Addiction Recovery Services
What are some of the different addiction recovery services that you might use to try and get help for drug addiction or alcoholism? Which ones are more effective than the others? Are there some to avoid?
Here are my thoughts on addiction recovery service:
* Services start from least intensive and go up to most intensive. You might start with something like counseling for one hour per week, and on the other end of the spectrum, you might live in long term rehab for several years. I have done both. Of course, there are many services that fall in between those two extremes as well.
* Outpatient recovery services fall somewhere in the middle, but I think they are pretty worthless. That is my personal opinion of course. The problem is that most addicts and alcoholics need a break from their environment in order to overcome their addiction, and they do not get this break with outpatient treatment. Instead, they go home to their usual environment every night where they are used to self medicating. A big part of the solution (for me) was to break free from my surroundings and be in the controlled environment that inpatient treatment offered.
* I think inpatient, short term rehab is a good first step for almost anyone. Most people have trouble with the stigma that they attach to having to do to an inpatient setting, they are ashamed of themselves for having to check into rehab, but this is nonsense. Take advantage if you get the opportunity to check into a drug rehab and soak up all the knowledge that you can. Most rehabs are based on the 12 step program and that may or may not be your thing. If not, just go along for the ride and see what else you can learn.
Inpatient drug rehab makes sense as a starting point because then you can be referred to other services that may match up well with you when you leave. For example, they might have you do follow up counseling after you leave rehab, or you might go to long term rehab, etc. It all depends on what the therapists think that you need, and also what you are interested in as well.
* Long term rehab can be very effective. This is how I finally got clean and sober “for good” (it has been just under 10 years now). Now that is not to say that long term is a magic bullet, because obviously it is not. If it were, then they could redesign the entire treatment center industry to start out with 90 day stays and go up from there. But the numbers are not very encouraging, and long term does not really do a whole heck of a lot better than short term.
So why mention it? Because it can work where other treatments have failed. If you have gone to short term rehab and relapsed, then consider long term. I believe that you should always move to more intensive treatments if the less intense ones have failed you.
Most people balk at the idea of living in a treatment center. It is not so bad, really. You have more freedom than you think you will at most places, depending on the setup. Life goes on and you learn to live with some structure. If you really want to be clean and sober, long term rehab gives you the best foundation in the world for making it happen. You have no excuse when you relapse in long term. You just wanted to go get high, because there is no reason not to use the resources and tools you have available to you in that situation.
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