Why do I Need Rehab Anyway?

It is almost impossible to look at your situation from a distance and to objectively decide that you need treatment. Fully understanding the ramifications of your substance abuse on every aspect of your life and every person that you know is a weighty undertaking and one your likely don’t have the time or energy to pursue. This may be why you are hesitating when you should be seeking treatment.

What reason can exist, outside of an unyielding denial, to question the need for treatment? A comprehensive treatment program for addiction is the most important step in your long-term recovery journey. The facts support it as such and so do individual accounts of success.

The following discussion will explain why you need rehab, by looking at evidence from research and explaining the role that rehab plays. There will also be a section of questions you should be asking yourself to determine whether or not you have an addiction. If you do, you need treatment.

For more information about rehab or to find a rehab facility that offers the help that you need, call 800-430-1407Who Answers?. We are waiting to help.

Addiction Is a Disease

Cravings make it nearly impossible to quit drugs without help.

One reason that you need to go to rehab if you have an addiction is that you are dealing with an actual disease. Can you imagine having any other disease with a negative impact on your life and thinking, “Why do I need medical care?”? You wouldn’t. You would make an appointment to see an expert.

The criteria used to judge whether or not someone has a substance use disorder are determined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The latest version (number IV) requires a person to meet 2-3 of the following 11 criteria for a mild disorder, 4-05 for a moderate one, and 6-7 for a severe one.

1. Using drugs or alcohol for longer than you intended or in greater amounts than you intended
2. Desiring to cut back or quit entirely but being unable to do so
3. Spending considerable amounts of time getting substances to abuse, recovering from abuse, or using
4. Craving substances strongly and often
5. Being unable to fulfill your obligations at work, home, and/or school because of substance use
6. Continuing to use, even though it is causing persistent social or interpersonal problems or making existing ones worse
7. Limiting or stopping important occupational, recreational, or social commitments because of substance use
8. Using substances in physically dangerous situations on a regular basis
9. Using substances even though you know that they are causing recurrent or persistent mental or physical difficulties for you
10. Withdrawal symptoms that are relieved by using

If you meet these criteria, you have a diagnosable substance use disorder and you need rehab.

How Can I Get Help and Attend Rehab If I Can’t Leave Work?

Diseases Need Treatment

Rehab centers offer a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach to recovery from addiction. They draw from a long history of addiction treatment and from advances in the medical and psychological fields.

During your time in rehab, you will receive care from a staff that includes:

• Social workers
• Counselors
• Psychiatrists
• Therapists
• Doctors
• Nurses
• Addiction specialists
• Social workers

And, these individuals will have multiple degrees under their belts.

It isn’t possible for you to emulate their body of knowledge. Even with all the Googling in the world, you won’t be able to replicate the care you get in rehab on your own. You need the experts to get the results.

Rehab is Natural, But Rehab Limits Its Frequency

Many people try to discount rehab because it can’t guarantee you will be cured. This becomes a justification for refusing to go to rehab. You may ask, “Why do I need it if it can’t cure me?”. However, just because relapse is natural and likely doesn’t mean that you have to relapse and one way to limit the frequency of relapse is through treatment.

A study of roughly 1200 people linked periods of sobriety to long-term recovery. The longer a period of sobriety you can achieve, the less likely you are to relapse. The researchers’ findings include:

• Approximately one third of people who are abstinent for less than a one-year period are able to remain so
• Fewer than 50 percent of people who achieve a full year of sobriety relapse
• Once people hit five years of abstinence, their risk of relapse is less than 15 percent

The abstinent period that you will achieve during treatment will in and of itself lessen your chance of relapse, which is one prominent reason why you need it.

To find a treatment center that can help you get sober and stay that way, call 800-430-1407Who Answers?.