In silence, drug addiction takes so much more away from people than their health. It destroys their families, careers, and financial stability. It also strips them of their identity as men and women. In the case of men, society expects them to be strong and able to handle themselves with integrity. Society expects them to be above the fray and able to handle their responsibilities without pause.
When addiction strikes, a lot of men lose the ability to measure up to these lofty standards whether the standards are fair or not. When a man shows weakness, the pressure from society tends to strip them of their masculinity. Without a sense of masculinity, men tend to lose their identities, which ends up hurting them both emotionally and mentally. To be fair, drug addiction also strips women of their femininity. Women who abuse substances are often viewed as having a lack of morals with no ability to keep from compromising their welfare and safety. When either gender is stripped of their identity, they seem to lose their way. Without a sense of self and confidence, they go deeper into drug addiction as a way of coping with their perceived shortcomings.
It’s a horrible thing to witness, but it’s easy to understand why it happens. As men and women contemplate getting treatment, they have to decide whether or not they can stand up to treatment in a coed environment. If they don’t feel up to it, they can choose to seek out help from a gender-specific treatment facility. That can actually be a good decision if the individual has lost a sense of themselves. So, how do men and women get help with addiction their issues while also getting a chance to regain their gender identities? For a lot of addiction sufferers, the answer lies with the aforementioned gender-specific treatment option. In the following section, we will address how a men’s drug rehab program can help men regain their sense of masculinity.
How Can Men’s Drug Rehab Help You Have a More Positive Relationship with Masculinity?
When a man is dealing with an addiction problem, that needs to be their primary focus. They don’t need to also be dealing with the pressure of trying to measure up to some preconceived idea of how they should be acting like men. In a coed environment, that kind of pressure seems to exist. Why? For centuries, men have been conditioned to believe women will only respect them if they can show strength. The presence of an addiction problem flies in the face of strength. If women are part of the treatment process, that can cause some men to freeze up out of fear of exposing their frailties. If that happens, the treatment process becomes complicated.
To be clear, we shouldn’t be living in a world where a man’s masculinity should be relevant. After all, we are all just people who were assigned a gender without any say in the matter. However, that’s not the world in which we live. Society has set the expectations, and men feel the pressure to live up to them. In a men’s only rehab facility, that additional pressure of dealing with gender standards is mitigated. Since all the men in the program are standing on common ground, there is a lot less probability that anyone will be judging anyone else in terms of their masculinity. That’s a very good thing because it opens the door to men being able to focus solely on their addiction issues.
At this point, it would seem prudent to point out the other benefits of a gender-specific treatment program for men. The benefits include:
- The opportunity to interact with other clients who have similar backgrounds and experienvces
- The ability to avoid the distractions of sexual attraction to the opposite sex
- The Promotion of an environment where it’s easier for men to be open about their problems and weaknesses without fearing judgment
- The opportunity to build same-sex relationships, which could turn into great support resources outside of treatment
If you need help but would prefer a gender-specific treatment option, that’s exactly what you should seek. If that’s the case, we can help you. To get the treatment process started, you need to contact one of our representatives at 833-820-2922. With that initial phone call, we will be able to tell you more about our facility and treatment options. From there, we would want to bring you in and help you start working towards recovery.