At the beginning of recovery, residential or intensive outpatient rehabilitation and self-help group participation can do wonders.
These programs and therapy will support you through the worse days of early abstinence, while continuing care will show you how to keep maintaining it.
Residential programs and IOP are an essential, vital start.
But if you think it’s all you need or all you want, you will fall back into chemical dependence in practically no time.
The trouble is that the transformations of early recovery are largely based on emotional upheaval, not the self-medication-distraction that is drug or alcohol abuse. That’s good; that’s just what is needed at that stage. But these transformations will be long-term changes: new ways of feeling, new insights into how you think they behave, new priorities and values. These add up to a whole new way of being—or rather, of becoming, because the work of discovering yourself and learning how to live in this new way is never finished.
Sam, a former guest at Royal Life Centers and a recovering alcoholic, says that after he had been going to AA meetings for a few days he suddenly realized “that these people are serious. They really mean it. They’re talking about doing this for the rest of their lives.” He was so terrified by the idea that he went off on a three-day binge. But Sam came back, because somehow through the alcoholic haze he also came to realize that if he started drinking again, that too, was for the rest of his life.
Recovery leads to growth and gives you the opportunity to make the rest of your life better and better.
The other way leads back to the hell you came from, to an unhappy life— and a short one.
Continuing Care
Continuing care exists to further support recovering alcoholics and addicts, providing guidance and a network of support as these guests are re-integrated into society. Guests in our aftercare programs will learn how to balance life and recovery, hold themselves accountable, socialize with good people, put their coping mechanisms to use, practice relapse prevention skills, etc. Our aftercare programs prepare guests for living happy, healthy, and fulfilling lives in sobriety. Our goal is to show guests how capable they are, allow them to take charge of their lives by managing their own responsibilities and recovery— we are there just to offer support.
Not attending an aftercare or continuing care program is doing yourself a disservice. Continuing care greatly improves your recovery, and ensures that you will be able to rebuild your life in a safe and supportive atmosphere.
If you or a loved one wants to learn more about our substance abuse programs, please reach out to us today. Our admissions team is available 24/7 at (877)-RECOVERY or (888) 308-1985 to answer your questions.
