The Next Right Indicated Action Isn’t Always Clear

In the world of addiction treatment and recovery, you hear a lot of phrases and ideas that sound like clichés being thrown around. The problem could be one of over-saturation in a land where you can throw a rock and hit a rehab, and also be-damned since most of them end up being true! Take your pick: “Keep it simple!” or, “Keep it simple, stupid!” “One day at a time,” “Fake it ‘til you make it,” “Progress not perfection.” “We are only as sick as our secrets.” The list goes on ad infinitum.

One I have heard frequently in the California addiction treatment sphere is “Take the next right indicated action no matter what.” Well, fine, but what if the next right indicated action is not always clear? When we begin the often daunting journey of healing and recovery, our cognitive faculties are likely not up to par, we are conditioned and prone to impulsivity, reacting and not responding (boom, another cliché would be the opposite, learning to respond not react) So, what are we to do with a nervous system that has been largely living in fight or flight and a reward system? How do we hijack our brains? A moral compass that may be in some decay, a byproduct of the throes of addiction. Recovery, our mental health, and our very lives depend on the ability to make good choices congruent with a life of positive change.

If you are in a place where you are willing (or were pressured into accepting help), you want to pick a drug rehab that has not only the right amount of support and guidance, but one that can help you build a new internal map to guide your decision-making. I am a marriage and family therapist (MFT), and I love making time for processing feelings and getting down to the roots of causes and conditions, but right now the tree is on fire! You need to learn to make good decisions so that you will be around long enough to yield the results of a spiritual journey in recovery. Actions and choices are what will matter the most. The map you have been using to make choices and take actions is outdated; time to pave some new roads and carve out some new neural pathways.

One of the main commonalities I have discovered between nearly all the people I have come into contact with who are successful in long-term sobriety and recovery is a degree of routine and consistency. In your addiction, you used, rinsed (well, maybe you didn’t rinse)…and repeated. In recovery, as you build new habits, you must also take action, rinse and repeat. 

At Beit T’Shuvah, the community-centered milieu is going to shock you relationally into a world where there is enough signage on the trail to make taking the next right indicated action, no matter what, a bit easier. The guidance comes not only from the clinicians and your treatment team, from text, traditional (and non-traditional) wisdom, and from your peers. You should listen to what people are saying (most of the time anyway), but more importantly, watch what their feet are doing. The addiction recovery stories you will hear and see are timeless, hilarious, sad, and informative. 

The model and theory of change at Beit T’Shuvah is going to help you integrate the conflicting parts of yourself so that you can operate and choose your next action from a place of center. An alcoholic putting down booze is huge, abstinence from gambling addiction, tremendous, an addict stopping drugs, fantastic. These are the big things to start. Next, as we move from the action to maintenance stages of change, it is the little things that can lead the way towards the next major accomplishments. Small, consistent, positive daily choices on repeat like your favorite playlist. Doing the right thing when no one is looking, even when it does not feel good. Sound boring? Well, as Harriet says, “Maintenance is not always sexy!” On the bright side, developing a daily recovery regimen and routine will make your life big enough so that you can go places and do things you never dreamed were imaginable.

And when you feel stuck and confused, you can ask someone what the next right indicated action should be. Soon though, you will return (Beit T’Shuvah is the house of return) to a place where these actions are part of your very innermost instincts.