Amber Hollingsworth argues that inpatient rehab isn't always necessary for sobriety. Long-term recovery happens at home, not in a controlled setting, and building local support networks while staying put creates sustainable change. Inpatient programs disrupt work and family life and cost more.
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You might be surprised to hear me say that it's not always a good idea to go away to rehab for those 30, 60 or 90 day programs. In this video, I'm going to give you three reasons why you might not should go away to rehab. Number one, eventually you're gonna have to come back home. See, here's the deal. Everyone really does do pretty well in inpatient drug and alcohol treatment. I mean, if you get the drugs and alcohol out of a person, they get better. After about two weeks, they start getting better and it can feel like, oh my gosh, I'm back to myself or your loved one, they're back to themselves. And it can feel like such a relief. But eventually you've got to come back home to your home environment and you really have to learn and live in real life and be clean and sober at the same time. Which is a whole different ball game than staying sober in like a lockdown or really restricted living environment. So those transitions, if you can learn to do it in the environment that you're going to be living in, that's even better because you're already here. You're figuring out how to live life and stay sober at the same time. A second reason why you may want to consider not going away to rehab is really important to build recovery supports. And when you're away in rehab, you're going to build a lot of recovery supports. You may get a sponsor, you're going to make a lot of friends in recovery, you're going to find meetings that you like to go to, and you're going to be well established in that recovery environment. And then you're going to have to abruptly transition back home and you're going to have to start that whole process all over. And it's really frustrating. It's almost like going through a breakup. And it's almost like, I don't really like these meetings at home because you felt so well established there. So getting sober at home allows you to build those recovery supports, the ones that you're actually going to be able to keep and work with long term. Another reason that may seem pretty obvious is that going away for 30, 60 or 90 days means you have to put your life on hold. So if you're in school or you're working, or if you have children, being gone for that long amount of time can be pretty tough. And not everyone can afford. It's just not practical for everyone to be gone away from their life for that long. And lastly, it's expensive. Inpatient or residential treatment is the most expensive way to get sober. Now I'm telling you these reasons so that you understand a lot of people get sober without having to go away. At Hope for Families we try to help people using technology technology and recovery supports and family support to help people get sober in their life, in their home while they're going to school or to work and not have to disrupt your whole life. Now sometimes that's just really unavoidable and you have to do it. Be sure and check out my video about reasons why you might should go away to rehab or inpatient drug and alcohol treatment. Sometimes you need to go away, but if at all possible it really is best to get sober in your natural recovery living environment. If you found this video helpful, be sure and subscribe to our channel. We're going to have a lot more videos with practical advice for family members or people trying to help someone with a drug and alcohol problem or for persons trying to get into recovery themselves.
