Many people seeking treatment are primarily familiar with the 30-day drug rehab programs they see advertised on television. While many of these programs are high-quality and nurturing, they often are only able to scratch the surface of the root cause of the client’s addiction. A primary difference and substantial benefit of a long-term treatment program are that it offers many of the same programs as short-term rehab offers and so much more. In a long-term drug rehab program, there is more time to really dig deeply into the cause of the client’s addiction, thereby reducing the chances of a relapse. A very important distinction between simply taking a detox approach to treatment and a more comprehensive approach is that the short-term treatment may only clean an addict up for the time being but will never uncover the reason for the addiction. By attending a long-term treatment program, individuals will not only learn to understand what triggers the addiction but also learn new coping mechanisms for dealing with stressors, both internally and externally. This distinction is vital for long-term recovery from addiction.
Also, because some drugs can take months to fully leave the system, detoxification is only the first step in a complete treatment program. This is especially true if the user has built up a level of physical tolerance that masks her addiction. In fact, even when supporting an acute addiction to heroin, cocaine, or other powerful drugs, some addicts can appear to function normally. While qualified supervision can help minimize withdrawal symptoms from drugs, through use of anti-addictive drugs or other treatments, weekend programs and even 30-day in-patient programs simply won’t do it. Only a long-term drug rehab program will help an addict through the complete cycle of detoxification.
Additionally, several reputable studies have shown that detox alone has little effect on long-term drug addiction. Obviously, vigilance must be maintained to prevent drug use during treatment. Furthermore, drug rehab programs need to treat all the needs of an addict, in addition to the drug abuse. For example, clients often have other medical or mental health challenges in need of treatment. Counseling and behavioral therapies included in long term care have proven important to effective rehabilitation. Most importantly, treatment always needs to be customized to each client and adaptable as her individual needs change. Clearly, all of this cannot be successfully accomplished, even in quality short-term programs.
While many people’s first thoughts about treatment often only include the clinical, patient-counselor interaction, long-term drug rehab, and long-term alcohol rehab actually opens up a more complete resource channel for an addicted woman to draw from. Of course, these resources do include the trained counselors, medical staff, and administration of the rehab facility, but they also include the other women who have battled through their own addictions. This aspect of treatment is critical, as many times when an addicted woman sees other recovering women succeeding in beating their addiction, it shows a true-life, “in the flesh” account of an addiction that has been beaten through long-term treatment.
One of the other primary benefits of a long-term treatment plan – one that many do not consider – is that many of these programs are outside the state of the patient’s primary residence. This offers a great opportunity to take the addict out of her often detrimental home environment. For instance, if a patient is in the Midwest and enters a long-term drug and alcohol rehab center in California, the change of environment may be exactly what she needs to kick-start the treatment into high gear. After all, when the home is hundreds of miles away, it allows for less of an opportunity for relapse. To help the client cope with being away from home for an extended period of time, many treatment programs for women have a structured beginning and end approach to treatment that is carefully laid out for the addict, to help prevent homesickness and a feeling of, “I just want to go home.”
Safe Harbor is a treatment facility that is geared specifically for drug-addicted women and men. It offers not only a 90-day treatment program but is also one of the most well-regarded long-term drug and alcohol rehab centers in California.