Why Residential Rehabs Are So Effective
It’s one thing to physically detox and get chemicals out of your system. It’s a whole other thing to leave an affordable drug rehab center having a completely different outlook and having had a bit of experience living life sober. In many cases, for people who suffer from addiction, a residential low cost drug rehab is the only place that offers them the opportunity to focus on cultivating the skills they need to survive sober in a chaotic world.
Kill the Chaos
Chaos acts as an obstacle to effective rehab. Sometimes addicts create chaos in their lives because chaos is what is familiar to them. Other times, they surround themselves with people who wear chaos like a banner. It’s not that chaos makes them happy, any more than abused children who grow up to be abused adults are happy with their situation. It’s simply familiar and comfortable, but hard to validate, even to one’s self. For the addict, retreat can be found in the form of chemicals of some sort. Sometimes it’s just easier to be numb than it is to take that first step away from the chaos and its source.
Residential rehabs eliminate that chaos. Visitation is limited, and even restricted, in the beginning. Why? Because from the time the addict started using and, in many cases, even before they were using, chaos was the theme of their lives. They relied on their addiction as a type of coping skill, while the chaos gave them the perfect excuse to use. Being restricted from the outside world and functioning on a schedule with responsibilities, surrounded by people who are also learning this new way of life, forces the addict to take those first steps away from the world that gave them the perfect reason to numb their emotions.
Introducing Life
Many addicts have suffered some sort of abuse from their environment. It’s all they know. Believe it or not, when the abuse is gone, it’s like stepping into the sun after being trapped in a cave for years. The sunlight might feel good, but it’s also unfamiliar and, for that reason, scary.
While in residential treatment in Orange County, addicts have nothing to do but look inside themselves and learn a new way of life. They are exposed to an environment devoid of abuse and devoid of chemical options. Soon enough, they learn to see what is out there. They also learn how to deal with certain stressful situations without resorting to chemical use. In short, they learn that the life they were living isn’t the only path available to them, but this can’t be learned in only a couple of days. It takes weeks and, sometimes, months.
At the end of the rehab program, the hope is that the addict will have become accustomed to a life without being immersed in chaos, so much so that chaos is now uncomfortable for them. They learn new coping skills and see that it is possible to live; that there is more to themselves and their lives than a continuous stream of chemicals. At the end of the program, the addict might wonder … if life can be like this, what else might it be like?
