Charlie Sheen decided to rehabilitate his addictions from his home. This is either a bad idea of someone who doesn’t understand recovery fully, or Charlie doesn’t think he’s got that bad a problem and getting sober at home won’t be a big deal. As they say in recovery, it’s for those who want it, not for those who need it.
Going back home has its problems and it is not the best place to start over. As a matter of fact, in Charlie’s case, it’s probably the worst. Reminders are everywhere, party friends stop by, the phone book filled with temptations is right at ones fingertips and the home likely has a full liquor closet and maybe some drug paraphernalia squirreled away somewhere (probably with something in it). In other words, the social triggers are everywhere and that is the worst environment for someone who is serious about getting sober.
Chances are when a hardcore addict like Charlie Sheen (I’m not pointing fingers here, I was one too) gets confronted with getting clean; his attitude about it is that everyone else has the problem, not him. That’s not unusual, it is how we respond to those who want to change us. Looking at it from the addict’s perspective, Sheen is having the time of his life, making a fortune, living a quality of life most could only dream of and most importantly, he sees the world through the eyes of a addict. That means he can’t really feel what he is doing to himself and enjoys it. That is until he has to come down from using. Then the pain starts.
There is a reason why addicts go to 90 meetings in the first 90 days, are asked not to be in a romantic relationship in the first year, are asked to live in a home free from intoxicants and are asked to have a sponsor to talk to several times a day. It’s what keeps you sober. The reason is also that we go through a lot of pain. Let me be clear, A LOT. This pain is our body trying to feel something again because through the addiction, we have not allowed our body to feel anything real for so long that now we realize what our addiction has done to us. Many of us cannot deal with the pain in the beginning and we relapse so we don’t have to deal with these feelings. At this point, we can only hope Charlie will learn to make the right decisions for his life.
