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For anyone suffering from drug addiction or alcoholism, denial management must play a critical role as part of a lifelong recovery process. Many addicts have thought that by admitting they needed help and seeking it out by going to a detox or drug rehab center that they have purged themselves of denial. However, this couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, most people only discover the true extent of their denial after they have progressed through various stages of addiction treatment. And because denial for drug addicts and alcoholics is so deeply rooted in their thought processes, many will spend years managing their own denial. But this isn't just important for addicts – it's important for everyone close to them to understand as well. Denial is part of the basic human condition. It is how we cope with painful situations, memories and events; for without denial many people would be overcome by the intensity of human emotion during times of duress or pain. The process of denial usually begins when a person makes a mistake. In order to mitigate the pain caused by mistakes, people often lie to themselves. They might lie about the severity of the mistake, refuse to accept responsibility for the mistake, or minimize the impact the mistake has had on their life or the life of those around them. Once a person starts lying to themselves, they must then lie to other people in order to keep the true nature of their mistakes hidden. Eventually, denial becomes a normal part of everyday life. Drug addiction, alcoholism and denial management all go hand-in-hand. Addicts lie to mask the existence or severity of their problem, to protect loved ones from the truth, to continue their substance abuse unabated, and for many other reasons. Denial management is an important part of addiction treatment because if a person is allowed to continue to lie to themselves and everyone around them, it won't be long before those lies are used to justify returning to drug use or drinking. Therefore, clinicians will often develop individualized addiction treatment plans that focus on denial management as a means of professional therapy and a method to prevent relapse. Denial management in a clinical setting seeks to help patients to explore the truths that lie within themselves and provide support to sort what might be blurry from what is real. The general idea is to teach the patient to both recognize and manage their denial issues. This is accomplished by various therapies and processes that seek to expose and arrest denial about personal problems, denial about a person's past or history, denial about life plans, personal abilities, relapse and addiction warning signs, and denial about the direction and future success of recovery. Therapies utilized to help people with denial management can vary greatly from treatment center to treatment center. In the case of one of the best inpatient treatment centers in the country, Recovery First's Florida Drug Rehab Center focuses on intensive denial management strategies that include individual, group and family therapy, experiential therapy, meditation, exercise, and education on refusal skills, coping skills, and assertiveness skills, among others. Few programs come close to this level of intensity. If you or someone you love needs help for drug addiction or alcoholism, all you need to do is use the links below to get the free, confidential guidance you need. We're here for your call, email or chat 24 hours a day, 7 days per week. We're dedicated to helping people with denial management and drug addiction. Are you ready to do your part? Call us now.
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drug addiction, denial, denial in addiction, denial management,
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