Aftercare services are all of the programs and supports that are available to help the recovering addict be successful in not returning to their abusive behaviors. Drug addiction is an illness that cannot be cured, but it can be managed.

Part of the recovery process includes making amends, which is a crucial factor in the overall process in recovery from addiction. Taking responsibility for your actions is important.

Aftercare services help the recovering addict manage their disease.

Aftercare reduces the possibility of relapse

In the United States about nine percent of the populations deal with a substance abuse issue. Between 37 and 67% of the people who attempt to kick their habits will relapse and start using again. If people participate in aftercare recovery services, they drastically reduce their chances of relapsing.

Types of Aftercare

12-Step Programs

12-step programs and similar programs are a type of aftercare for addicts. These programs provide the structure and guidance that recovering individual has to have. They help the individual identify their need for recovery, deal with the day-to-day stresses, temptations and frustrations, and learn new behaviors that are going to increase their odds of getting sober and staying sober.

Some of these programs like the Narcotics Anonymous, and Alcoholics Anonymous help the recovering addict to touch base with other people who are going through similar problems. They provide meetings and group sessions where people who share similar addictions can share their stories, their successes, and even their failures.

These programs help people to learn to accept who they are and that they are not just an addict. They are people with a disease and that disease is treatable. They are people who need a friend and sometimes they need someone to mentor them and help them resist temptations.

Individual Therapy

The individual therapy is done with a licensed therapist. There is not a group of other people who have similar problems there is just the individual and the therapist at each session.

The therapist will help the individual work through their issues, identify their weaknesses and strengths. Therapists are also great at helping the individual to learn to adapt to life after drug use.

This adaption often requires changing the people that you hang out with and the places you normally go. Sometimes people have to stop being around the places and people who they once associated with drug use. People have to make changes in all areas of their life in order to start living the new life they deserve after drug recovery has become a priority in their life.

The individual therapy will most likely begin while the patient is still in the rehabilitation facility. Then when they are ready to transition out of the rehab center they will be treated as an outpatient and still given the guidance and personalized support they need.

The therapist can also help the patient to find programs within their community that helps with housing location, job placement, food, utilities and more. The therapist does not just talk to the patient for an hour and forget them. The therapist cares for the patient and does everything in their power to help the patient achieve their needs, create goals, and follow their dreams to their goals.

Family Counseling

Family counseling is crucial to the recovering addict. The support and understanding of the family members and friend of the individual will go a long way towards helping that person avoid future drug usage or complications.

Therapists and counselors help the family members to understand the needs of the recovering addict and help the patient understand the role their family can play in their recovery. Drug abuse does not just affect the person who is taking the drugs. It affects everyone they know and love.

Family counseling is a part of aftercare that helps everyone in the family heal. This allows the entire family to move forward and get past the ordeal they are facing.

Aftercare Plans

The rehab program can help the patient to establish an aftercare plan that will work for them. These plans are full of checks and balances that help the person succeed.

Required drug testing is often a motivational tool that helps the recovering addict. The patient wants to be recovered and if they know that they have to prove that they have not been using by having a drug test performed it is a tool that helps them to stay sober.

Monitoring services through in-person sessions, emails, phone calls and other sources help the recovering addict to feel that someone cares and wants the best for them.

Each aftercare plan is established in such a way as to benefit the particular patient. One person may need a controlled living environment until they can trust themselves to resist temptations. Another patient may need help finding a job so they can feel like a productive part of the community again.

Aftercare involves the caring for the entire person. Mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally. Recovering addicts need a little more support so they can become recovered addicts who are role models and mentors for the people who are just starting their recovery process.

Recovery is difficult

Recovering from an addiction is not easy to do. It requires the person to want to recover, and it requires them to fight through withdrawal and then to learn to live a different way than they have been living. During addiction the person develops habits that have to be changed, and changing a habit is a real struggle.

Recovery and aftercare never stops

Once a person has gotten a drug or substance out of their system, they will work the rest of their lives to keep that drug or substance out of their system. Addiction is a disease like diabetes. The disease cannot be cured. The person suffering from it must treat the symptoms and learn to do things that keep the disease from taking over their lives or taking their lives.

Aftercare and support are needed from the first minute the addict decides to quit, until forever.