Quitting Alcohol in a Rehab Center

A person who decides to quit drinking alcohol and chooses to break away from alcoholism will need to prepare himself for a difficult and unpredictable journey. It will not be an easy voyage, and it will never be, because quitting is a work in progress. You are only as good as your last game, as you may put it. Always remember that abstinence and relapse are only separated by a thin line, which can easily split up if a person puts himself into a happy-go-lucky mode. Being aware at all times and focusing to resolve any problem immediately is an excellent idea.

We are not discouraging anyone to fight his or her addiction problem. We just don’t want to sugar coat the fact that addiction is a tricky situation to face. And everyone who is in a battle with addiction should get ready to face some worst scenarios.

The road to recovery from alcohol addiction is a long, tedious, and bumpy road. You have to try though, even if it takes a little while, because you need to. Though time frame is important, do not give much emphasis to it, you just have to do your best, even if it seems too difficult for you and even if it appears to be far-reaching.

Admitting that you have addiction problem is a vital component in reaching recovery. This is the starting point of rehabilitation. Without the admission, no one can get out from an addiction. Every person denying his or her problem will continue to suffer, and will never get the necessary treatment, because there will never be a treatment procedure in the first place.

You Need Support Group

The best way to quit drinking alcohol is to build a support network - a group that is composed of people who are in the same shoes, to remind you that you are not alone. This support group will provide you with the motivation you need in quitting alcohol. In the end, you personally have to exert every effort for your own good, but when the time comes that you can’t cut it down or already developed a dependency to alcohol, a professional help might be an answer. Enrolling in a rehabilitation center exclusively for alcoholics is indeed necessary.

In developing countries like the Philippines, alcoholism is not a priority when it comes to treatment and it is considered a taboo albeit of the adverse effects on physical and psychological side, and other societal incidents that are linked to it. Car accidents, for instance, is intimately intertwined to intoxicated individuals. Despite these accidents, people seem to take for granted the need to quit drinking alcohol and seek for rehabilitation. Moreover, they often conceptualize rehabilitation centers in a different way. Most people misconceive rehabilitation centers as a penitentiary, which basically locks up people and put them into quarantine.

Important Points on Alcohol Rehabilitation

Alcohol rehabilitation is a process where alcoholics who want to quit drinking undergo safe holistic treatments to get rid of alcohol addiction. It is composed of series of scientific and medical interventions that help alcoholics overcome their dependencies. The program varies from one person to another, and requires individualized approach to achieve its purpose – to provide tools that an individual can utilize once he gets back to the community where he belongs. Furthermore, the best thing about rehabilitation centers is that patients are able to mingle with other patients who shared the same experience, and that experts on the fields are within the facility to make sure that suitable therapeutic aid are given to each alcoholics.

Rehabilitation centers do not only apply medical sciences to treat alcoholism but also go deep within each patient by giving them education, awareness and counseling which includes family meetings and application of their aftercare program. A patient who is trying to quit drinking alcohol should have all the important people in his side to provide motivation and inspiration. It is necessary to include family therapy in a rehab program. Family therapy is based on a set of therapeutic methods that rely on the effectiveness of interventions on the level of the whole family. In the treatment from addiction, in which the whole family is included, a person addicted to narcotics or alcohol is a subsystem within the family and is treated as a person whose symptoms have a major impact on the functioning of the family system.

Rehabilitation program, generally, has the process intended to get the person look into his alcohol addiction honestly and realistically in order to change his attitudes towards it. The purpose is to break the denial stage, which is usually at the first days of rehabilitation.

Counseling, afterwards, is done to train the patient how to live life without alcohol. Quitting may be easy for the alcoholic once he overcomes the stages of withdrawal symptoms, but maintaining abstinence is another story. Dealing with daily stress can cause relapse. This is the reason why counseling should be part of the quit drinking program.

Group sessions with family and friends are programmed to teach patients to seek support from people whom they trust. Family members can open up with the patient if there are domestic issues that need to be addressed. One of the key elements on quitting alcohol and maintaining abstinence is to tackle the roots such as family problems which are usually the basic grounds for any addiction. Family members are the common recipient when it comes to the problems caused by the negative actions of the addicted person. In this situation, the family should be the first to support the alcoholic to benefit from the long term recovery.

After care program is designed to meet the patient’s individual needs. It may include intensive outpatient treatment or weekly check-ups with a counselor after the residential treatment.

On the other hand, educational therapy focused on quitting alcohol raises awareness about dependency and helping people recover from it. It involves theoretical learning and group seminars on how to quit drinking alcohol effectively.

Another type is skill development group therapy that focuses on developing strategies for coping with addiction. There is also cognitive-behavioral therapy with the aim of helping patients recognize wrong patterns of thinking, behaving and decision-making. This kind of approach is useful because it helps them change the negative thoughts and attitudes that they have accumulated during alcohol and drug abuse. Support groups focus on self-help methods to control emotions and abstain from alcohol. Furthermore, many rehab centers follow the 12-step program and use it to prevent relapse.

Alcohol rehabilitation centers can really help a person to quit drinking alcohol. You can see the complete list of alcohol and drug rehabilitation centers by clicking these links:

National Capital Region in the Philippines
Regional and Provinces in the Philippines