Getting Ready For Addiction Treatment

How do you know when it is time to stop suffering and start healing? When is the right time to get the help you or someone you love needs?

The decision to seek treatment is intensely personal and depends upon your or your loved one’s desire to begin living a life free from the influence of substances of abuse. A successful treatment experience requires a number of different factors to be in place. When thinking about whether you or someone you love is ready for treatment, consider the following.

It is okay to not know exactly how residential treatment and rehab programs work, but is helpful to know a bit about these programs so that you can have a sense of what will happen once treatment begins. Residential treatment is often difficult because it forces individuals to look at the pain and difficulty in their lives that had previously been masked by substance abuse.

Rehab is not easy, but the treatment team at Sunrise Recovery Ranch has helped hundreds of other people just like you to find freedom from substance abuse.

The most important factor that determines whether or not treatment will be successful is you. For many people, the realization that they need treatment comes after what the recovery community calls a “rock bottom” experience, such as a near-fatal overdose or the death of a friend as a result of overdose. Others may begin to realize the effect that using drugs is having on his or her family and loved ones or career and decides that enough is enough. When you or someone you love realizes that substance abuse is a dangerous and even fatal path to walk down, the time is right to get help.

Of course, for some people, this realization may not even come until they have already begun treatment. These individuals may need time away from their everyday lives to recognize the damage that drugs are causing. Regardless of when the need for help becomes apparent, the readiness and willingness to be in treatment is a critical ingredient for success in rehab.

There is an old adage that says, “It takes a village to raise a child.” The same can be said about substance abuse treatment: It takes a village to help someone recover from drug abuse. When deciding whether or not it is time for treatment, it is important to remember that successful treatment requires a healthy support system. This support system can include friends, family, coworkers, teammates, or any other people who are important to the individual seeking treatment. What is more important than who they are, however, is that they are ready to stand by your or your loved one’s side during the recovery process and beyond.

Residential treatment for substance abuse is much like boot camp or Spring training in sports — it is designed as preparation for a bigger event. Yes, part of the purpose of rehab is to help individuals have a safe, supportive, substance-free environment where they can retreat and rebuild, but the larger goal of rehab is to allow individuals to return to their everyday lives and continue building on the progress they had made so far. It is one thing to remain sober when one is in a drug-free environment, but it is a different matter to do so once a person re-enters his or her everyday life.

In order to maintain long-term sobriety after treatment has concluded, an individual must be committed to recovery and committed to getting the support that he or she needs, such as 12-Step meetings, groups, individual therapy, or even informal gatherings of family and friends. Only by committing to sobriety will an individual be able to take back his or her life from the influence of substances.

The reality of residential treatment is that an individual is, for a time, uprooting his or her life and living at a treatment center. Individuals who have work or family commitments must decide whether to put those commitments on hold, or even break them entirely, to pursue treatment. This is not to say that rehab is impossible when a person has a job or family; in fact, hundreds of thousands of people have successfully completed rehab even with children at home and a career in progress. However, each person’s story is different, and you or your loved one must make sure to account for the time you or your loved one will be away.

If you or someone you love is ready to take the courageous step of seeking treatment, do not hesitate to contact a member of Sunrise Recovery Ranch’s admissions team. The time to break free from substance abuse is now.