Rehabilitation can sometimes be a lifesaver on the road to recovery. However, drug addiction and rehab aren’t always paired with each other. Often, rehab isn’t necessary to overcome drug addiction. But that begs the question: when is it necessary?
Before we can answer that, however, it’s important that we first find out what rehab is, what it means to go to rehab, and how it plays a role in the larger recovery process.
What Is Rehab?
Rehab, or drug rehabilitation, is a several-step medical process that involves taking in a recovering drug addict, undergoing detoxification, and then the actual process of emotional, mental and physical rehabilitation, from drug denial and abstinence to the development of new hobbies, skills and more for the purpose of helping addicts re-enter society, fresh and new. Rehab programs often plan your day as much as possible, with daily therapy sessions, early mornings and evening meetings.
The specifics of a rehabilitation program depend entirely on: a.) where you’re getting rehab, and b.) your circumstances. Rehab programs typically do their research on any potential clients, helping you get a thorough diagnosis of how bad your addiction or addictions are, and whether they’re paired with any other mental health issues, including anxiety or depression.
Rehab clinics typically service clients hooked on a variety of substances, while others restrict the substances and behaviors they help treat. Some rehab clinics offer both inpatient services and outpatient services, while others specialize on one or the other. And finally, rehab clinics adapt their treatment plan around your condition, giving you a unique path to recovery each time.
There are a couple aspects of drug rehab that define it, however. The first is that it’s a lengthy, often institutionalized process – this isn’t something you do long-distance or twice a week. You either live at a rehab facility for the entire length of your treatment, especially if it’s been court-mandated, or you undergo a very, very intensive outpatient care program that sees to it that, while it does let you continue with your life, it keeps you preoccupied with your recovery process and maintaining sobriety.
Detox & Rehab
Aside from the fundamental differences between outpatient and inpatient programs, another difference is whether you under simple detoxification, or something far more intensive such as hospitalization and withdrawal management.
This depends entirely on your addiction. Depending on the substance and if it’s severe enough, then your condition might warrant rehab after a short hospitalization stint and a close overdose. That, and court-mandated rehab are two ways many people end up entering rehab against their will, and through the will of the family or law, for their own good.
Others admit themselves to rehab after getting too close to an overdose or another horrible consequence. In these extreme cases, rehab begins with a thorough detoxification. This can include fighting the symptoms of withdrawal, which can include delusions, hallucinations, delirious fevers, nausea, and muscle fatigue.
After that grueling phase is over, you’re in a “clean slate” state where the rehabilitation process begins, and involves laying the groundwork for general long-term recovery through short talk therapy sessions, meditation, lifestyle chances, and the exploration of different hobbies to figure out how best to supplant your former drug habits with much healthier activities.
How Rehab Ties into Recovery
Rehabilitation may often be lengthy, significant and costly, but it’s only a short-term process in comparison to recovery at large, which ties directly into rehab as a successor. Once you leave your program and get the official notice from the clinic or therapist that you’re doing much, much better, the rest of the recovery process begins.
That involves maintaining those new habits and lifestyle changes, staying away from old contacts, old friends or triggering locations, and getting together a support system through your significant other or your family to make sure that, even when the going gets tough, you maintain your sobriety and promise towards improvement – and even when that fails, you won’t let it make you spiral out into an emotional wreck, and instead resolve to simply move on and do better.
When Is Rehab Necessary?
Rehab is often optional. But there are times when that isn’t really the case.
Addiction itself has a few concrete signs. Addiction can quite often creep up on people, in the form of a few more prescription pills than originally prescribed becoming a lot more, and eventually leading to a referral to the therapist.
At other times, one glass more per week due to a stressful assignment might turn into two glasses a day, and eventually a real drinking problem.
The signs don’t become obvious until it’s too late, and at that point, breaking an addiction is where the recovery process becomes critical. First, there’s the overcoming of denial – then, diagnosing the severity of the addiction.
But with rehab, we’re talking about a much more drastic approach towards treating addiction. While it’s never too early to consider rehab, the definite sign that you should probably sign into a rehab program, or something similar like a sober living program, is this: you need to be reminded of how to quit.
If you know what you need to do, then it’s just a matter of support, therapy and discipline. But if you’re rapidly approaching rock bottom and don’t know how to get out of the cycle of addiction, it’s time to find a rehab program.
Recovery without Rehab
Just like taking on the task of underdoing addiction recovery alone, you can learn to overcome your addiction without entering rehab. However, unlike the choice of tackling addiction alone, rehab is something you most definitely shouldn’t miss out on when you do need it.
Drug rehabilitation is a lengthy physical and emotional process, and through it, you can completely excise yourself from the life you used to lead, the effects of the drugs you used to take, and take on the tools and skills necessary to lead a life of sobriety.
But it’s understandable that rehab is not something you want to endure if you don’t have to. While inpatient rehab is the most well-known kind, there are outpatient rehab options out there, that allow you to continue leading a life at home and at work while going through the classic steps of a rehabilitation, with regular therapy, group activities, and much more.
Unless you’re mortally endangering yourself or others and the court of law decides for you, you’re completely free to choose what to do for your drug treatment. But don’t choose what’s most comfortable – choose what’s most effective.