Important! Don't Pick An Addiction Recovery/ Sober Living Program Until You See This 🙌🏻

All the best addiction treatment programs do these five things. For those of you who are new here, welcome to put the shovel down. I'm Amber Hollingsworth, and this YouTube channel is all about helping you understand the science and psychology of addiction so you can get your family and your life back on track. Get back out there and live the life that you want to live. I want you to know you are not powerless. You do not have to hit rock bottom. And there are many things you can do to help an addicted loved. If you want to be back in control of your life, subscribe to this channel and I'll make sure you are always five steps ahead of addiction. And don't forget, hit the little bell if you want access to the bonus episodes. Okay, so let's get into what makes a really great addiction treatment program. Well, first and foremost, I think any really good program is going to take the time to really think, listen to the person, even before the person comes into the program. And not only just listen to the person, but listen to their family when that's appropriate as well. Because each individual has their own specific needs or anxieties or fears. And any good program is going to take the time to really listen to you as an individual and understand what you need and make sure that you're a really great fit for that program. If you, you know, there's way too many programs out there that just literally do like, I call it like the factory of mental health, where it's just like assembly line stamp, assembly line stamp. And when it comes to addiction, it's even worse because you'll get responses like, well, come back when you're ready, or you're just not willing enough. If you don't want to, you know, been to our program, then you just don't want recovery. I just think that's a ridiculous way to respond to someone in such a distressing state. Plus, those of you that watch this channel, you guys know that I feel like you don't have to want recovery, you just have to be willing to do it. So it's important to match the right person to the right program. Not everything is going to work for everybody. Now, number two, the second thing I think any great recovery program is going to have is that it is going to address mental health concerns as well as addiction issues. It is very, very rare that you see someone who has an addiction who doesn't have other mental health concerns. Oftentimes the mental health concerns are exactly what led to the addiction. And other times when there weren't mental health Things in place after you've gone for years of having an addiction. Guess what? There are mental health concerns that come along the way, I promise. So one way or the other, any good treatment program worth their salt is going to have ways of addressing these things, Whether that's specific mental health therapy and. Or psychiatry. I'm telling you, if you're missing the mental health piece, you're missing a big piece of the puzzle. So definitely ask about that. Now, I'm gonna give you a little kind of special insider tip here. Most programs all over, at least the United States, at least I know that, say they offer mental health treatment, will also say, yeah, we do addiction. And addiction treatment centers will say, yeah, we do mental health. But most of the time, if it's a primary addiction treatment center, it's like, yeah, we'll hand you like some worksheets and a pamphlet or two, or say, oh, I'm sorry you feel so bad. And they call that mental health. And conversely, the mental health treatment centers, if you go in one, that's primary mental health, sometimes they'll say they do addiction treatment too, when really they just say, here's a meeting schedule. Are you going to your meetings? Have you called your sponsor? Well, just barely wiping the surface either way. So make sure the treatment center you pick doesn't really does have a plan and a way of addressing this issue. Now, a lot of addiction treatment centers, or actually most addiction work in programs, is done in groups. But really great programs will also offer some level of individual treatment as well, because mental health things, particularly some of that, needs to be dealt with in individual therapy, not just group therapy. Number three is literally the most important of all five of these, and that is that a good addiction treatment program will build you up. You know, old school addiction treatment was sort of like tear you down until you were like nothing and make you feel like crap and then build you up. And I think that's a really bad methodology. In fact, most people in a situation like that would just leave treatment and they would never even finish. And that's really problematic because now you've done sort of like destroyed somebody and then set them free out there. Because guess what happens when you do that? Nothing good, I can promise. But good programs have things in place purposefully designed to help you feel good about yourself. You need to have the skills and autonomy to fill up your pride bank to feel good about yourself, to get all that really good serotonin going. Because not only does it feel good, but also when you have the good serotonin Happening in your brain. It actually helps to protect you against addiction. Now, number four thing that any good addiction treatment program has Is staff that's actually involved. I hate to say this, but in some treatment programs, they're so overworked and they're so overrun, and they can't even keep up with the amount of people that they have. It's not really the staff's fault or the program's fault, but it's very difficult when you're overran with people to really have staff that can be involved on that individual level and to really give you the attention that you need. Not only do you need involved staff to get the attention you need, but you need involved staff to make sure there's no drama and bad business going on in there, too. You need somebody that's got their head in the game, not somebody who's just clocking into work and clocking out and going through it like a robot. And believe it or not, that's a big problem in the world of addiction treatment. The burnout rate for addiction counselors is crazy. It's like five years is the average amount of time that an addiction counselor is in the field. That is really, really low. The good thing is, the more involved staff can be on that level, the more engaged the staff stays and the more engaged the clients stay. So it really is good on both sides. And the fifth thing that any really great addiction treatment center Is going to have Is a good plan for aftercare. Now, what I mean by that is, what happens next? Let's say you go to an inpatient addiction treatment program of some sort. Maybe it's detox. Maybe it's 30 days, maybe it's 60 days. But what happens after that? Especially if it's a place that you go away and stay? Do you just go back home? And then they'll find you a local counselor to connect with? I mean, that's not horrible. But the thing of it is, is most the time, most people that get better when it comes to addiction do it in a really good, solid community setting. Like they're involved in a group, or they go to meetings, or they have spons or coaches. They belong somewhere where they're invested in that community, and that community is invested in them. And that usually does happen at most treatment programs. Now, I know people go in kicking and screaming. They will fight you tooth and out. No one wants to go to addiction treatment program. And there's some good reasons for that. Okay, I'm not even saying there's not. They actually start to meet People connect in. You can't help but connect to other people in these programs because people are being real and genuine and you really get to know who someone is. Yeah, there are some people you'll meet in there that get on your nerves. But it's hard not to feel a part of those communities when you're in such a tight knit, vulnerable kind of situation. And that's very important to the recovery process. Connection, meaning, purpose, all of that is what creates good recovery. And one great way to find that is in community. So say you go away to an addiction treatment program, but then you're finished, and then you have to go back to your own town or wherever it is, and then you've got to figure out like, well, how I create that here? Well, how do I get a sponsor here that I like? Well, how do I go to those meetings and make friends? And I'm not saying it's impossible. I mean, it's not impossible, but it's intimidating and it's hard because not only are you back home with all the people, places and things and the triggers and all of the emotional stress that you're under, but you also then have to integrate in, make new recovery friends and find a new community. That is difficult. Okay. So what works best is if you're involved with a treatment program that has like, what we call levels of care, step down levels. So it's kind of like they're not just like all the way in and then all the way out. So it's kind of like you're at this level and then you move to this level and then you move to this level. And I personally love it when someone can stay connected to their original recovery group, because I tell you what, most people, if they're gonna fall through the cracks, they're gonna fall through the cracks. In the transition between being in a treatment program and then being completely out there. Even outpatient treatment programs need to have a good step down plan. For example, in the past I have ran some intensive outpatient, and one of the things that I've always done to help meet this need is that if you graduated our IOP program, you could keep coming back to that as long as you wanted to as a mentor for free. That was a great way to create community. Not only was it great for the people finishing the program, but it was great for my program because we had wisdom in the room and we had people that were doing really well to help cheer on the people that were currently going through it. It really just worked well. So look for A treatment program that has a good aftercare. Now, this might be a good opportunity to bring up the sponsor of today's video because they are a perfect example of all five of these things. I'd like to introduce you to Greenville Transitions. Now, Greenville Transitions is an addiction recovery program right here in the town where I'm from. And they do all five of these things extraordinarily well. Before anyone ever enters that program, they're going to talk to you, they're going to find out what's going on with you, they're going to talk to your family, they're going to listen to what your needs are and just who you are as a person and your personality to make sure that you fit well into the community and to make sure you get your needs met. And they do an excellent job of addressing mental health concerns. All the therapists on their team also are mental health trained therapists. And every client at Greenville Transitions also gets access to psychiatric care when needed. And probably the thing that Greenville Transitions does best is build you up. They have this woven throughout their program. A part of what you do when you're involved in this program is regular, everyday stuff. Like you have chores that you're responsible for, and each of the guys take a different night of the week to cook the food. And you get a gym membership when you go there. In fact, the gym that they're connected to now is actually a martial arts gym. And so some of the guys who choose to are involved in the martial arts aspect of the whole thing. All this goes a long way to helping you feel good about yourself and learn everyday recovery living skills. I mean, yeah, you can go to an addiction treatment program where they do everything for you and all you have to do is just show up and fill out your worksheet. And at Gramville Transitions, that's what they do. You learn to live life clean and sober. Eventually you get a job. Eventually you drive yourself to work, you figure out your own meeting schedule. They have 247 staff. And in fact, when you're first there, you don't go anywhere by yourself. And they have a great level system. So once you complete a certain level, you get to move down to what they call the step down house. And that house has more freedom, so you get more rope, you're more responsible. Like you have to pay some of your own rent and stuff like that. When you live there, you have to pass your drug test, go to your meetings, you have to do all that stuff. But you do it a lot more autonomously. But guess what the guys, when they move into that step down house, they automatically start forming those systems for themselves and you can see that they're putting in place all of the things that they learned in the earlier levels of care. Now what that tells me is they're learning actual real life recovery skills and they're developing the ability to put those things in place for themselves. Not just because they have to and not just because somebody else organized it, but they're figuring it out. Now. Those are the kind of things that you want to look for when you're trying to find a really great addiction treatment program. If you want to know more about Greenville Transitions, I will put the link in the description along with the link to my insider's guide for understanding the different levels of care and options that are out there for you now. Up next, I want you to watch this video which will explain the various kinds of sober living options are out there and what questions you need to ask a Sober Living Program I'd like to send a big heartfelt thanks to all of you who help support this channel. Your likes, shares and donations are helping us spread the message of recovery and without you, this wouldn't be possible. Now this next video has been hand selected to go right along with this one and don't forget to check the description for additional resources.