What is Inpatient Drug Rehab?

For most substance abusers, the first step in overcoming drug addiction is to seek help to solve the problem. Few, if any drug addicts are able to beat addiction on their own. Once the decision to seek help has been made, the next practical question is whether to get that help through inpatient or outpatient drug rehab therapy.

Inpatient vs Outpatient Rehab

The primary difference between inpatient and outpatient therapy is that the former requires a recovering addict to stay at the rehab facility round-the-clock, whereas the latter enables an addict to return to his or her home in the evening. The recovery principles, programs, and therapies that are offered will be similar or identical. Inpatient drug rehab allows medical personnel and therapists to more closely monitor a recovering addict’s progress and to address problems more immediately as they arise.

Inpatient Drug Rehab

Inpatient drug rehab will be more effective for substance abusers who are expected to go through a more rigorous detox during the first several days of therapy. As drugs leave the substance abuser’s system, he will experience difficult withdrawal symptoms, including fevers and chills, nausea, aches and pains, and possibly seizures. During a detox phase, recovering addicts may be housed in a hospital-like environment where their vital signs are constantly monitored and medical personnel are on hand to address potentially life-threatening situations. In more extreme situations, medical personnel may be able to give sedatives to recovering addicts who are in inpatient settings to ease some of their withdrawal symptoms.Most inpatient programs will last at least twenty-eight days, during which time a recovering addict will have little or no connection to his formerly-addicted lifestyle. Addictions to certain substances, such as crystal meth, may require lengthier inpatient therapy. Recovering from addiction to any type of substance often requires substantial behavioral changes, including severing ties with relationships and old neighborhoods that increase the risk of relapses and renewal of addiction problems. Inpatient therapy is believed to be more effective at accomplishing these changes because from the outset, it removes an addict from the environment that allowed and enabled his addiction.Inpatient rehab therapy will include aggressive one-on-one and group counseling to help an addict understand the forces that initially led to his addiction while simultaneously determining if the addict has any underlying psychological problems, such as depression or anxiety disorders. A second goal of this counseling will be to teach a recovering addict how to live without drugs, which can be more difficult than it sounds. Drug addiction typically narrows an addict’s mind to the point where he cannot fathom what life will be like without drugs. Addicts who cannot picture a drug-free life can find themselves bored or depressed after the leave inpatient therapy. Boredom with a new lifestyle can lead him right back into addiction.Former drug addicts sometimes refer to their time in inpatient therapy as the beginning of their new lives. This rebirth can be easier to grasp with inpatient therapy that severs old relationships and places a recovering addict on a radically different trajectory. Outpatient therapy might be able to accomplish the same sort of rebirth, but it will not remove the recovering addict from the temptations and stresses that led to his addiction.

Please call the Last Resort Recovery Center near Austin, Texas, at 512-360-3600 for more information about inpatient drug rehab therapy and its benefits. We can provide information and advice on how to select a rehab program that will best suit your needs and that will fit with your own lifestyle.