5 Reasons You Should Consider Long Term Treatment
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Long-term treatment is becoming the norm to recover from drug and alcohol addiction. Staying in treatment for 30, 60, 90 days has a better chance of long term recovery, or lifetime abstinence, after treatment.
- Addiction didn’t happen in a day: Addiction doesn’t often happen in a day. Some drugs are powerful. Some people are especially susceptible to the powerful effects of drugs and alcohol. It takes at least a few days of heavily abusing drugs and alcohol for a chemical addiction to develop for most people. Addiction can build up over the years through varying phases of abuse and abstinence. The point being, addiction doesn’t happen in a day. Recovery doesn’t happen in a day either. Recovery takes time. It’s important to create that time.
- Symptoms of withdrawal can be ongoing: Few people are educated on PAWS in recovery. Post-Acute Withdrawal Syndrome is somewhat of a phenomenon in which people, with time in recovery, continue to experience detox and withdrawal symptoms. Up to 18-24 months in recovery, it is possible to experience the many symptoms of early recovery, which can be unsettling and triggering. Staying in a structured and sober environment ensures that there is professionally trained staff to help patients through their symptoms and stay sober.
- It takes time to work through underlying issues: Addiction is rarely a standalone issue. Many people have co-occurring mental health disorders and underlying issues that contributed to the development of their addiction. It takes time to do the deep work in therapy necessary to heal the underlying issues, which might also take time to discover.
- The body needs time to heal: It also takes time for the body to heal. Addiction is a disease that affects the mind, the body, and the spirit. Many who come to treatment are in poor physical health as well as being in poor mental health. A weakened body is susceptible to physical cravings. Staying in treatment longer means the body has more time to be healed and strengthened.
- Learning to have fun is in a safe and structured environment: Transitioning through multiple levels of care allows patients to slowly gain their independence while learning to have fun in recovery. Recovery is fun. Having fun in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction is possible. However, it takes time and getting through some uncomfortable baby steps to learn how to have fun.
Everyone is capable of recovering. Design For Change offers customizable treatment programs inspired by the proven method of the twelve steps and evidence-based treatment methods. For information on our residential treatment and other treatment programs…
