause a woman to choose such a risky drug?

Cocaine as Method for Weight Loss

Some women are bound and determined to lose weight no matter what the cost.  When weight loss takes on unhealthy importance, a woman may turn to whatever they think will do the job.  Unbelievably, more and more women seem to be trying cocaine as a method of weight loss.  Clearly someone who would go to such great lengths to acheive some kind of unreasonable weight goal also has some serious emotional pain and problems with their body image. 

If women are willing to risk their health and very life to appear thinner, then cocaine is not such a surprising choice after all.  A casual dieter trying to lose ten pounds isn’t going to try a scary dieting tactic like this.  A woman who is desperate for acceptance, or engulfed in self-loathing, or trying to please an unpleasable person in her life.  For them, dieting-at-all-costs may feel like the only solution.

Stress Contributor to Cocaine Addiction

It looks like stress has been revealed as a risk factor for cocaine addiction as well.  When it is chronic, intense stress can sometimes make people turn to unhealthy methods for relief.  People can become desperate for a moment of peace, a chance to forget about what is happening.  Or sometimes they collapse under the pressure and dip into a depression.  But most people don’t think of a hard-core drug like cocaine as their first choice for stress relief.  So how could this happen? 

Middle Class Women Using Cocaine

A study about middle class women using cocaine showed that these women were introduced to cocaine as something “just for fun” by a friend.  But once the friend-related recreational use turned to addiction, the women developed more of an addictive lifestyle.  They found their own drug connections and hid their use, saying they had a “controlled habit.”  This seems to highlight the dishonesty and disconnection from reality that forms when a person becomes addicted.  The study rightfully concluded there was a greater need to explore connections between cocaine use and power and control. 

Yes, this is just one study, and it seemed to produce more questions than answers.  But as Dr Karen Dodge has concluded, it seems that emotional pathways are affirmed as the inroad of an addiction for women.  A strong desire for power and control (reflecting an apparent lack in other emotional needs being met), perhaps an already underlying predisposition to addiction, other traumatic experiences in her life, tendency for risk taking and escapism, and a “friendly” introduction to the drug - all of this adds up to an unexpected profile of an woman addicted to cocaine.

Cocaine Rehab for Women

If you know a woman like this, or if you are this woman, now is the time to go to cocaine rehab.  Living the charade, the double life - this will only keep your addiction alive, not you.  The Orchid Recovery Center for Women is a place of hope and  a unique therapeutic approach to help women with addictions.