What Are the Stages of Addiction Rehab?
Rehab can provide a supportive and structured environment to help individuals overcome addiction. Completing a rehabilitation program and maintaining sobriety takes patience, hard work, and dedication. Addiction rehab typically involves the following four stages:
1. Awareness
This stage is characterized by the realization that one’s addiction has become problematic. Individuals may begin to experience negative consequences resulting from their addiction. Becoming aware that addiction is negatively impacting one’s life may compel an individual to want to change their behavior. People in the awareness stage may have mixed feelings about seeking help for their addiction. They may want to stop using drugs or alcohol and reclaim their lives but may feel fearful, ashamed, and unsure of how to move forward. At this stage, individuals dealing with addiction need as much support and encouragement as possible.
2. Acknowledgment
This stage involves exploring how and why addiction has become a problem. Acknowledgment can help individuals begin to understand what led them to substance use, how powerful addiction can be, and common ways to overcome it. In this stage, people may become aware of the damage caused to their lives and those of their family, friends, and colleagues. This stage also includes taking the first steps in committing to change. Individuals may start exploring recovery options like therapy and support groups.
3. Action
In this stage, individuals have accepted their inability to control their addictions and may begin to change their behaviors and lifestyles. Therapists can suggest treatment options such as outpatient rehab and 12-step programs. These treatments aim to help individuals recover by learning new coping skills, building healthy habits, and developing accountability. Recovery can happen in three stages: early, middle, and late.
Early Recovery
After stabilizing and recovering from withdrawal symptoms, individuals can shift their focus to changing addictive and negative thoughts into healthy ones. Strong emotions like guilt and shame commonly accompany this stage. Group therapy can be a helpful tool for overcoming difficult feelings and receiving educational information about the recovery journey. The support found in group therapy sessions can help ease individuals into early recovery and help them feel less alone.
Middle Recovery
In this stage of recovery, individuals are focused on creating a new and balanced lifestyle. This may involve mending relationships with loved ones and rebuilding trust. At this stage, individuals may consider making employment and relationship changes that promote a healthy and stable life. Therapy sessions may involve strategies focused on fostering self-awareness and kindness.
Late Recovery
Individuals may now begin to navigate their new, sober lifestyle. While old habits may surface and interfere with the recovery process, individuals can reflect on what triggered those behaviors and seek help from a therapist to work through them. Once these habits are identified and addressed, people can begin to change how they respond to triggers. Therapists and rehab centers can offer family counseling and skill-building meetings to support the individual’s recovery.
4. Maintenance
In the final stage of rehabilitation, individuals focus on upholding the progress they have achieved through therapy. They can make long-term plans for sobriety and use what they’ve learned to avoid triggers that could lead to relapse. Individuals in this stage are focused on implementing healthy coping mechanisms to move past unavoidable triggers. They can also focus on building healthy relationships, cultivating effective communication, and managing emotions effectively.
Begin Your Rehab Journey Today
Addiction rehab is a multi-staged process involving awareness, acknowledgment, action, and maintenance. Awareness opens up an individual’s understanding of addictive behavior and its effects on their life. Acknowledgment involves taking ownership and responsibility for one’s addiction. The action stage begins when a person actively changes behaviors through individual or group therapy sessions. The final step is maintaining sobriety and managing triggers. Search for rehab and addiction treatment options near you to begin your recovery journey today.
