I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t remember a time when I felt less in control of so many things or so many areas of my life. I’m reminded of Steven Covey’s work on our Circles of Influence and Circles of Concern.
Imagine an inner and outer circle. The outer, or Circle of Concern, contains things that we are interested in, that we care about, and that may affect us, but over which we have minimal control. The inner Circle of Influence contains those things we can control or influence.
The more time spent in the Circle of Concern, the more our Circle of Influence diminishes. When people are reactive as opposed to proactive, they focus on the outer circle and tend to spend time and energy on things they can do nothing about.
Committing to Your Circle of Influence During COVID-19
As a nation (hopefully) most of us are seriously practicing social distancing and hand washing, at a minimum. These are actions squarely in our Circle of Influence.
And I am powerfully moved by the patients who are working within their Circle of Influence as they commit to dealing with their substance use issues, in the face of COVID-19. While many online resources exist for people to find inspiration and connection to help them stay sober, others are actually choosing this time to get sober.
It turns out that the Pandemic of 2020 is the perfect time for many people to detox off heroin, fentanyl, oxycodone, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, oxymorphone, kratom, methadone, or buprenorphine.
A Future of Sobriety Despite Coronavirus
Many of our patients are unsure about the future reliability of being able to continue to stay on or get opioids. For this reason, patients are taking advantage of imposed isolation restrictions, work from home schedules, or minimal structure to get off opioids through our accelerated opioid detox process.
Our office has instituted measures to make the detox process even safer and more streamlined, without compromising patient comfort or support to their family/friend. Face-to-face time with patients is kept to a minimum, while phone access to a provider remains available 24/7. Because we are serving our family practice patients through telephone appointments only, traffic in the office is reserved for those patients going through the accelerated detox process.
UNDERSTANDING ACCELERATED OPIOID DETOX
Our office has instituted measures to make the detox process even safer and more streamlined, without compromising patient comfort or support to their family/friend. Face-to-face time with patients is kept to a minimum, while phone access to a provider remains available 24/7. Because we are serving our family practice patients through telephone appointments only, traffic in the office is reserved for those patients going through the accelerated detox process.
The prediction I most consistently hear is that — if we do this isolation and social distancing well — by summer things will be approaching normal. Who knows? That clearly falls into the Circle of Concern. What I do know is that patients who make the decision to detox with the Coleman Institute today will have 90 days of sobriety under their belt by the summer of 2020.
If you are considering a detox now, please understand that the screening process is more thorough; we want to protect our patients and our staff, but we are committed to meeting you where you are, and if this is the best time for you to stop using opioids, we can help.
Please call us at 877-773-3869, and stay safe.
Joan R. Shepherd, FNP
