After Drug Rehab What are your options
Continuing Care Programme / Residential Inpatient Treatment Programme
(No. 2 ongoing from the previous article – click to see No. 1 -“What to Expect when you get to Rehab“)
Your last day at a drug and alcohol rehab at residential treatment facility can be just as unnerving as the first one. After drug rehab having been successfully rehabilitated in a safe environment, you are now ready to enter back into the real world. At a residential treatment center your life outside will have been assessed and you will have been given the necessary suggestions on how to enter back in without alcohol or drug abuse, in such a way that you maintain your recovery. But the truth is, it is hard and therefore of utmost importance that you take responsibility by instilling long lasting support structures that will keep supporting clean living.
Here are some suggestions for addiction treatment After Drug Rehab:
- Secondary Care
Continuing Care programme for sober living after substance abuse recovery.
Even after rehabilitation and treatment if you feel that you are not yet ready to leave the safe haven of the drug rehab facility, Houghton House offers an extended-stay programme, further addiction treatments, and a recovery process in the form of its secondary care facility, The General Addiction Programme – The GAP further encourages the addict and alcoholic to build and maintain a healthy lifestyle that is conducive to a lasting recovery after drug-related or alcoholism rehab. It is an inpatient facility based in the same area as Houghton House, where friends and family are welcome, in the peaceful suburb of Ferndale in Johannesburg. - Tertiary Care
Houghton House offers tertiary care in the form of Halfway Houses to continue long-term support as you re-integrate into normal life. A Halfway House is a house where recovering addicts and alcoholics live together in order to be with like-minded people who have broken the ties of addiction and alcoholism. Residents are held liable to actively participate in a culture of recovery by taking part in therapeutic activities and attending a 12-step programme and drug relapse prevention meetings. - Continuing Care Programme
Houghton House’s Continuing Care Programme is suitable for those that have been through primary, secondary, or outpatient alcohol or drug addiction treatment programmes. Clients are encouraged to retain a connection with the treatment facility for at least their first year of recovery. Addicts and alcoholics attend regular aftercare and relapse prevention meetings, even the family program which takes place on weekday evenings as part of the addiction treatment program. - 90/90 – Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous
By the time you have left primary treatment, you will have been introduced to AA and NA meetings. And a 90/90 will most likely have been suggested to you. In essence, as the name suggests, it is 90 meetings in 90 days and helps you form a thorough foundation within the fellowship reducing the risk of relapse during and after drug rehab. The fellowship of NA and AA plays an integral part in your recovery. Often times an addict or an alcoholic needs to break ties with people they were doing drugs and alcohol with before. Attending meetings gives you the chance to meet others who have chosen a new way of life. This is an exceptional place of support, as meetings will offer you the safety of sharing with alcohol and drug addicts that suffer from, and have overcome the struggle of addiction and alcoholism. This is also the ideal place to find a dependable sponsor to help your life challenge program. - The importance of a sponsor – developing healthy relationships
After drug rehab getting a sponsor is highly recommended as he or she will guide you, show you the ropes, and have a map for your recovery that they will insist you stay accountable to. A sponsor is someone in the programme that has at least one year of clean time. You will learn to be accountable to this person, who will most likely be encouraging you to keep working on the 12 steps, and who will direct you through them and the daily health issues struggles, and even a bipolar disorder that an addict or alcoholic new in recovery often struggle with. - Service
After successful substance abuse treatment, it is of great value to give back to others in recovery. Sometimes it is as simple as giving a fellow addict or alcoholic a lift to a meeting as a sober friend. You may want to volunteer at your home group by being in charge of refreshments or literature. This will give you a sense of purpose and strengthen your sense of responsibility in helping others and attending regular meetings. - Therapy
It is important to keep having regular sessions with your counsellor from the treatment centre, the rehab facility, or a psychologist. Trained professionals are able to point out depression and anxiety, relevant personality disorder, and destructive and addictive patterns and will continue to help you with life’s challenges and make lasting changes in your life. Staying in touch with your counsellor or psychologist from the treatment facility means building on an already existing relationship with someone that began the journey of recovery with you.
It’s up to you
The biggest part of a successful recovery comes down to you. After drug rehab it is your responsibility to make sure that you stay accountable;
deal with
- pain management;
- sleeping pills;
- prescription drugs ;
- avoid dangerous situations;
- that you reach out.
It is of paramount importance that you are honest to those around you about what you are going through so that they can be of support and more importantly, be enabled to point out signs when you might be heading for relapse and avoid a potential drug overdose. It is important that you surround yourself with safe people, and only with those that have your best interest, and vitally, your lifelong recovery in mind.
Choose the right rehab
The most essential thing is that you choose the right addiction center rehab and keep in touch with safe and healthy individuals throughout your recovery. And that you use the individual therapy, health solutions, and treatment therapies and help that is at hand as a stepping-stone to a new life, free from abused drugs, addiction, alcoholism, and relapse.
For information on NA and AA meetings:
Narcotics Anonymous www.na.org.za
Alcoholics Anonymous www.aasouthafrica.org.za
Link to: Medical Aid and Hospital plan info
Get in touch with Houghton House
For more information on getting yourself into rehab to start a new life, call Houghton House now:
office hours: 011 787 9142
24/7 emergency help line: 079 770 7532
Click on the green envelope below and fill in our contact form, and one of our professional staff members will get back to you via email or phone, respecting your anonymity at all times.
