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Length of Stay for Lasting Recovery

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Long-Lasting Recovery: 90 Days Can Add Up to a Lifetime

Effective treatment is based on the progress you make with your individualized treatment plan. Depending on the receptiveness and attitude toward the lessons in treatment, the length of stay often varies and correlates with the effort that the patients invest in their own treatment.

Well-trained and credentialed staff gives patients the tools and resources they need to graduate from their personalized rehab program. However, with hard work, focus, and dedication it is possible for a patient to complete the level system and graduate from one of our individualized rehab programs.

We at ABTRS work hard to connect those who call us with the treatment that is right for them. You may worry about leaving your family, work, or school obligations for an extended period of time. Or, you might worry about the cost of a longer treatment program. That is why ABTRS will work hard to find you treatment that works with the length of time you request.

Each patient will have different needs that will be the focus of their rehab duration. Further, patients may also have differing levels of willingness to invest themselves in the process. This is why many programs’ length of stay is based on a patient’s personal needs.

At ABTRS, we understand that patients are anxious to get on with their lives and begin clearing up the damage their addiction has caused. With that in mind, it takes time, patience, focus, tools, and the practice of these tools before patients are confident in their recovery and consider themselves ready for the long-term lifestyle change.

While one may initially consider a shorter length of stay, there are countless benefits that accumulate from a longer period of stay, including better short-term and long-term health, improved mental wellness and stability, significantly increased likelihood of long-term recovery, and future savings from consistent long-term sobriety. Therefore, we can help you find long-term treatment as well as short-term treatment.

Patients that opted for a treatment plan that was closer to 90 days were 53% more likely to have maintained unbroken sobriety one year after treatment. In this study, approximately 85% of those individuals who opted for a treatment program that was closer to 90 days were still sober a year after their treatment.

90-day Programs: Healing the Brain for a Bright Future

When the treatment process initially begins, the chemical balance in the individual’s brain is still experiencing wild fluctuations. When an individual has been in active addiction for an extended period of time, the chemical structure within the brain has adjusted to a chemical balance that comes to depend on regular dosage in order to function.

Part of the detox process involves handling withdrawals. When a patient undergoes withdrawals, the chemical homeostasis in the brain is again disrupted as the body expels the toxins from the body. During this period of time, the patient may experience difficulty concentrating, irritability, insomnia, body aches, anhedonia, which is the inability to feel any joy or happiness, and other disruptive psychological and biochemical symptoms.

These symptoms take time and will continue for weeks after initial medically assisted withdrawals. When people participate in a longer treatment process, their mental and emotional state is given time to become normal again; it is then that the learning process and practicing of the tools that are crucial to long-term recovery can truly begin.

In a 90-day treatment period, the patient is given the much-needed time to chemically readjust in an environment that decreases outside stressors. For a positive step in the right direction, 90-day treatment plans focus on making the first couple weeks of treatment as stress-free and comfortable as possible to help encourage building a strong foundation of his or her recovery.

Addiction Affects the Whole Family; Treatment Should Help the Whole Family

A longer program of treatment also allows time for patients to address aspects of their lives that may have contributed to the continuation of addiction. One of the more common elements that people in recovery dig into is their family dynamic. Addiction itself is commonly referred to as a family disease. Even though addiction may only chemically affect the individual who is physically using, the entire family system is ultimately affected as well.

Within a family system, there is a level of balance or homeostasis between family members. When addiction takes a toll on one or more members, that homeostasis tends to become imbalanced. Ironically, just as an individual’s brain chemistry adjusts to accommodate their addiction, a family system will also often adjust to accommodate a family member’s addictive behaviors.

For example, a parent suffering from active addiction is unlikely to be able to function effectively in a parental capacity. In response to this reality, the addict’s partner may compensate by taking on additional parental roles as a way of maintaining order within the family’s structure. A new, unhealthy familial homeostasis soon emerges.

Once circumstances devolve to a point where the addicted individual becomes aware that they need help, another unavoidable change to the family system occurs. The struggling addict is now receiving treatment, the recovery process has started, however, the addict’s family homeostasis often continues to be imbalanced and unhealthy.

If a patient is going to achieve long-term sobriety, it is important that the family imbalances during active addiction are addressed and set right during treatment.

Working with a patient to change familial patterns and set them on a course toward healthy homeostasis cannot be achieved quickly. Healing and changing takes time, dedication, effort, commitment, and ultimately a lot of patience. Moreover, a patient’s psychological, biological, and brain-chemistry must first come back into balance before familial therapy can begin.

If the restoration of familial balance does not begin to occur during a patient’s treatment stay, it is highly unlikely that the patient will achieve long-term sobriety post-treatment.

In other words, a patient does themselves and their families a disservice by expecting that a shorter treatment length of stay will be effective in treating their addiction and all the suffering it has caused.

Quality Treatment with the Whole Family in Mind

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Why Addressing Patient Co-Occurring Disorders is Key

Another factor that compels personalized, tailored, and typically longer treatment lengths is the presence of co-occurring disorders. Co-occurring disorders complicate the recovery process because they are the combination of addiction and mental illness. If a patient’s substance abuse issues are addressed without treating other psychological illnesses that may have emerged during the patient’s phase of active addiction, the likelihood of post-treatment success is severely reduced.

Yet at the same time, if the mental illness is addressed without treating the substance abuse, continued substance abuse will render mental-health treatment ineffective.

Thus, the only effective manner of treating co-occurring disorders has come to be known as dual diagnosis treatment, in which both mental health issues and substance abuse issues are treated simultaneously. Dual diagnosis treatment cannot be accomplished quickly and it takes time, dedication, effort, commitment, and ultimately a lot of patience.

Length of time is truly dependent on the character and severity of the issues at hand. The patients’ commitment and willingness to address their issues by listening to our experienced professionals and putting using the tools we teach. This is why a patient’s length of stay is tailored to personal needs and is dependent on patient’s effort at many treatment centers. Here at ABTRS, we are dedicated to finding you the right treatment for your needs. Call us today to find out how we can help.

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Reliable Sources Matter to ABTRS

At ABTRS, we believe it is important to use reputable sources when communicating with you. Therefore, we have built all our information on reliable resources that are supported by data, scientific methodology and testing.

A strong foundation for recovery should be built upon knowledge that is impartial, not funded by organizations that could benefit from certain outcomes, and proven or tested to be effective for substance abuse treatment and aftercare. Below are the sources used to construct the content on our website. We will continue to try to provide you with reputable sources that are up-to-date and relevant.

NIDA (2012). Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment: A Research-Based Guide (Third Edition). Retrieved January 19, 2019, from https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/principles-drug-addiction-treatment-research-based-guide-third-edition

Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. Substance Abuse Treatment for Persons With Co-Occurring Disorders. Rockville (MD): Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (US); 2005. (Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) Series, No. 42.) 6 Traditional Settings and Models. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK64182/

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Treatment Episode Data Set:(TEDS): 2013. Discharges from Substance Abuse Treatment Services. BHSIS Series S-86, HHS Publication No. (SMA) 16-4988. Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2016.

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