Sobriety is a blessing, but it’s something that many recovering people have to work on each and every day. The craving or temptation to use can come along often and powerfully, especially in early recovery. The remedy for this is often drug rehab outpatient services that reduce, but don’t eliminate entirely, the possibility of relapsing. Relapse is a dreaded word in the recovery community. No one wants to see someone who worked so hard for sobriety fall back into old patterns of drug use and behavior.
Outpatient services are there to give recovering individuals who’ve established some clean time an avenue for preventing relapse. No one relapse prevention plan works for all, and there are some people who follow relapse prevention plans to the letter and still, for reasons that baffle them and everyone else, pick up and use again. What outpatient services do is give recovering people their best chance to stay sober. Here’s how they work.
Counseling Sessions
Most outpatient programs have varying degrees of individual counseling services for their patient. You might go to therapy once a week, every two weeks, or 2-3 times a week, depending on the initial intake and assessment by your counselor. What level of counseling you need will depend in part on your needs. For example, someone with a dual diagnosis – for example, bipolar disorder and substance abuse disorder – might need more therapy than someone with just a substance abuse diagnosis. Your counselor will be the person who determines how many sessions will give you the best chance to avoid relapse.
During sessions, you’ll talk to your counselor about your medical history, psychological history, important moments in your life, fears you have, things you want for the future, and so many other things. All of these conversations are kept confidential between you and the therapist. Your outpatient plan is yours and yours alone, to use in your best interests. Having a counselor to talk to as you go through the ups and downs of sobriety will inevitably help you avoid relapse.
Group Meetings
AA and other similar group meetings have proven enormously helpful to so many clients. People respond well when they have the support of a group of like-minded individuals with similar experiences. Alcoholics and drug addicts often find that peer support is their most trusted ally against relapse. By hearing that other people go through relapse prevention plans every single day, and come out victorious, it can be a massive form of inspiration for other recovering individuals.
Group meetings aren’t restricted to AA. Any type of group meeting that helps you stay sober can be a part of the outpatient program. For example, some people are sexual abuse survivors. Attending a support group meeting on something like this that might be a part of your history will also help to prevent relapse. You’re facing your life head-on now, and you’re using healthy ways to cope instead of drugs or alcohol. It’s a good feeling for most recovering people to have these meetings to turn to. Topics of conversation vary by meeting, but there’s almost always something said that will help keep you sober another day.
Drug Testing
Drug testing in outpatient programs is almost always voluntary (unless ordered by a court). Why? Well, some recovered people see the drug tests as a way to keep themselves in check and hold themselves accountable during intensive outpatient services. While a regular outpatient program might not have drug testing, an intensive outpatient program might very well have drug testing. They want to make sure that the people participating in the program are sober and able to contribute in a way that’s healthy for all.
Drug testing in these programs should be kept confidential so that everyone can be comfortable with them. Many recovering people want these drug tests as a way to keep themselves in the program and sober. Relapse prevention programs that include drug testing often give an extra incentive to avoid the next drink or drug, and most addicts are completely comfortable with these tests. After all, if you haven’t relapsed, there’s nothing but pride in a passed drug test, and it’s a great sign that you’re on the right track.
If you need to enter a solid, helpful outpatient drug rehab plan that prevents relapse and keeps you living your best life, please call us today at 844-639-8371. Our counselors offer stellar outpatient services that not only help to prevent relapse, but they help you feel like you’re living your best sober life, too.