Most everyone is familiar with the Monopoly board. The game features a whole bunch of properties that players compete to purchase and develop as they attempt to bankrupt their opponents. The four corner squares are not properties at all, but they can have a big impact on the game. Those four corner spaces are Go, In Jail (or Just Visiting), Free Parking, and Go to Jail.
“Go” is a positive square. Each time you land on it or pass it, you collect $200 from the bank. “Free Parking” can be a positive space, too, especially if you are playing by a popular but unofficial rule that allows cash to pile up to be won by the next person to land on the square. The two squares relating to jail, on the other hand, are not places you want to end up. Even the best option—“Just Visiting” the jail space—does not offer anything positive to the player in question.
There are good and bad places to visit when it comes to your recovery journey, too. Let’s consider each kind of place.
You Should Go to Your Recovery Meetings
Whether you choose a 12-Step program or another recovery program, meetings are a key part of recovery. Why? Because recovery program meetings are a place where you can receive support and offer it to others.
The folks who attend recovery meetings are individuals who understand what you have gone through and are going through now because they have had and are having similar experiences. That connection is so very valuable in recovery for any number of reasons.
In your recovery meetings, you can swap stories about challenges and successes. You can build friendships around a commitment to ongoing recovery. You will be reminded—and will remind others—that you are not alone on your recovery journey.
From time to time, you might be tempted to skip your meeting. Maybe it is early in your recovery, and you have not made it a habit just yet. Maybe you have been in recovery for quite a while and have started to feel like the meetings are not as useful or necessary as they were before. Maybe you miss a few in a row and find yourself a little embarrassed about going back after a gap in your attendance.
If you find yourself in any of those situations, you need to decide to get back to your meetings. You might think of it as passing Go on the Monopoly board. As we have noted, a player who passes Go gets an infusion of cash. A person who returns to their recovery meetings gets an infusion of support—and that can make all the difference when it comes to staying away from drugs or alcohol.
Staying away from drugs or alcohol also means staying away from specific places from you past. Let’s turn our attention to those places.
You Should Not Go to Your Old Haunts
When you are in recovery from a substance use disorder, it is essential that you avoid anything that might trigger temptations that could upend your efforts to stay away from drugs or alcohol. That includes places you used to hang out when you were using problematic substances.
That might seem obvious if your substance use disorder is centered on alcohol. Heading back to your favorite bar is pretty obviously a bad idea. But it is equally important to think about other places that might be problematic for your recovery.
For example, you do not want to hang out anyplace you used to “party” with other drug users. You do not want to spend time at the homes of your “friends” who are still using drugs or alcohol. You also may find that it is a good idea to avoid stores where you used to purchase alcohol or locations where you connected with drug dealers. All of those places can lead to trouble when it comes to your recovery.
Leaving your old habits behind can be hard. But you already know that because you have done the work to give up the substances that were destroying your life. If you can do that, you can stay away from places you associate with drugs or alcohol. Think of them as the “Jail” spaces in Monopoly, and do not let yourself end up there.
French Creek is Definitely a Place You Can Go
If drugs or alcohol have their hooks in you, it can feel like you have no place to turn for help. Fortunately, however, that is not the case. At French Creek Recovery Center—located in Meadville, Pennsylvania—we are in the business of helping individuals reclaim their lives. We provide personalized treatment plans and will see you through medically supervised detoxification and a robust rehabilitation program. And we will follow that up with a commitment to providing ongoing support and resources so that you can start your recovery journey with confidence.
Where you go when you need help matters. French Creek Recovery Center can offer the help you need to restart your life.