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Engaging in a treatment program can be a bit frightening, especially when you haven’t formed a support system yet and you are still learning the process. You may not know what challenges you’re going to face or how to overcome them, but the right treatment center will prepare you for these things. Over 3 million people each year receive treatment for an addiction, and around 1.2 million people in the United States seek treatment for both a mental illness and an addiction. Although these numbers are quite low in comparison to the total number of people who need treatment, they do have one benefit: many of these people have come back to help others. Not all therapists and healthcare staff at treatment centers have experienced first-hand mental illness or addiction in their personal lives. Many have experienced the struggles of those closest to them. Either way, there are many benefits to having professional health workers who have been through the process of mental illness, addiction, treatment, and recovery before:

If you’ve been struggling with addiction, you may be feeling guilt, shame, anger, hurt, sadness, and more. These feelings take place especially as we learn more about how we’ve hurt others, including ourselves. A reputable treatment center should be able to able to properly address these feelings of hurt and understand them, as well as what you need to do to move forward in your recovery. We all have a narrative for ourselves, and that narrative may change over time as we change and grow. You can still change your narrative from one of pain and addiction to one of growth and transformation. At an early age, we form both positive and negative ideas about ourselves, influenced by genetics, environment, past experiences, and society. These opinions form into a pattern of thoughts over time, creating our self-perception. Perhaps your stream of thoughts was filled with more love and positivity at first, but later filled with more hatred and negativity as you experienced painful events in life. This contributes to mental illness and addiction, and many people self-medicate with substances to cope with this stream of thoughts. The best part about rehabilitation is that you can work towards changing these thoughts. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a form of therapy designed to help clients change older, negative thought patterns into newer, more positive and productive ones. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is another form of therapy that works to help clients change their narrative through accepting thoughts for what they are – thoughts. Mindfulness is yet another tool that you can use to build acceptance, forgiveness, and awareness in the present moment. To redefine your narrative, you must work on it every single day. You must practice the tools you learn in your treatment program and develop a support system that you can rely on. You must work hard, even if you don’t feel like it. Let your life be your narrative. Change your story by doing things differently. Take the steps you need to take to become a better version of yourself, leading you towards a happier, healthier life.

Residential treatment programs can provide intensive help to those with a serious addiction or mental illness. While receiving residential treatment, clients temporarily live outside of their homes while being monitored and supervised by a supportive healthcare team. If you’re wondering if residential treatment may be a good fit for you, here are some ways to decide:

There has been a longstanding debate of whether addiction arises from one’s environment or one’s genes. This debate is just as confounding as the one that involves mental illness; which is to blame? So far, a variety of studies have shown that it’s likely a mixture of both. However, each person’s story is different, making this not a one-size-fits-all case. Vishwajit Nimgaonkar, MD and psychiatrist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, stated on Everyday Health, “Most mental illness is probably due to some combination of inheritance and exposure.” To answer this question, the Human Genome Project was established in 1990. Scientists conducted several different experiments to test the theory and see whether it was nature or nurture that came out on top. They were conflicted when they found that in their studies, most of the results represented a 50/50 split. However, latest research has shown that some mental illnesses are mostly genetic – mental disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, for example, have been shown to have inherited genes for the most part; if either of your parents has one of these mental illnesses, you have a 40% to 50% chance of inheriting the disease. When it comes to addiction, however, it could involve genetics as well as a person’s environment, lifestyle, upbringing, mental health, and demographics. In addition, having any genes in the family that make a person more susceptible to addiction doesn’t mean that person is destined to become addicted. For example, a person with genes that predispose them to addiction could very well remain sober their entire lives. Conversely, someone who has no trace of addiction in their family could struggle with addiction for most of their life. There is still a constant debate with nature versus nurture, but what’s most important is seeking treatment. There are a variety of treatment programs available, with each one providing support and tools that are needed for long-term success in recovery.

Many people who struggle with addiction and/or mental illness experience a lot of conditional love – they have been neglected, abused, abandoned, forgotten, ignored, or disengaged. As humans, we all experience pain, but it can be particularly painful to experience the pain of conditional love. A treatment center should not be a place where these painful feelings continue – it should be a place of love, acceptance, and nurturing to promote optimal growth in a supportive environment. In many cases, both addiction and mental illness have developed out of feelings of anger, isolation, shame, loneliness, grief, sadness, and more. Treatment programs that focus strictly on changing outward behavior, or ones that only provide support for the direct addiction or mental illness cannot offer unconditional love because they reject all the other parts that need nurturing – the parts that make you human. Your family relationships, financial and employment status, general health, and home life may all need attention, too, which is why unconditional love is so incredibly important. Dr. Mark Willenbring, former director of the National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, stated in an interview, “You don’t treat a chronic illness for four weeks and then send the patient to a support group. People with a chronic form of addiction need multimodal treatment that is individualized and offered continuously or intermittently for as long as they need it.” You deserve to have full support throughout your recovery. Not receiving this could be very detrimental to your success in recovery; Dr. Willenbring cited a case of a 43-year-old woman who had been in and out of rehabilitation 42 times because she wasn’t receiving the proper medical and support services that she needed. This case, as well as previous research, underlines the importance of full love and support as you work to better yourself in recovery. You should feel that your voice is heard and that your preferences – if they are in line with what you need – are met. The journey to recovery is a lifelong endeavor and should not be taken lightly. It all begins with treatment, making the right treatment center a crucial foundation point.

Self-management and Recovery Training (SMART) is a non-profit organization that holds meetings in the United States and several other countries, including Denmark, Ireland, Australia, and the UK. It is a 4-point system that has helped people all the world recover from all types of addictions. If your treatment program provides you the option to utilize SMART Recovery, you will gain access to many benefits:

An estimated 2.4 million Americans experience symptoms of panic disorder each year, with women twice as likely to experience them. If you’ve never had a panic attack, your first one may seem very frightening. You may feel as though you are going to die – thankfully, panic attacks are not deadly, but their symptoms can make you feel like something is very wrong. If you’ve had a panic attack before, you may be fearing another one. Recognizing the signs of a panic attack can be very helpful and may allow you to take preventative measures before you reach a full-blown panic attack; the following are some symptoms to look out for:

When selecting a treatment center, there are many factors you want to consider. Long-term success in recovery has been shown to meet individual’s needs not just with a mental illness or with addiction, but also with other areas of their life that have been difficult for them. Recovery is a time to develop new coping skills, understand ourselves better, and identify goals that we can work towards achieving for the future. There are three main necessities associated with a successful recovery: comfort, nutrition, and psychotherapy.

Based on the best-selling book titled The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom, author Don Miguel Ruiz writes of his own personal experience with addiction and how his self-limiting beliefs robbed him of his joy and potential. His booked has sparked attention worldwide and is used in all areas of life. We believe it fits perfectly into treatment and recovery, because a lot of our addictions and mental illnesses stem from low feelings of self-worth and more. Here are the following Four Agreements, with a description for each:

According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in August of last year, 46% of U.S. adults say they have a family member or close friend who has an addiction now or has had one in the past. The illicit drugs included in the survey were marijuana, cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, inhalants, methamphetamine, and misuse of prescription drugs. Along with these different drugs comes different short and long-term consequences, as each person’s history with drugs are different. There are many reasons why each addiction is different:

According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, nearly 38% of adults in the United States utilize complementary and alternative medicine. These holistic treatment methods include acupuncture, biofeedback, Reiki, naturopathy, meditation, massage, and more. Somatic therapy is a form of holistic treatment that helps rejuvenate the mind and body through both psychotherapy and physical movement. This form of therapy takes the approach that a person’s thoughts, attitudes, feelings, and beliefs can influence their physical well-being, while a person’s lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise can influence their mental well-being. Many contemporary practitioners believe that the mind and body are of one entity that can be altered by the environment, interpersonal interactions, posture, muscular pain, and other messages received from the body. It is through this communication of the body that we can learn of negative effects on a person’s autonomic nervous system. Somatic therapy helps clients to become more aware of the signals their body is sending them – signs that they need to release tension in certain areas. Several techniques are used during a somatic therapy session to help relieve tension, such as breathing exercises, sensation awareness, physical exercise, voice work, massage, and more. There are many benefits that have been described from somatic therapy, including:

Perhaps you’ve got some pressing needs that you feel deserve the attention of licensed healthcare professionals. If you’ve been doing research to find the best option for your needs and circumstance, consider an intensive outpatient program (IOP). An IOP gives you just the flexibility you need to go about your daily routines while still giving you enough structure to stay active and involved in your treatment. IOPs are a great option if: