An addiction recovery centers provides a safe, supportive, and structured environment where individuals can learn how to manage their addiction or vice without risking their health or safety. They offer individualized treatment programs based on each person’s needs, as well as group therapy sessions that help people build camaraderie with peers going through the same struggles.
And most importantly, these centers also give people the tools they need to continue working on their recovery once they leave.
Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for people who leave an addiction recovery center to relapse into their addictions at some point in the future. Thankfully, there are steps you can take before leaving your addiction recovery center that may help decrease your risk of relapsing.
Create New Healthy Habits
Before you leave your addiction recovery center, you should work on establishing new healthy habits that can replace the ones associated with your addiction. For instance, if you are a smoker and you’ve been using smoking as a way of managing stress, you will want to find an alternative stress management strategy before leaving rehab.
Working on developing these new habits before you leave can help you break the association with your addiction and make it easier to avoid relapsing. The more established these new habits are before you leave, the more they can help you in the long run.
Attend Group Therapy
Some addiction recovery centers provide group therapy sessions for their patients. If yours does, you should absolutely attend these sessions before leaving your center.
These group therapy sessions can help you process your addiction and work through the emotions you’ve been dealing with throughout your journey. They can help you learn more about yourself as a person and discover new ways to cope with your feelings without turning to drugs or alcohol.
The sessions can also help you build relationships with other people who are going through a similar journey as you. Having a support network to lean on after leaving your addiction recovery center can help you stay on the right track so you don’t feel tempted to relapse.
Build a Support Network
Another way to prepare yourself for the transition out of an addiction recovery center is to build a support network around you.
This can include finding a therapist to speak to and a doctor who can monitor your health while in recovery. It can also mean reconnecting with family members who you’ve been estranged from due to your addiction.
Having people in your life who care about you and can hold you accountable when you’re tempted to relapse can make all the difference.
Talk to Your Counselor About Aftercare Plan
You can also consider taking part in an aftercare program offered by your addiction recovery center. These programs often consist of group therapy sessions and one-on-one counseling sessions designed to help people stay on track after they leave the center.
An aftercare program can make all the difference in helping you avoid relapsing after you leave your addiction recovery center.
The Final Word
An addiction recovery center is not a vacation spot—it’s somewhere people go when they need serious help beating an addiction for good. Obviously, it’s not easy to leave after spending so much time there with other recovering addicts. In fact, many people relapse just days after leaving because of this exact reason. Fortunately, the tips listed above can help you prevent a relapse after leaving a rehab center.
