Four Steps towards Alcohol Rehab
The first step to alcohol rehabilitation is acceptance that you have an alcohol problem. You then will need to get professional help through an alcohol treatment program. At this stage, you will go through four steps that are distinctly different in a bid to help you live a sober and clean life.
Initiation of Treatment
The minute you reach out to a professional alcohol rehab program, you will begin the first step of treatment initiation. The early days will be the hardest and you will want to give up and go back to alcohol. Denial at this stage is your worst enemy.
Early Abstinence
This is the toughest stage in the rehabilitation process. Physical cravings, psychological dependence, and withdrawal symptoms are some of the many factors that trigger a relapse. In this stage, an addiction counselor teaches you how to cope without alcohol and the skills needed to stay sober.
Abstinence Maintenance
This stage comes after three months of abstinence. If you started in a residential alcohol treatment program, this step of treatment will be as an outpatient. The aim of this step is to maintain abstinence and avoiding a relapse. You will use the skills you learned from the early abstinence step to living an entirely sober life.
Advanced recovery
You will reach this step approximately five years after the start of professional treatment. In this step, you take the skills learned in the first three stages and use them to live a completely sober life from alcohol. The skills will also help you to live a healthier life and become a better person in society.
Recovery from alcohol addiction is not merely staying sober and clean; it also means you start living well. There are the triggers that will force you into drinking again and you have to sustain the will not to have a relapse.