Both individual and group therapy are critical components of a substance use treatment plan. Talk therapy can take up a significant portion of your treatment during residential or outpatient treatment and has a substantial base of evidence supporting people’s ability to break free from addiction and learn the tools of recovery.
But the benefits of therapy don’t need to end when you leave rehab. Staying sober after rehab can still be a challenge, and working with a therapist can provide ongoing support and practical mental health interventions to help you stay on the path to recovery.
Why Continuing Therapy After Rehab Is Critical
Substance use disorders can be incredibly hard to break free from. Even if you receive the best evidence-based treatment in rehab, there is still the potential for relapse after you leave.
Relapse is a common and often demoralizing experience, but taking measures to continue engaging in some form of mental health treatment can substantially reduce your risk.
The good news is that most people will recover from substance use disorders. The likelihood of achieving recovery is strongly correlated with seeking treatment.
Furthermore, extending the treatment you receive is a protective factor against relapse, even if that is as simple as continuing to see a therapist after you complete a rehabilitation program.
But just as importantly, most people will benefit from starting treatment in a more intensive treatment environment. Medical detox and residential rehab provide several services that therapy alone cannot, and they address many of the challenges and symptoms people face in their earliest days of recovery.
As people begin to overcome challenges such as physical withdrawal, pervasive cravings, or a lack of healthy coping mechanisms, individual therapy provides a more time-effective and targeted approach to help people with the challenges of maintaining their sobriety.
How Therapy Supports Recovery
When you graduate from addiction treatment, the next step is staying sober after rehab. Maintaining your sobriety upon returning home provides a number of challenges different than those you faced during treatment, and people often struggle with these challenges if they don’t have an effective form of mental health and recovery support.
Continuing talk therapy can serve as a way of bridging the gap between rehab and home. Working with a therapist can provide you with a number of tools to stay sober after rehab, help you build a new life in sobriety, and start to flourish in your recovery.
Providing Accountability
Accountability is one of the hallmarks of a strong recovery.
People with substance use disorders can greatly benefit from talking to someone who knows and recognizes their challenges with addiction, understands how subtle changes in thinking and behavior can increase the risk of relapse, and holds people accountable to the standards they set for themselves.
A therapist can be a bastion of this accountability. Not only can you work directly with your therapist to outline your goals and hopes for recovery and identify your unique challenge points, but you can also rely on them to hold you to these standards and let you know when your resolve is starting to slip.
When you meet with a therapist after rehab, you typically have a regular schedule for when you meet with them. They can provide you with a space to check in, see how your recovery is going, and provide actionable feedback to help you stay sober after rehab.
They can also monitor your progress in overcoming lingering symptoms of substance use disorders, such as:
- Post-acute withdrawal syndrome
- Frequency of cravings
- Sleep difficulties
- Difficulty focusing or concentrating
- Persistent fatigue
Not only does this help you to see how far you’ve come since achieving sobriety, but it provides you with specific action points for how you can continue working to solidify your recovery.
Teaching and Honing Recovery Skills
In residential or outpatient treatment, individual and group therapy are largely responsible for teaching skills that are vital for the recovery process. This could include coping skills, such as managing cravings when they occur, or skills, like cognitive reprocessing, which can help people move past symptoms of depression or anxiety.
And as helpful as learning these skills during addiction treatment can be, your symptoms don’t necessarily stop after leaving rehab. Substance use and mental health recovery are long-term, often lifelong processes of learning, practicing, and implementing these skills into daily life.
This is particularly true for people who transition straight from residential care back to home. Learning coping and recovery skills in rehab is a good start but putting them to the test in everyday situations is the true challenge.
By continuing work with a therapist after leaving rehab, you extend the time you have available to train, practice, and exercise these skills. It’s vital to continue this work with an expert who can help you overcome any challenges you face or provide you with alternative strategies if you aren’t finding the success you hope for.
All of this helps you stay sober after rehab and can even help you manage or overcome a host of other mental health difficulties.
Helping You Deal With Mental Health Challenges
In substance use treatment, co-occurring disorders are exceptionally common. Studies have shown that roughly 40% of individuals seeking substance use treatment have a co-occurring mental health disorder such as:
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Bipolar disorder
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
Many people are unaware of these challenges when they first enter treatment, as substance use itself can mask the underlying mental health symptoms they experience.
If you are one of this significant portion of people, continuing therapy not only helps you stay sober after rehab but also provides a space where you can work through your mental health challenges with evidence-based support.
Talk therapy has decades of scientific support in its effectiveness at not only helping people stay sober after rehab but also achieving recovery from these common mental health symptoms.
Your therapist can identify if your challenges in recovery are due to these mental health conditions, develop a treatment plan, and help you take steps to better holistic mental health.
Furthermore, a number of unique therapeutic modalities can help you accomplish these goals.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is an evidence-based approach to helping people with a wide variety of mental health disorders, such as depression, anxiety, substance use disorders, and bipolar disorder.
CBT is based on the simple principle that thoughts, emotions, and behavior all influence one another and can each be changed through targeted interventions.
If you struggle with depression, for instance, CBT can help you identify when certain thoughts lead to depressed mood and behavior. By learning to recognize these thoughts and challenge them with CBT techniques, you can dramatically improve your mood and overall functioning.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy
Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) was built upon the foundations of CBT but incorporates a few new elements and a slightly modified understanding of common mental health challenges.
In DBT, it is acknowledged that certain thoughts or moods are outside of your direct control. Rather than attempting to challenge or change any specific thought, a DBT therapist may encourage clients to practice acceptance or mindfulness, which can help them ride the wave of emotion without taking negative actions as a result.
DBT is an evidence-based approach for depression, substance use disorders, anxiety, and much more. It can be an excellent style of therapy for people with co-occurring addiction and mental health challenges and a great tool for staying sober after rehab.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is a new therapeutic technique primarily used in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. For people who have experienced trauma either before or during addiction, this style of therapy can drastically reduce the ongoing negative effects of trauma in daily life.
People in recovery from substance use disorders with ongoing trauma symptoms have significantly higher rates of relapse. But by continuing therapy with an EMDR therapist, you can break free from trauma and live a better and more fulfilled life.
Having Someone on Your Side
One of the greatest benefits of continuing therapy after rehab is having a staunch supporter of your recovery while you transition back home.
A therapist with experience in substance use disorders is deeply familiar with the challenges people face during this transition and can provide a number of support options that can help you stay sober after rehab.
The transition from rehab to home can be challenging. In rehab, you are surrounded by people with the shared goal of recovery, and most of them have a deep understanding of what addiction is like, how difficult maintaining recovery can be, and the effort that people need to put into their recovery.
When you return home, this shared experience of recovery can be greatly diminished. Your friends, family, and coworkers may not have any personal experience with substance use disorders and may not understand why you struggle with certain activities or tasks.
Your therapist can provide both understanding and the necessary skills to overcome these challenges. This provides an outlet for people to continue talking about their recovery, making progress toward maintaining abstinence, and feeling the supportive experience that is so necessary for recovery success.
Different Therapy Options After Rehab
Therapy is not a monolith. Not only are there several different therapeutic modalities, some of which were outlined above, but there are a number of different formats for therapies to fit various lifestyles.
In-Person Therapy
In-person therapy is when you meet with a therapist one-on-one in their office. It is the conventional style of therapy and provides the most in-depth and personalized approach to using therapy as a tool for your recovery.
Virtual Therapy
Virtual therapy is another style of therapy where you meet with your therapist, but instead of in their office, you meet online. This can make the therapeutic process much more convenient for therapist and client alike and remove many of the barriers to care people face with in-person therapy.
Group Therapy
Group therapy can be provided in either in-person or virtual formats. It connects clients with both a therapist and a group of people who share a common problem.
This collaborative therapeutic experience provides a space for people to share their challenges, give and receive feedback, and recognize that they are not alone on the path to recovery.
Get Started With Therapy at APN
All Points North is dedicated to helping our clients at every stage of the recovery process. Our comprehensive addiction treatment programs span from medical detox to home and everything in between, providing you with the tools you need to flourish on your path to recovery. To get started with in-person or virtual therapy options, submit our confidential contact form or call us at 855.934.1178 today.
References
- Jones, Christopher M., et al. “Prevalence and Correlates of Ever Having a Substance Use Problem and Substance Use Recovery Status among Adults in the United States, 2018.” Drug and Alcohol Dependence, vol. 214, 2020, p. 108169, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2020.108169. Accessed 19 Jun. 2024.
- “Protracted Withdrawal.” Substance Abuse Treatment Advisory, store.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/sma10-4554.pdf. Accessed 19 June 2024.
