Bridging Treatment And Recovery Communities

The life of an addict is a lonely one, on that isolates and destroys. If the disease of addiction is strong enough for someone, then detoxification is the only option. There are different types of detox facilities, and the ones that advertise a “fast detox” or “rapid detox” should be avoided because they use dangerous methods to help someone get substances out of their system. The better detox facilities are the more methodical ones, the ones that not only deal with the physical problems but prepare the person to deal with the emotional and mental damage as well when it comes time for them to go to treatment.

Into Treatment

Once it is time for someone to get out of detox and into treatment, choosing the right detox treatment center is paramount. This is not to say that there are bad treatment centers to watch out for, but more of that there are treatment centers out there that are not as thorough and connected as others. Not only is the treatment of the patient while they are in the facility very important, but also what happens after.

It happens often that people get through detox, get through treatment, leave treatment and are cast back out into the wild where they came from, back around all those old temptations and people who they used or drank with. Yes, they have a newfound set of skills that they should have learned in treatment, but the care can’t stop there. There has to be continued support afterwards, and this ideally takes the form of someone getting into a 12-step program.

The Transition

Usually, while in treatment, the person would have gone with a group to several 12-step meetings in order to experience what life is like after treatment and during sobriety back in the real world. They would have heard stories from sober people who were living on their own, healthy, happy, and usefully whole, and hopefully been inspired. They would see that there is life without drugs and alcohol, and that it can be a good one.

But sometimes these meetings do not always stick. Sometimes the person is still fighting the fact that they are sick, and they have a hard time believing that they need help. Either that, or they feel that they are beyond help, or that a good life simply is not possible for them. These are the kind of people who need extra attention and should be in the kind of place that helps them transition smoothly from treatment into recovery.

In any case, there has to be a good transition from the world of treatment to the world of sober living, and contact between the two is the part that is paramount. Mentioned earlier were the distinctions between treatment centers, ones that are good, not so good, and very good. The kind that someone wants to be in is the kind that helps the recovering addict plan for life after treatment. The ones that simply kick them out once their time is up are the kind that should be avoided. Recovering from an addiction is a delicate matter and should be treated as such.

The path between both worlds of treatment and the real world need to be taken seriously by everyone, especially those people who set up the program for what it is that treatment centers do and how they operate. If we saw more and more of a linkage between 12-step programs and treatment centers from which the members of 12-step programs come from, then the world of recovery would be a brighter, and definitely more populated, one.