Why Commit To Long-Term Drug Rehab For Recovery?
There are many reasons why you should consider long-term drug rehab for the best outcomes in recovery. For instance, you may have been abusing drugs and alcohol for many months or years. In such a situation, it would have taken a long time for you to develop a substance use disorder or an addiction. As a result, it might be impossible for you to recover fully in a short term treatment program.
Today, research studies have shown that addiction and substance use are chronic disorders of the brain. This condition is so serious that it is easy to relapse and find yourself back where you were before you sought addiction treatment. this is particular true if you are addicted to strong psychoactive substances like opioids, cocaine, and methamphetamine.
In many cases, to this end, spending time in a short term addiction treatment program might not be enough to helping you overcome all the substance related problems that you have been struggling with.
In the same way, if you were also diagnosed with a co-occurring mental health or medical disorder, it would be difficult for you to achieve full recovery from all these conditions if you are in a short term treatment center.
This is why long-term drug rehab is often the best option for long term recovery and sobriety. Further, this form of treatment might be able to provide you with regular monitoring and multiple interventions to increases your chances of long term recovery. Read on to find out more:
Understanding Long-Term Drug Rehab
Long-term drug rehab is a form of addiction treatment that is designed to take place over a long period of time, typically anywhere between 3 and 12 months. In some cases, however, this treatment might take much longer than 12 months.
During your time in such a program, you will typically be required to live at the recovery center so that you can receive round the clock medical supervision, management, and care from highly qualified addiction treatment professionals.
When you first get started on a long-term drug rehab program, you will be monitoring closely. This is because you will be going through detox to get rid of all the intoxicating and mind altering substances that you were abusing. Detox is often accompanied by withdrawal symptoms and severe drug cravings, which might prove too painful or life-threatening for you.
For this reason, most long term rehab programs will put you under medical observation as well as use a wide variety of interventions to help you get through the first few stages of your addiction recovery.
After that, the long-term drug rehab program will offer you a long term treatment and care plan. You could also get the opportunity to discuss various aftercare programs and plans, as well as work on relapse prevention techniques while you are enrolled in such a program.
Expectations from Long-Term Addiction Treatment
As we mentioned above, most long-term drug rehab programs will start with a medically supervised detoxification process. This process could take up anywhere between a few days to a couple of weeks.
During detox, you will work on overcoming all your withdrawal symptoms as well as managing any drug and alcohol cravings that you may be struggling with. Medical detox will also provide you with various treatment and recovery services - including medical management treatment - to ensure that you are able to overcome your physical dependence on the substances that you used to abuse.
During this time, you will start making adjustments to the treatment program. For instance, the program could ensure that you have minimal freedom as well as a tightly controlled and highly structured daily routine.
Over the course of time when you are working on yourself and your ongoing recovery, the center will offer you more freedom. For instance, it could allow you visits from family and friends, as well as renewed communication with the external environment.
Depending on the total length of your addiction treatment in a long-term drug rehab, you may even get to a stage where you get the permission you need to be able to leave the recovery center so that you can participate in meaningful and useful activities, such as 12-step and non-12 step support groups meetings like Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous.
While enrolled in a long-term rehab program, you may be able to benefit from a wide variety of recovery models. For instance, the program might recommend the use of the therapeutic community model of addiction treatment.
Through this model, you will view your substance abuse and addiction in the context of your psychological, behavioral, social, emotional, and physical deficits. Treatment will also focus on helping you develop socially and professionally productive lives and habits, as well as work on your sense of responsibility and accountability.
Treatment through the therapeutic community model is often highly structured. In some instances, however, it can also turn out to be confrontational. Even so, most long-term drug rehabs that offer this form of treatment will also have activities in place to help you examine all your damaging self-concepts, patterns of behavior, and beliefs. In the process, you will also learn how to adopt new constructive and harmonious ways to social and interact with other people.
Who Needs Long-Term Rehab?
Although it is practically impossible to answer this question, you need to realize that most people who have been abusing drugs and drinking alcohol over the long term might benefit from a long term stay in an addiction treatment and rehabilitation program.
This form of recovery might also be ideal if you have already tried other treatment options - such as short term care - but they did not succeed in ensuring that you were able to maintain your sobriety after treatment.
In all these situations, it means that you are going to need to spend more time working through a recovery program so that you can get your footing in abstinence and sobriety before you return to the lifestyle that you were following before you sought addiction treatment.
However, research studies have also reported that long-term drug rehab might be ideal if you have also received a dual-diagnosis. This effectively means that you have been diagnosed with both a substance use disorder or an addiction as well as a co-occurring mental health or medical disorder.
In such a situation, you would need to work on both your substance abuse as well as try to manage as well as overcome all the co-occurring disorders that you have also been struggling with.
As you can well imagine, this effectively means that you might end up spending a great deal of time in a treatment facility. This is why long-term drug rehab might be the right choice for you.
However, the prospect of spending so much time in addiction rehabilitation might seem daunting at first. This is why it is recommended that you start your recovery journey through a short term drug and alcohol rehab program - such as one that lasts for about 30 days to 90 days.
During your time in such a short term program, you will come to understand more of your substance abuse and addiction patterns, as well as realize that you might end up needing to spend more time in recovery to be able to overcome all the substance related issues and disorders that you have been diagnosed with.
These short term options could also give you a taste of addiction treatment, in such a way that you come to understand that this form of medical assistance is beneficial for your psychological, emotional, physical, and behavioral wellbeing. Through this understanding, you may finally accept the fact that you will need to attend long-term drug rehab to ensure that all the benefits that you are enjoying are permanent.
Other reasons to choose long-term rehab over other options include:
a) Efficacy of Treatment
Although going for short term rehab might seem like the more attractive option, it might not always work well. In fact, its efficacy may turn out to be quite low to enable you achieve long term recovery.
b) Risk of Relapse
In the same way, attending other shorter term treatment programs might increase your risk of relapse. This means that you could go back to your substance abuse and addiction problems soon after leaving the recovery program.
c) Entrance Criteria
Most long-term drug rehab programs have low entrance criteria because their goal is to ensure that every patient is able to achieve long term recovery and sobriety. This is not the same with other options like partial hospitalization outpatient drug rehab programs that require you have a low risk of suffering withdrawal among other criteria.
Getting Help
Although long term treatment might seem like a daunting prospect for you, it is recommended that you remember that research studies are all consistent in their findings that this form of treatment is the most ideal for the management of substance use disorders, as well as other co-occurring mental health and medical disorders. Further, long-term drug rehab might be the only way that you may be able to achieve full sobriety and recovery in the long term.
Addiction counselors are familiar with the many types of programs offered and what is available in your area. They also can do an assessment with you and determine what treatment would be best for you or your loved one.
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