While the hard work may feel like it’s over when you leave treatment, you have to figure out how to reintegrate into the outside world. Oftentimes, this may mean being exposed to things that will remind you of your past challenges with addiction or people who are still in active addiction. It is integral to your long-term recovery success to have a plan for this transition and your life after treatment. Bright Mission Recovery strives to provide every opportunity to encourage our clients to make changes that will stick with them.
Transitioning back into day-to-day life after treatment can be jarring. Using skills that you learned in treatment to maintain the internal changes you’ve made will help you maintain your sobriety. Life after treatment can be amazing if the skills you’ve learned are utilized to create an external environment that encourages healthy living. Maintaining a connection to your care and your recovery journey will enable you to keep moving forward.
Life After Treatment: Transitioning
When treatment ends, it may feel scary or that you are left on your own. Large leaps were made to get sober, and it may feel overwhelming to think about living a sober life on your own. This transitional period is difficult for any newly sober person, as they try to learn what their life will look like without using substances. For many people, the main focus is finding ways to avoid triggers and avoid relapse.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) defines relapse as “both an event and a process.” It adds, “The relapse process often begins long before the individual uses the substance.” Relapse is a slow pull away from the things that helped you get sober and a subsequent slide back into old habits and behaviors. Understanding your triggers and having people that you can rely on is important for you to avoid relapsing after getting out of treatment.
It is important to carry the changes that you have learned in treatment into your day-to-day life. This includes the internal changes that you have made, but also external ones in your life outside of treatment. The transition can be difficult for many people, but with support and the tools that you have learned, it is possible to live a sober life at home.
Life After Treatment: Internal and External Changes
Going through treatment creates a large internal change. Through therapy and encouragement, people change their focus from struggles and addiction to sobriety and their well-being. This focus on sobriety is fueled by the inner strength of each person who goes through treatment. There must be a desire to get sober and stay sober in each person that goes through treatment. This internal strength is what drives them toward getting better.
Once someone leaves treatment, there must also be external changes. Sometimes people leave treatment and go back to the environment that may have contributed to their previous substance use. When you head home from a treatment facility, you need to be prepared to make external changes in your home life as well. Finding a group that can support you, as well as people to lean on, is essential to long-term success.
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) crucial elements of maintaining sobriety are health, home, purpose, and community. After leaving treatment, the following will help an individual stay sober:
- Making healthy and educated decisions to stay off of substances
- Having a supportive, safe home life
- Maintaining internal drive and purpose
- A strong recovery community and peer support
These changes are both internal and external. Finding purpose and making healthy decisions come from the strength and insights you have gained through therapy. Having a community and safe home life comes from transitioning your external life to fit into your newfound sober life. Employing all these strategies is what will encourage long-term success. Focusing on the strength that got you through treatment will allow you to maintain your newfound sobriety in life after treatment.
Maintaining Sobriety After Treatment
The main goal once you leave treatment is to maintain your sobriety. This means doing what you need to do to avoid relapse, but also continuing to practice the therapeutic skills you have learned. Staying sober can be hard to do alone, which is why it is important to have a plan made before you leave treatment. Bright Mission Recovery works on relapse prevention plans for every client who completes treatment with us.
The main way to avoid relapse is to have a plan for a continuation of care after leaving a treatment facility. This can include things like outpatient care, sober living, and community support resources. Having a therapist or care worker that you can go to when things get tough will help maintain sobriety. Being surrounded by people who are on a similar journey will help you during this transition as well.
Getting sober is freeing and liberating, but the transition back into daily life after treatment can be daunting for some. Getting sober, you had help and assistance within the treatment facility, and now you have to figure out how to apply that in your home life. Creating a plan for transitioning back into daily life before you leave treatment is important to your long-term success. Having outpatient care or community support will help you to maintain a sober life. If you are interested in learning more about transitioning out of treatment and how Bright Mission Recovery creates relapse prevention plans for each of our clients, call us at (747) 444-3284.