15 Ways Local Rehab Centers Prevent Relapse
Recovery from addiction is a long term, and sometimes, life long process. At any point in time, you may be tempted to fall back into your old environments, old habits, relationships, or behaviors.
The following, are 15 ways local rehab centers prevent relapse and help you tailor a plan to maintain your abstinence long after you leave the formal rehab program.
1. Understand How Addiction Works
Addiction is not a character flaw. According to the NIDA, “Addiction is a brain disease that affects multiple brain circuits, including those involved in reward and motivation, learning and memory, and inhibitory control over behavior.”
2. Cope with Cravings
Cravings tend to subside after remaining abstinent for an extended period of time. Local rehabs teach you how to cope with cravings without having to use.
3. Recognize Emotional “Triggers”
Even when not thinking of using, negative emotions can make you vulnerable to relapse and local rehabs help you to find alternative ways of dealing with these negative emotional states.
4. Recognize Psychological “Triggers”
Psychological “triggers” can be a driving force for relapse. Local rehabs teach you how to avoid thinking or fantasizing about using.
5. Avoiding Environmental “Triggers”
Local rehab programs help you incorporate recovery into your life.
Local rehabs teach you how important it is to avoid those people, places, and things that remind you of using to prevent relapse and help you developing coping mechanisms for when you can’t. Doing this closer to home can help you truly visualize these triggers and make a plan to cope with them. It will help reduce the potential impact having these environmental factors around again after rehab can have because you will have stayed within your environment in the first place.
6. Analyze Consequences
Every addiction has consequences and local rehab helps you to realize those consequences of past use as well as those that may occur should you relapse.
7. Improved Mental Health
Mental health disorders commonly co-exist with substance abuse disorders and local rehabs can treat these disorders, in continuum, for maximum relapse prevention effectiveness.
8. Cope with Stress
Stress is a “trigger” that is often unavoidable no matter how emotionally stable you are. Local rehab can teach you relaxation techniques and other skills to help in stressful situations.
9. Control Impulsiveness
Local rehabs teach techniques to help control impulsive thought, behaviors and actions that may set you up for relapse.
10. Improved Physical Health
Local rehabs promote education, nutrition, counseling, medical referrals, and assistance to help you improve and maintain optimal physical health to prevent relapse.
11. Cognitive Therapies
Cognitive therapies help you improve your cognitive efforts to remain abstinent and make wise decisions regarding your recovery.
12. Behavioral Therapies
Behavioral therapies help to recognize and change negative, drug seeking, behaviors to those that are positive and non-substance related.
13. Group Support
Group support helps you to realize you are not alone in your recovery and provides opportunities of learning and encouragement from those who are undergoing similar circumstances and are willing to help.
14. Counseling
Counseling helps to bring underlying issues to the forefront and sometimes, just talking things out helps you to understand and deal with them more effectively.
15. Family Support
Local rehabs provide ways to involve the family so they can support your recovery and recover themselves.
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