Why We Love Outpatient Treatment

Drug addiction rehabilitation programs generally offer two options for the term of your treatment: residential programs and outpatient programs. Inpatient residential treatment programs are generally considered to be the better of the two options, as you’re immersed in an environment that is comforting and attentive, with the opportunity to spend as much time with the friends you meet in the program as you’d like. Being close to fitness classes and easily able to attend every therapy session makes a stay in rehab a little easier than other options. Inpatient treatment can be much like a long stay at a nice hospital, or even like a resort.

What can prove a deterrent, though, is the cost of residential or inpatient programs. Some of them are as little as $2,500 for a month-long stay, but most are between $10,000 and $25,000 for a 30-day program, with high-end luxury programs commanding up to $110,000 per person in a treatment program. During this time, you eat and heal with a group of people on a schedule designed to keep you active and your mind off of drugs and alcohol. Outpatient treatment, however, also has a list a great benefits, including a new crop of friends that can be there for you as you continue to heal.

An Effective Treatment

Outpatient treatment shouldn’t be regarded as a second option for those who aren’t ‘serious’ about getting clean and sober. Outpatient treatment, in many ways, is an extension of inpatient care programs, but recent studies have shown that outpatient care, for most people, is as effective as an inpatient program in terms of rates of completion, and intensity. This is how things should be, though – more options to treat people living with addiction to drugs and alcohol means that more people will be able to access the care that they need.

While the sweeping majority of people living with addiction can actually be successfully treated with intensive outpatient programs, anyone living with a severe addiction, especially an addiction that has caused multiple stays in rehab, should always consider inpatient treatment programs. For addiction to powerful stimulants and opioids, inpatient treatment is a necessary step to rid a person’s body of those addicting toxins.

For addictions that are less severe, or addiction that has been deemed by a doctor to be manageable with intensive outpatient treatment, the option for an effective treatment that doesn’t require a change of residence is available to you.

Flexible

Over the years, outpatient treatment has been considered the ‘cheap option,’ or the ‘last resort’ treatment when nothing else could be afforded for a person living with addiction. But the truth is that intensive outpatient treatment programs are an excellent way to get your life restarted after a residential treatment program, or anyone that needs extra support from an understanding community.

Outpatient treatment options are an excellent way to meet financial and social obligations that might otherwise be out of reach for a person in an residential program. With an intensive outpatient program, you can go to work, make your gym class, have your lunch of choice, and head to meetings at your treatment center. There, you may have a little time to speak with a counselor alone, or reconvene with your friends in the program, before you have a session of therapy. If it’s available, perhaps you could attend a fitness class, or go for a short nature hike with the people around you. Outpatient treatment is a wonderfully flexible option for those who need extra support while trying to live with some normalcy while receiving treatment.  

Taste the Real World

This option for intensive outpatient treatment programs helps you to get a taste of the life you’re learning to live while you’re still receiving treatment. With all of the flexibility of outpatient treatment, you won’t be stymied in your professional goals, nor in your personal goals by the need to stay in a drug addiction treatment center. You will be able to see most anyone you would like to see, and spend time with close friends and family.  

Obviously, you need to be judicious about the time that you share with the people or in the places that you spent copious amounts of time using drugs and alcohol. Make sure that you choose company who is conscientious of your journey to lifelong sobriety, and support you in this. This way, anytime you want to see your friends and close acquaintances, there is a wonderful environment for your needs and everyone can have fun. You’ll be better able to enjoy all of your hard-earned progress while you’re rebuilding the neglected parts of your life.

Good for Sober Living

Sober living facilities, or halfway houses, are another great tool that can be used in conjunction with outpatient treatment. Sober living homes are filled with people who are turning their lives around after inpatient treatment programs. This isn’t necessarily a requisite for a sober living home, but there are more people choosing sober living after inpatient treatments for more support, and a continually disciplined schedule. Should you be open to changing your living situation as you get clean, you can always apply for sober living housing. Here, you will be around like-minded recovering persons, and have access to therapy.

Continuing Treatment

Outpatient treatment programs are absolutely great as part of a larger treatment program. The option to have a job, go to the home that is yours, and spend needed time with supportive friends and family are all part of helping you to heal. What’s more is that more treatment facilities are offering Lifelong Therapy.

There is no cure for addiction, though scientists work diligently to find more options for people who are in need of quality treatment. The option of lifelong treatment is a bold one, but one that emphasizes constant and continual support for as long as a recovering person may need to heal. If a patient needs a few extra months of support, or a few extra years, there are time and payment options that will fit your situation.

Don’t forget, also, that the treatment facilities may be able to help you find a way to afford the care that you need. Don’t feel like you’ll never be clean. Call a center near you today.