Rehabilitation is a stepping stone to help one find their purpose to lead themselves to absent of substance and alcohol abuse. Most individuals who struggle with drug and alcohol abuse will gain perspective, tools, and inspiration after rehab to help lead them down the road of sobriety. Drug and alcohol rehab is the treatment that helps you get to your sober life and tools which help you maintain that sobriety. Most individuals who go to rehab are seeking their goal of long-term rehabilitation, which in turn will also mean a long-term recovery program that effectively helps you stay on the sober path. Through rehab programs you will gain management skills to help maintain your newly sober life.
Post-rehabilitation is just as important, as this is the point where attending other programs, meetings, and counselling sessions can help maintain your healthy habits, and continue to learn and adapt tools you have acquired to maintain your sobriety.
Living With Someone Who is Fresh Out of Rehab in Toronto, Ontario
When a loved one or a friend struggle with alcohol or substance abuse, it affects everyone around them, not just the one who is addicted. After the rehabilitation chapter of recovery and your loved one is about to come home to the life and atmosphere they lived in before rehab, there then comes more work to do. Not just for your loved one, but for the whole household.
When your loved one is about to return home it is important to remember:
- There is always room for skills to be learned, and feelings to be managed after rehab
- You can’t become sober on your own
- You are recovering as much as the one who has the addiction
There is Always Room for Learning New Skills and Managing Feelings
The rehabilitation program at a centre has been accomplished, and your loved one is now taking the tools and strategies they have learned and is bringing them home with them. This means that the rehabilitation journey is also coming home with them, it is not finished just because they completed a program. Many aspects are addressed in rehab including emotional and physical experiences which do not just disappear overnight, most of the time these emotions from experiences are triggers which is what would make an addict want to use substances or drink alcohol. These triggers are a learning curve every day with how to effectively live with and understand them, and to not react by using or drinking. The toolbox you build in rehab gives you tools to help deal with these triggers in the real world, and once you have entered back to your home atmosphere you will be able to add to this toolbox by continuing to go to meetings, programs, and counselling to maintain your sobriety.
You can’t become sober on your own
Though the addict is responsible for his or her actions, and those actions have had their consequences, it does not mean that they can accomplish sobriety and long-term sobriety on their own. Drug and alcohol rehab is not easy, so the accomplishment of this program is big. Now it is time to go back home, to a familiar atmosphere, where triggers come into play after leaving that rehab bubble. It is key for each member of the household to know how to effectively play a role in supporting their loved one’s continued recovery. This is not the time when everyone can see the completion of rehab as the celebratory “great now we can move on with our lives”, sobriety is a lifelong commitment, one which is not easy to maintain. However, with the help and support of loved ones, this commitment can be followed through with the dedication of the individual and their family and friends.
You are recovering as much as the now who has the addiction
Addressing your loved one with the fact that they have an addiction and need to get help, accomplishing this by means of intervention especially could cause ramifications for the substance abuser. Yes, you feel relief that your loved one agreed to go to rehab and take the steps to become sober, but this does not mean that all your experiences with your loved one’s addiction didn’t happen. You are entitled to feel the emotion and struggle with the past, with what your loved one put you through when they were high or drunk, this is a lifelong struggle as much as your loved one’s commitment to staying sober. In this sense, you are going through recovery too, and it is important to remember that.
Transitioning From Rehab to Home Life, Toronto, Ontario
There is no right way to handle the transition from rehab to home life, what may work for one person doesn’t necessarily work for another, but there are key points to keep in mind that will help:
- Achievable goals and manageable expectations.
- Live in the moment, and focus on what is right in front of you.
- Set some guidelines, structure helps.
Achievable goals
If your expectations are too high, they can become harder and harder to accomplish which will ultimately lead to disappointment. This is not the best way to set up for success if expectations are too high, it is almost as if you would be expecting failure to occur which isn’t what we want. So, manageable expectations and attainable goals, support the strides your loved one has been making so far during their recovery. Digestible chunks, one day at a time, are the most manageable mindset you can take.
Live in the moment
Though many behaviours have occurred before rehabilitation, and many scenarios have played out, it is important to focus on the now. It is hard to carry on through life without having talked about the past where you feel ownership and an apology is deserved, or even just knowing that your loved one understands the hurt they brought upon you. However, it is important through this transition to focus on taking steps forward, it is not the ideal time to focus on the past, there will be a time for it, but the time is not necessarily night one back home from rehab.
Set guidelines
This is not the time to say to your loved one “do this or else”, this is the time to set expectations and boundaries, the same of which is expected of everyone else in the household. For an individual recovering, feeling as if they have more rules than everyone else can lead to the feeling of exclusion and eyes on them 24/7. A line of communication is crucial, an individual recovering will have triggers, and if this is not known to others in the house then it could lead to triggers surfacing more frequently making it harder to maintain sobriety.
Addiction is a severe, lifelong struggle. With support from transitioning from rehabilitation back to home life, it will elicit a great start to continued sobriety once an individual enters back into everyday life. This allows for a smooth transition from home life back to day-to-day responsibilities, such as work and other social events. Each is a stepping stone that is made easier with the support and promotion from your family and friends to continue your recovery.
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We will support you after you or your loved one accomplishes our in-patient program for rehabilitation, and will be there for you through your sobriety. Transitioning from rehab to home life isn’t easy but with the right mindset and strategies it can be made easier. Choose the path that leads to a life of sobriety.
At Addiction Rehab Toronto, we can help you with your addiction and every aspect of your addiction. We are will help you on your road to sobriety.
Call us today, we are here to help
FOR IMMEDIATE HELP – CALL US 1-855-787-2424
Or email us at: help@addictionrehabtoronto.ca
