Making the decision to enter drug treatment is a major life decision. The commitment to long-term sobriety is major and requires all your energies. The programming and support you receive in drug treatment will give you the tools you need to succeed, but you have to do the heavy lifting. To give yourself the best chance to get and stay sober in the long run, you must take full advantage of what drug treatment has to offer.
How to get the most out of your drug treatment experience
Do Your Research
Drug treatment is a substantial investment of both time and money. The cost to get sober isn’t cheap, however, can be the best investment you ever make in your life. In general, a 30-day treatment program can run into the tens of thousands of dollars. That cost increases if you need a long-term program or have a co-occurring mental health issue. Before you commit to a treatment facility, do your homework. Doing your due diligence will pay dividends in the long run.
When looking for a treatment program, you need to find a program that can be tailored to meet your needs. The facility must be up to date on its licensing and accreditation. Treatment staff must be both experienced and fully licensed to practice. Most importantly, the program you choose must have a wide variety of traditional and holistic therapy options. Talk to staff, ask questions and ask others who in recovery what facilities they recommend.
What Treatment Options Work Best for You?
When drug treatment is concerned, one size does not fit all. In many instances, treatment staff will recommend that you undergo intensive inpatient treatment. While the structure and intensity of inpatient treatment is the best option, it may not work for you. There can be many treatment options and levels of care depending on the severity of your condition. Options such as intensive outpatient treatment, sober living, day treatment can either be used as aftercare or primary treatment for milder instances of substance abuse.
You May require Medical Detox as Part of Your Treatment Plan
The most important part of drug treatment (and perhaps the most daunting) is safely detoxing from substances. Virtually all substances have physical and psychological withdrawal symptoms that can be extremely painful and uncomfortable to endure. While many consider quitting cold turkey as an option, it can do more harm than good.
If you want to increase your odds of quitting substances successfully, your treatment program must include medical detox. With the detox process, you will be given medication therapy, nutritional therapy, and other interventions to make the withdrawal process more tolerable. You will also be given a thorough medical evaluation during the detox process. Once you are both medically and psychologically stable, you will be able to enter drug treatment in full.
Be Open with Treatment Staff
To get the most out of drug treatment, you must view your recovery as interactive. In short, you must be able to work with treatment staff and feel comfortable to express your needs and concerns throughout your stay in treatment. You must be able to tell staff what is and isn’t working in your treatment program. Likewise, treatment staff must be receptive and open to your suggestions. It may not always be easy, but if both sides are transparent and honest, the easier it is to find the right programs that will fit your specific needs.
Learn As Much as you can about Addiction
To get the most out treatment, you must also be willing to learn all you can about the disease of addiction. Addiction is a progressive and chronic disorder, and your time in treatment needs to be devoted to learning how addiction develops and how it manifested in your life. Your time in treatment is relatively short, so take the time to feed your head and absorb all you can. Your future in recovery depends on it.
Therapy is Your Friend
A huge part of a successful drug treatment program is individual and group therapy. For many, therapy is associated with uncomfortable feelings in baring your shortcoming and feelings to strangers. There is no doubt that the feelings associated with treatment can be extremely painful, but confronting those feelings are necessary for healing.
Individual and group therapy helps you uncover the often-traumatic roots of your addiction. With the help of your therapist and your peers in recovery, you can face your past and get the tools to overcome and make peace with your past.
Stay the Course
Drug treatment isn’t easy. Without substances acting as a blanket, your emotions will pour forth like a flood. You can feel an extreme sense of guilt and shame to the point of saying “why am I bothering with treatment?”. While feeling these emotions are normal and needed in the recovery process, it is essential to stay the course and treatment and not give up.
Building distress tolerance can be crucial to your success and is a component of many treatment programs. Being able to manage thoughts and emotions through mindfulness practices such as yoga, deep breathing, journaling, and meditation, and through the help of therapy, life skills training and the support of staff and your peers, these feelings can be better managed and understood. By establishing the right beliefs, behaviors, and state of mind. Being able to stay the course and achieve long-term recovery becomes much more possible.
Build Support
Drug treatment is a perfect place to have people in your corner to help you stay on course. Through the help of therapists, your peers, others in 12-step groups, family and friends, you can build a support system that you will help you get through the challenges faced in recovery. While there may be times where you feel differently, your support people are fully vested in helping you get and stay well.
They will help you celebrate the small daily victories and help you through the rough patches. Your support team will also be honest and upfront when you are falling short in your recovery program. There is a sense of comfort in knowing you’re not in this alone.
It’s a Family Affair
Addiction does not just affect the individual; the family also bears the brunt of one’s substance abuse. For you to heal from the pain and heartache of addiction, your family must also feel involved and supported.
The best treatment facilities feature family therapy programs that help the entire family unit recover. When your family heals, it creates a healthy and nurturing environment for your recovery to flourish.
Have a Hand in Creating Your Relapse Prevention Plan
The biggest goal of drug treatment is to empower you to take control of your life. To get the most of your drug treatment program, you have an active role in establishing a solid relapse prevention plan. This plan includes developing life skills, coping skills, stress management, and the resiliency needed to combat the cravings and urges to use brought on my stresses of everyday life.
Developing a success recovery regiment includes the following:
- Continued attendance of meetings
- Establish a sober living to help ease the transition back into normal life
- Volunteer work and helping others.
- Developing a healthy daily schedule including regular exercise, healthy diet, and hobbies that and healthy and productive.
- Practice gratitude daily and reframe negative thoughts and beliefs.
If you’re looking to start your journey to recovery, NuView Treatment Center can help.Contact us to learn more about personalized treatment options that are right for you overcoming drug addiction. We offer a comprehensive, whole-person treatment designed to improve mental, physical, and emotional well being. Our Outpatient Rehab program can help build the foundation for lasting recovery and make a new start after addiction. If you or a loved one is in need of a change, give us a call. We can help get you back on track.
