5 Things Rehab Centers Hope You Can Learn
You will learn a lot in rehab, and you know that. But, it can be helpful to enter the situation prepared for what exactly you will learn. This way, your mind is open and prepared to take in lessons and training from the very beginning.
To find a rehab center that will teach you what you need to know to achieve and maintain recovery, call our helpline at 800-481-6320Who Answers?. Don’t wait; get learning as soon as possible.
1. How to Nurture and Maintain Self-Respect
The key to continued abstinence is caring enough about yourself to make the effort. At the start of treatment, you will arrive laden with emotional baggage and you will struggle to maintain your self-worth. Rehab can’t force you to love yourself, but it can train you to have the skills that make it possible to forgive and reward yourself, rather than remaining hostile.
2. How to Avoid Guilt and Shame
It is natural to feel both shame and guilt; all people do. However, it is particularly important to remain mindful of these emotions because they effectively trigger an emotional downward spiral that can lead to relapse.
Shame, specifically refers to negative beliefs about yourself, and addicts have a variety of those.
Guilt, meanwhile, refers to the belief that you engaged in behavior that was wrong, and addicts know that feeling all too well, also.
Your rehab facility will work with you via:
- Therapists, sponsors, and counselors
- Meditation and mindfulness
- Yoga
- Interactions with peers
The goal is to train you to confront shame and guilt before they set in and to address the behaviors that could lead to them.
3. How to Reduce or Eliminate Substance Abuse
Changing recreational patterns can prevent relapse.
Your primary motivation in attending rehab for your addiction is to achieve and maintain abstinence from drugs and alcohol. That is most people’s goal. However, it may take multiple attempts at abstinence before you finally succeed.
Until you can fully accept that abstinence is a necessity, your rehabilitation program will, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration minimize the effects of continuing use and abuse via:
- Education, self-help groups, and counseling that highlight the benefits of a reduction in risky behavior
- Reducing the amount and occurrence of consumption
- Changing lifestyle and recreational patterns
- Building new relationships with people who are drug-free
- Substituting substances with less dangerous ones
The goal throughout is assisting you in assuming your individual responsibility for becoming abstinent.
4. How to Maximize Numerous Aspects of Life Functioning
Achieving complete abstinence is a starting point. Most addicts in treatment have many complex problems throughout their life, including:
- Mental and medical illnesses
- Disordered relationships
- Deteriorated or underdeveloped vocational and social skills
- Weakened performance in school or at work
- Financial or legal troubles
These problems can just as easily be causes for the development of a substance use disorder ad they can be results of one. Rehabilitation will make a concerted effort to help you fix these problems so that you can develop a responsible, appropriate position in society. To do so, programs will try to:
- Treat independent mental health disorders
- Address relationship issues, including those that are marital and familial in general
- Maximize physical wellbeing
- Improve psychological functioning
- Resolve legal and financial problems
- Develop or improve necessary vocational and financial skills
Rehab may also help patients explore spiritual issues and appropriate recreational activities.
5. How to Reduce the Frequency and Severity of Relapse or Prevent It Altogether
More and more often, rehab facilities expend considerable effort to prepare patients for possible relapse, by helping them understand, identify, and avoid dangerous inducements to resume drinking or taking drugs. Relapse is perfectly normal for recovering addicts. Like any other people suffering with a chronic disease, drug and alcohol addicts have moments where they backslide.
Charts featured on the National Institute of Drug Addiction’s website demonstrate that addiction has comparable rates of relapse to other chronic diseases: hypertension, asthma, and type I diabetes. In fact, another chart illustrates that an increase in the severity of hypertension post-treatment looks exactly like the increase experienced with drug addiction treatment.
So, why is a relapse in your addiction treatment considered a failure? Rehab will initially help you to reduce your substance use with the goal of eliminating it entirely. But, if you begin backsliding, recommit yourself to treatment; don’t give up.
Patients in rehab are generally taught:
- What to do if they experience a slip
- How to recognize relapse cues
- How to prepare a plan for handling stressful situations without returning to substance abuse
Given the popularity of condensed formal, exhaustive intervention and an increased emphasis on aftercare post-discharge, relapse prevention is incredibly important. To find a rehab center that can help you to minimize your chances of relapse, call 800-481-6320Who Answers? and speak with someone today.
