The Stages of Drug Rehab and Recovery

By Emily Blunt

To overcome an addiction is not a simple process. It is a journey through unknown territories before you can finally reach your destination. Understanding the concept can be helpful when you are looking into treatment options for yourself or your loved ones. When you are coping with drug addiction, you believe it is time to clean up your body, and you should enter a professional drug treatment program.

Recovery from drug addiction requires effort, time, support, and willpower. When you choose to go with a professional drug treatment program, you will enter into a journey through four different stages of rehab recovery as you learn to develop a healthy and sober lifestyle. Every treatment program for drug or alcohol recovery goes through a series of steps. Here, we will discuss the stages of drug rehab treatment.

The four stages of drug rehab treatment are as follows-

Treatment initiation
Early abstinence
Maintaining abstinence
Advanced recovery

Stage 1- Treatment Initiation

When you get out for help from a professional drug rehab program, you start with the first stage of your recovery, treatment initiation. In the early days of your rehab, you probably will have some conflicting feelings about giving up your drug permanently, and you may think that your substance abuse problem is not as bad as others. At this point in the treatment, the aim is to help the individual participate in treatment actively and accept that frugality is the aim.

To achieve this, a substance abuse counsellor may help the individual to do the following-

To look at the damaging effects of addiction
Explore the feeling of refusal with regards to the problem
Help the person to become motivated or recover

However, during this stage of treatment, an individual’s drug use history evaluation will be held. The treatment program will be initiated, and the counsellor will work with the individual to develop a treatment plan.

Stage 2- Early Abstinence

Once you decide to continue treatment for your substance abuse problem, you will enter the second stage of rehab, known as early abstinence. However, early abstinence from drugs is significantly associated with positive treatment outcomes. This can be a challenging stage to handle because of many factors, which include the following-

Continued withdrawal symptoms

Physical cravings
Psychological dependency
Triggers that can appeal you into a relapse

Threats at this stage of treatment can include cravings, social pressure to drink, and high-risk situations that can target alcohol consumption. During the early abstinence stage, your addiction counselor will start to teach you the coping skills you need to live a sober life.

Some helpful strategies include the following-

Encouraging participation in healthy activities
Finding alternative behaviors to occupy in rather than turning to alcohol
Participation in self-help group that offers support and information
Recognizing environmental triggers that can lead to cravings, including people, place, or a thing.

Stage 3- Maintaining Abstinence

After 90 days of abstinence, you will move from the early abstinence stage of recovery to the stage of maintaining abstinence. If you have started with a residential treatment program, you will now move to the counselling phase of rehab program on an outpatient basis.

The focus of this stage of rehab is to maintain abstinence by avoiding a relapse. You will learn the warning signs and the steps that can lead to deterioration. The maintaining abstinence stage of rehab will begin about three months into your rehabilitation program and last till you reach five years clean and sober.

Stage 4- Advanced Recovery

After five years of abstinence, you will reach the fourth and final stage of your rehab, advanced recovery. At this point, you take all your tools and skills that you have learned during your rehab counselling and put them to use to live a satisfying life.

In this stage, the below strategies can help-

Developing a long-term goal
Creating a daily schedule
Developing social relationships with people who are not addictive
Engaging in recreational activities which do not involve drugs
Finding ways through spirituality, religion, social action, or community work

Learning to apply these strategies will help you remain sober, but you will also have the skills to become a healthier person and a better family member. After all, recovery is much more than just staying sober. It is more of learning to live a happier and healthier life.

Author Bio

Emily Blunt is a passionate blogger who is exploring the field of addiction recovery. With the help of her blogs, She provides information and knowledge about various addiction recovery techniques and rehab centers.