Starting your addiction recovery in a residential rehab center sets a solid foundation for success. Inpatient addiction treatment takes part on a closed, secure campus. During your time in a rehab facility, you’ll be completely removed from unhealthy relationships, high-risk environments, and many other outside triggers and stressors. This short-term separation gives patients the perfect opportunity to identify the underlying causes of their addictions, develop healthy, sustainable coping strategies, and establish solid plans for maintaining their sobriety over the long-term.
If you or someone you love will soon be entering residential treatment, you may be wondering how long these programs last. Many residential treatment centers offer short-stay programs that last just 28 to 30 days. Other rehab facilities offer in-house addiction treatment services that span for three months, six months, or even one full year. How long you choose to stay in treatment is entirely up to you. However, studies consistently show that the longer professional addiction treatment is received, the easier it is for people to avoid relapse.
Why Longer Treatment Times Are Better
If you complete your detox and your addiction treatment in the same location, the first one to two weeks of rehab will largely be about managing your withdrawal symptoms. Throughout the detox process, most people have a hard time focusing on the in-depth work that addiction treatment entails. Even with medical supervision and needs-specific interventions for minimizing withdrawal symptoms, it is not uncommon for people to experience:
- Feelings of restlessness and malaise
- Insomnia
- Depression
- Heightened anxiety
and many other psychological effects of abstinence. For most substances, detoxing is also a physically uncomfortable process. More often than not, it’s only after the first seven to 10 days of treatment have passed that patients are able to put their full focus on getting well. Once you’re ready to participate in the many treatment-related activities that are offered on-campus, you’ll take regular part in:
- Group therapy
- Individual therapy
- Stress management activities
- Goal-setting and life-planning workshops
and more. You’ll spend much of your time working to understand why you started using drugs or alcohol. In both private counseling sessions and group therapy, you’ll explore common underlying causes of addiction including low self-esteem, underlying, co-occurring mental health disorders, unresolved guilt, and past traumas among other things. Once you’ve identified the reasons why you’ve been using substances, you’ll have to develop new and healthier ways to deal with these challenges. For people living with co-occurring disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or general anxiety disorder, longer treatment times are often recommended.
Longer treatment times are also recommended for people who’ve been using highly addictive substances. It takes more time for the brain and body to heal after highly addictive substances have been stopped. Extended treatment additionally allows patients to establish healthy routines and healthy life habits that help minimize the risk of relapse. No matter what challenges you’re dealing with or what the nature of your addiction may be, spending three months or more in a residential rehab center will give you ample opportunity to implement the right, positive lifestyle changes.
You may be worried about spending an extended amount of time in treatment, and about how this time away from outside living could impact your life. Many people in need of addiction treatment are worried about losing their jobs, caring for their families, or falling behind at school. If you’re dealing with any of these or other barriers to addiction treatment, you can consider spending 30 days in a residential rehab program and then transferring to an outpatient addiction treatment center to extend your care.
With outpatient addiction treatment, patients maintain sufficient free time for handling their outside responsibilities. Short-term addiction treatment can also be followed by a relapse prevention program or time spent in a sober living facility. Getting a sufficient amount of structured treatment makes getting sober and staying that way far easier than if detoxing and recovering on your own.
Spending three months or more in a residential rehab center is frequently recommended. With 90 days of professional treatment, you can establish healthy habits, a better understanding of what addiction is, and the ability to keep your recovery on track over the long term. If you’re tired of being addicted to drugs or alcohol and want to learn more about your options in residential rehab, we can help. Call us today at 833-820-2922. Our operators are always standing by.