If you approach addiction treatment understanding that recovery is a process not a single event, life after rehab will be easier to manage. While addiction treatment programs like Orange County rehabs can help you get sober, aftercare programs and sober living homes can help further your development.
Living After Addiction
Whether you’ve been addicted to alcohol, prescription medication, or illicit drugs, adjusting to life after rehab will take time.
Both inpatient and outpatient rehab programs offer you a great deal of structure and support, so the first thing you should do is establish if you need to step down the continuum of care. This could mean engaging with an outpatient treatment program after residential rehab or stepping down from a PHP or IOP to a regular outpatient program.
Assuming you have your immediate needs taken care of, it’s time to consider the following areas of your life.
- Personal relationships: You may already have started repairing your relationships through family therapy sessions, but now rehab is over, it’s time to double down on healing broken relationships.
- Financial problems: If addiction has left your finances in freefall, it’s time to get things in order. Make a budget and stick to it. That should be easier now you no longer need to buy drinks or drugs. Pay off debts and then start working on repairing your credit score. This just takes some patience and consistent payments. Rebuild your credit further by taking out a small secured line of credit. You might need three to five years before you’re back on track, but it will be worth the effort.
- Legal issues: Settle any outstanding legal issues that cropped up during addiction. Successful completing a treatment program and remaining sober could encourage a judge to be more lenient if you have any open cases.
- Employment: With your house in order, it’s time to focus on employment. The best rehabs will offer vocational development programs and resources to help you in this area.
What to Do After Rehab
If you’ve completed your time in a treatment program and are now wondering, “what’s next?” there’s a lot of ways to answer this question, but the most important thing to prioritize is your sobriety. You don’t want to see all your hard work evaporate because you are now on your own.
So, a few things you can do to help keep yourself accountable would be to find support groups, join an alumni network, or just connect with other like-minded people.
Along with this, it is important to find new hobbies and ways to enjoy your time. Since you are no longer using substances, you’ll likely have a lot of extra time on your hands, searching for new fun things to do like learning to cook, exercising, reading, and more can help ensure that you are replacing your poor habits with healthy ones.
Life After Rehab
Life After Alcohol Rehab
The most effective recovery plans for life after alcohol rehab will account for the following:
- Listing actionable goals with specific steps to help you achieve them
- Finding hobbies and interests that don’t revolve around alcohol
- Repairing damaged relationships
- Learning to handle your triggers for alcohol abuse more effectively
- Resisting cravings for alcohol
- Attending local support groups, such as Alcoholics Anonymous
Be prepared to take some time to ease back into daily living and don’t place undue pressure on yourself.
Data shows that only 20% of those who engage with treatment for alcohol use disorder remain abstinent for a year after rehab. The good news, though, is that after two years of sobriety, your chances of relapse halves.
Life After Drug Rehab
Life after drug rehab treatment should be structured around the fact that most relapses occur within the first six months. Do all you can do to strengthen your defenses during this challenging phase.
Consider the following forms of continuing support:
- Individual therapy: With therapies like CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy), you’ll work closely with a therapist to formulate strategies for dealing with triggers for substance abuse. Therapy can continue after rehab.
- Regular check-ups: Ensure you stay accountable by scheduling check-ups with your treatment provider every few months. This gives you the opportunity to monitor your ongoing recovery goals and receive medical check-ups.
- 12-step support groups: Many people in recovery find 12-step programs like AA and NA to be invaluable on an ongoing basis.
- Alternative support groups: For those who dislike the idea of conventional 12-step programs, alternatives like SMART Recovery can help you stay in control of your recovery using evidence-based methods
The District Recovery Community’s Sober Living
Many people who complete a treatment program for alcohol use disorder or substance use disorder benefit from sober living homes. This is vital if your home environment is unsupportive and you want to minimize your chances of relapse.
Here at The District Recovery Center, we can arrange for you to stay at a sober living community in Huntington Beach while you move from treatment into the early phase of recovery.
In addition to a substance-free environment and on-site staff to help on-demand, you’ll also enjoy community activities, exercise and nutrition plans, tutoring, and job assistance.
Research shows that sober living homes not only reduce crimes related to substance abuse but can also improve abstinence rates. Why leave any element of your recovery to chance? Call TDRC today at 844.287.8506. We’ll help you get back on track immediately.
