When you have an addiction to alcohol, it can feel like your entire life has been taken over by your alcohol abuse and addiction issues. Because your life feels completely consumed by your addiction, it can be difficult to imagine an alternative path. However, those alternative paths do exist. Going through treatment and recovery is the alternative path that can break you free from your alcohol addiction once and for all. You might, though, wonder what getting help for your alcoholism might entail. Get to know some of the facts about alcoholism treatment and then, you can be sure you are doing what you can to fight your alcoholism and find that alternative path.
Alcoholism Treatment Is Not Just About 12 Steps
The 12 Steps of Recovery, a part of Alcoholic Anonymous programs, is a reputable and well-known form of alcoholism recovery and treatment. When most people think about alcoholism treatment, this is what they think of. However, it is important to know that not all alcoholism treatment programs use the 12 Steps. In fact, there are many different types of treatment available including MRT (moral reconation therapy), medical treatment, and more.
As such, if you have tried the 12 Steps before and they just did not work for you for whatever reason, do not give up hope or give up on the idea of recovery. There are other ways that you can recover from your addiction.
Alcoholism Treatment Is Not Just Rehab
Another common misconception about alcoholism treatment is that in order to be successful at recovery you need to go to a long-term rehab facility. Rehab is a form of residential alcoholism treatment, meaning the person will stay in the treatment center full-time. This can last anywhere from a few weeks to several months. Some people even spend a year or more in residential treatment.
However, you should not be intimidated by the idea of rehab. If you do not have the time to commit to rehab, whether it is because of work, your family, or for other reasons, you can still recover from an addiction to alcohol.
There are other options. The most flexible of these is outpatient substance abuse treatment. Outpatient services often only require a commitment of a few hours a week (in the afternoons or evenings) to go to treatment. You can also attend addition group meetings and the like as needed if you wish when you are in outpatient treatment. This allows you to continue work, school, stick to family obligations, and take care of anything else you have going on while you also work on your recovery.
Now that you know some of the facts about alcoholism treatment, you can choose the right option for you and get yourself started on the path to recovery.
For a long time, I wasn't sure if my counseling was really working or not. It felt like no matter what I did, I just couldn't stay on top of my personal frustrations, so I started addressing those concerns with my counselor. I was able to find a counselor who really understood what I was up against, and it was really neat to talk with her about everything that I was having a hard time with. We chatted about everything in my life ranging from the initial issues I started having to my daily struggles at work, and I felt like those early talks were helping a lot. On this blog, find out more about working with counselors and making things right.