What Happens After Drug Rehab?
Completing a rehab program is a major accomplishment and worthy of celebration.
Yet, transitioning from an inpatient treatment program back into your everyday life poses a number of challenges. The recovery process is a lifelong journey and rehab is only the first step in getting and staying sober.
Where do you go from here?
The next step is establishing and maintaining a long-term recovery plan with addiction specialists that reinforces the discoveries you made and the lessons you learned in rehab.
When choosing a rehab program, this should be a question you ask: Does your rehab program include helping me create a long-term recovery plan?
A long-term recovery plan keeps you focused on maintaining your sobriety.
The more specific and detailed your goals, the greater your chances of staying substance-free.
Without a concrete plan in place, you are more likely to fall back into old habits.
Maintaining sobriety requires time and hard work, during and after treatment. We can help. Speak confidentially with a counselor right now at (844) 747-7772.
Maintaining Your Sobriety
After completing detoxification and inpatient rehabilitation, a recovering addict will return to normal life. This includes work, family, friends and hobbies. All these circles and events can trigger cravings and temptations.
Research suggests most relapses occur in the first six months after treatment.
By understanding your triggers, you can better guard yourself against the coming difficulties.
It Takes Time and Hard Work
After successfully completing a rehab program, it takes time to readjust back into normal life.
Personal and professional responsibilities can quickly overwhelm you, so planning ahead can ease your transition.
Some things you should prepare for prior to leaving rehab include:
- Finding living arrangements
- Establishing a healthy daily routine
- Looking for local support groups
- Arranging meet-ups with sober friends
- Keeping a distance from potential triggers
- Learning when to ask for help
The most effective long-tern recovery plans will include:
- Listing goals and specific steps on how to achieve each one
- Rebuilding damaged relationships with family and friends through the help of counseling sessions and group therapy
- Finding substance-free activities and hobbies to participate in
- Recognizing impulses and having a plan for how to handle them
Have a Plan and Follow It
The hard work doesn’t stop when you’ve completed rehab.
In many ways, it’s only just begun.
Having a plan is an important step. Following it, even more so.
Evaluate Your Living Situation
Returning from rehab can be jarring, especially as you discover that the people and environment at home has not changed during your time away.
Are your surroundings going to impede your sobriety? Are friends and family members going to trip you up? An unhealthy environment can be nothing more than a short-cut to relapse.
It’s time to take an honest inventory—and if necessary, make new living arrangements.
Find Sober Friends
Addicts usually have friends who’ve supported their bad habits.
A new start calls for new friends.
Getting to know healthy people and observing the healthy choices they make can be most helpful in maintaining your sobriety.
Find a Support Group
While the obvious solution is to find a 12-step group that deals with your individual substance-of-choice, this can also mean simply finding a network of people who can be there when the you begin to stumble.
A shoulder to cry on can be invaluable, and it may be existing family and friends, or people from church or even co-workers.
The key is to find others, whether they be former addicts or not, who will be there for you and lend a hand should the possibility of relapse arise.
Create and Follow a Schedule
Recovering addicts don’t do well with a lot of free time.
Maintaining a regular schedule can be a big part in stabilizing your life. If you’ve completed an inpatient program, you’ve likely lived a routine for many weeks now.
If there wasn’t one unaccounted for minute in a facility, there shouldn’t be one upon leaving. Building a daily routine also provides a familiar structure that prevents boredom and thoughts about using.
Going to bed at a regular time, attending support groups and making time for new hobbies creates stability and something to look forward to.
What Does Your Future Hold?
Getting through rehab may be one of the biggest challenges you’ll ever confront. The period after rehab … can be one of the most exciting times of your life. Your new life awaits.
At Honey Lake Clinic, effective aftercare planning is prioritized to ensure a fluid continuity of care after you are discharged. You’ll be educated to help prevent recurrence, and equipped with the resources to facilitate your growth.