4 Things To Expect From A Holistic Alcohol Rehab Program
Managing stress can either be easy or difficult. Others may be good at handling stress, while others often resort to different measures to manage it. For the latter, it could range from just simply putting on good music or hanging out with friends. In times when things are already becoming too much, people indulge in habits that eventually become addicting, with drinking being the most common option.
Nowadays, it’s typical for people to drink a problem away, but some people have developed a habit of drinking to temporarily suppress that depressed feeling. The euphoric experience of being devoid of self-imposed restrictions is invigorating, if not liberating. While drinking is not exactly bad when done occasionally, it becomes a serious problem when treated like an everyday drink.
If you know someone—a friend, a family, a colleague, or even yourself—who needs help with their ‘drinking problem,’ introducing them to professional rehabilitation services like those at Kemah Palms is the best way to go. However, with the stigma around rehabilitation it could be difficult and daunting.
To help you out, here are four things to expect from a holistic alcohol rehab program.
- Safe And Non-judgmental Space
The amount of stigma around people who have alcoholism is astounding. Labels such as ‘irresponsible’, ‘dangerous’, ‘unpredictable’ among others, are few of the common narratives you’ll hear when referring to people who suffer from this problem. While these are absolutely false, the debilitating effects they have are undeniably real.
Rehabilitation staff and counselors create a safe and non-judgmental environment for everyone to thrive on. It’s extremely important for people who suffer from alcohol-use to be in a place where they won’t be seen as people whose life has already ended because of alcohol. Acceptance is one of the first steps of healing, and rehabilitation centers provide exactly that.
In addition, rehab centers house different people who suffer from different cases of substance-use and others even have clients diagnosed with something else. What this means for them is that there’s a community inside each rehab center. They’re not alone; they don’t have to go through their struggle all by themselves.
- Alcohol Detox
If you’ve researched rehab programs for alcoholism in the past, you might have already come across this term already. And it’s true; alcohol detox is one of the hardest steps in being treated from alcohol-use disorder.
Alcohol detox or alcohol detoxification is the sudden cessation of drinking alcohol. And while it’s all easier said than done, the reason why alcohol detox is extremely challenging is because of alcohol withdrawal.
What people need to understand about alcohol dependence is that it doesn’t just affect the person at a superficial level. Over time, the nervous system of people with alcoholism changes, particularly their central nervous system. This means that it would take the same amount, or even double the effort and time to treat alcoholism compared to the act of developing it.
This is why withdrawal symptoms often involve physiological reactions such as nausea, shaking, vomiting, headaches, bouts of anxiety, and, in worse cases, even seizures or hallucinations (often referred to as delirium tremens). Symptoms usually subside as the detox goes on, which roughly lasts for around seven to ten days.
- Getting Into The Root Cause
People don’t just engage with unhealthy alcohol use at random. That’s why one of the best ways to help people with alcohol-use issues is to help them get into its underlying cause.
Alcohol rehab counselors are specifically trained to help clients process what happened in the past that led them to have an unhealthy relationship with alcohol. And it’s not just a one-off thing. Depending on the case, it usually spans for weeks or even months.
Being in-depth with the counselling sessions usually requires trust between the counsellor and the counselee. And because of that, you should expect that alcohol-use counselors are extra patient and understanding when it comes to dealing with different clients.
- Post-rehabilitation Help
When it comes to help, rehabilitation centers and alcohol detox centers don’t just stop when a person becomes treated for alcoholism. In most holistic rehab programs, clients are put into after-care services that can help them reinstate themselves back into society.
These post-rehab services range from helping them maintain healthy interpersonal relationships, find career opportunities, become part of support-groups in their community, to gaining basic necessities such as giving them housing help. This could also include getting them other medical help since alcohol dependency usually entails other alcohol-related health issues.
Furthermore, after-care programs keep clients from experiencing relapse, which is pretty common. Helping them stay sober, while keeping their mental health in check, are two key things that help clients from going back to that unhealthy relationship with alcohol.
Conclusion:
Getting professional help can be pretty unnerving. The premise of staying in a rehab may even be scary. But with all this in mind, remember that the unhealthy use of alcohol is not an inescapable habit. Help will always be available and getting past it is absolutely within anyone’s reach.