What to Do When You Leave an Inpatient Drug Treatment Center

According to the National Library of Medicine, an inpatient drug treatment center monitors and addresses drug addition, its causes, and its consequences. Inpatient drug treatment is a time for relearning how to live a drug free life. When you are in inpatient treatment, you are isolated and protected from the outside world and your triggers. It can be difficult to decide when it is time to leave this protected environment and reenter society. There are several factors that lead up to leaving an inpatient drug treatment center.

What is Inpatient Drug Treatment?

Inpatient drug treatment centers are facilities where people go to recover from addiction. Some drug treatment centers are for specific drugs while others are offer services for all drugs. Most of these centers have both locked and voluntary facilities. In inpatient, you are isolated from the rest of the world while you get a handle on the addiction. They provide counseling, medication, and other services to help you on the road to recovery.

Most inpatient facilities offer room and board, drug treatment, and other activities. They are designed to help you reenter your life after the addiction. They provide everything that you need to stay there are be comfortable.

What Happens in Inpatient Drug Treatment?

Counseling is a crucial part of inpatient drug treatment.

When you first arrive, inpatient treatment is very restrictive. The program is about physically getting over the drug. This is called a detox period. Once you are out of detox, you will enter into counseling and other programs to help you deal with life without the drugs. The counseling sessions are either individual or group sessions.

During inpatient care there is both medical and peer support. You are never alone. In the outside world you will be.

A big part of inpatient treatment is dealing with triggers. Depending on the drug and your circumstance, you will need to get rid of the triggers or learn to avoid them. This is key to preventing relapse. Inpatient treatment teaches you how to do this effectively so you do not wind up relapsing into your drug use.

Outcomes of Inpatient Drug Treatment

There are a few outcomes of any drug treatment. Some are positive and some are negative. According to the National Institute on Drug Addiction, inpatient treatment is highly effective against drug abuse, but it is not perfect. Some of the expected outcomes for inpatient drug treatment are:

• full recovery – you leave drug treatment and no longer use drugs. You know how to handle triggers and your life improves after treatment.
• partial recovery – you leave drug treatment but still need to learn the skills to deal with triggers and other issues that come up back in your home environment. This often leads to relapse if you are not ready to leave.
• no recovery – you leave drug treatment because you are not making progress, are frustrated, or because of another issue. You relapse when you arrive back home.

There are more variations to these outcomes but these are the basics. Many drug treatment programs have safe guards and aftercare to make sure that the negative outcomes are never realized.

When to Leave Drug Treatment

You leave drug treatment when you, your doctor, and your counselor feels you are ready. Many think that the decision is the doctors alone. This is not necessarily true. Each person knows deep down when they are ready to leave. If you leave to early, you might end up in relapse. Most doctors let their patients guide them as far as a release date goes.

Doctors and counselors are not the people who are responsible for your recovery, you are. People have the responsibility to make sure that their treatment is successful. For some this is in two weeks, others it might be a month or three months. It all depends on the person and their reactions to the treatment.

What to do After you Leave Drug Treatment

Once you complete a drug treatment program it is hard to know what to do after you leave an inpatient facility. Most facilities have resources to help you stay on the path to recovery. These resources are:

• outpatient facilities and treatments – most rehabs have both an inpatient and outpatient program. After leaving an inpatient program, you can still attend individual and group counseling on an outpatient basis. This helps you to continue your treatment without interruption.
• community support – community support programs such as 12 step programs are available for those who wish to join a group focused on sober living.
• sober recreation groups – with drug addiction being as prevalent as it is it is little wonder that there are groups whose purpose is to meet, have fun, and remain sober.
• holistic continuing treatment – there are holistic programs and practitioners who can help with all problems as well as cravings and other issues that might come up.

There are a vast variety of activities that you can do now that you are sober. Although many drug dependent people think that sober life is boring, there are things that you could not do while on the drugs. Things to consider are:

• taking up a hobby,
• reconnecting with family and friends,
• volunteering, and
• just about any other activity you can think of.

When you leave drug treatment, the world opens up to you. You have to discover yourself again. Take time to arrange your life so that you avoid your triggers and fill your time with positive activities. If you need help call 800-430-1407Who Answers? to speak to a drug addiction counselor.