Is Long Term Rehab Recommended?

There are plenty of different options when thinking about drug rehab.  Treatment programs vary in their approach, duration, and setting.  If you or your loved one is facing drug addiction, you might feel overwhelmed by the options which are available.  You might even be wondering how you can choose the best rehab program for your or your loved one’s needs.

One of the questions that you have to ask is whether you or your loved one requires a short-term or long-term rehab program.  Long-term rehab usually lasts at least 90 days in a residential treatment center.  Some rehab programs encourage longer duration stays.

Short term rehab

Short-term rehab involves programs that require less than three months of treatment.  The first short-term rehab programs consisted of a 3-to-6-week treatment model.  After this, patients moved on to an outpatient program. 

Usually, short-term programs are followed by an extended stay of outpatient care.  This is as recovery takes a while, and even a few weeks of treatment is not enough for overcoming a serious addiction.

This brings us the answer that you may be seeking now.  Long-term rehab is recommended for treating any addiction.  Research indicates that most addicted people need 5 months at least in treatment for them to significantly reduce or stop their drug use altogether and that longer durations of treatment lead to better outcomes.  Young people usually benefit from having care after treatment, with drug monitoring, follow-up visits at their home, and participation of recovery groups all important aspects of this.

The longer that someone is in treatment, the more benefits they will experience.  Those who spend 9 to 12 months in a treatment facility are more likely to see improvements in their decision-making abilities, stress management skills, physical health, and more.

Treatment, of course, varies from person to person.  The minimum length of treatment is dependent on the severity of someone’s addiction, as well as any underlying conditions that they may have.  Often, substance addiction involves another mental disorder, such as depression or anxiety.  Because of their complexity, co-occurring disorders need specialized treatment.

Why go for long-term drug treatment?

Substance addiction is a chronic condition that may be treated with both ongoing care and management.  While we all want to defeat addiction overnight, this is not possible.  Drug addiction takes a while to heal.

When a person takes drugs repeatedly over a long period of time, chemical changes occur in the brain.  Eventually, the brain needs drugs to function for basic tasks.  The good news is that addiction can be treated, but it takes time for the neuropathways of the brain to be reconstructed.

In addition to the healing of the body and the re-wiring process that is required for recovery, people who are in recovery have to spend time developing their life skills.  Once they have left treatment, they need to be self-sufficient.  They have to know how they can cope with stress and emotions without using drugs. 

They need to know how they can hold down a job, develop their relationships, and keep accountable for their health, both physical and mental.  When cravings hit, they have to know how they can manage and overcome them.  These skills cannot be learned overnight.

Drug treatment programs work to teach people these skills.  This involves clients building a recovery toolkit that they can use in difficult times.  They don’t only learn with the hope they can cope with difficult situations, but also how they are able to replace cravings with healthy behaviors.  In addition to this, they develop meaningful relationships with their peers who are also in recovery.  These friendships often turn into lifelong friendships after they have graduated.

Long-term rehab programs are also able to treat people who have any co-occurring disorders. These co-occurring disorders affect millions of people in the United States and over one-third of people who are receiving substance abuse treatment.

We hope this article has given you the information that you need to be able to make an informed decision about whether you will attend short-term rehab or long-term addiction recovery.  The benefits of attending long-term rehab are many and varied, though we also understand that some people do not have the funds in place to be able to attend treatment for long periods of time.

Whichever length of rehab you choose to attend, you should always follow up with a program of recovery that involves meeting with other people who are going through the same process and includes using the skills that you learned in treatment.