Completing your drug rehab program is a significant milestone towards recovery, but maintaining permanent sobriety is a lifelong process requiring determination. Thoughts are a human’s biggest impediment because it is difficult to get inside your head and control how you think. It is hard to escape from your thoughts, and the situation worsens due to substance abuse.
Isolation is a common practice for individuals battling substance abuse. Upon leaving a rehab center, you may feel the urge for isolation to connect with your inner self. While this may appear to be the best way to proceed after rehab, Midwest Recovery Center reveals the loneliness resulting from isolation can negatively impact your recovery.
Increase in Incidents of Relapse After Drug Rehab
Overcoming a substance use disorder is among the most challenging undertakings for every individual leaving rehab. After detoxification and staying in a rehab facility for a given period to facilitate your recovery, you need to reconnect with your social life and activities.
According to statistics, a higher percentage of relapse incidents occur within the first six months of quitting drug use. Mental health experts cite a lack of social connection with resourceful people as the prominent cause of relapse. Isolation is a significant hindrance to recovery.
Locking yourself in a lonely place will ignite the old memories and remind you of your experiences with substance abuse. It is best to try confronting substance dependency by embracing the love you receive from family members, friends, and colleagues.
Also, loneliness is likely to lead to other kinds of relapse triggers, such as:
- Self-pity
- Dishonesty
- Setting high expectations
- Stress
- Overconfidence
Increase in Vulnerability to Stigma
Most individuals battling addiction face a stigma associated with the change in their behaviors. Some individuals may become defensive when you show interest in their personal lives. Their aggressive behavior may subject them to stigma because loved ones and acquaintances may start avoiding them.
After leaving drug rehab, ensure society does not isolate you. The people around you should note the tremendous steps you have made on the path to recovery and regaining permanent sobriety. Isolating yourself will usher loneliness and increase the stress that can trigger substance use.
After rehab, you are at a critical stage of recovery where you need to avoid anything that will jeopardize your permanent sobriety efforts. If you give society a reason to judge you, it will drag your efforts.
Anxiety and Depression
There have been numerous studies showing that millions of Americans across all ages, ethnicities, genders, and social classes experience depressive episodes due to loneliness. Being lonely confines your mind in a small world where your thoughts become the center of your existence.
Remember, you are on a delicate recovery path, and loneliness can magnify toxic thoughts about the desire to get back to your old life. Such thoughts may trigger the cravings you learned to manage while in rehab. Anxiety and depression are likely to affect your mental stability and increase the risk of relapse.
Seek Professional Assistance for the Long-Term
Leaving a rehab center should not mark the end of seeking professional help because recovery is a continuous process.
Stay in touch with a rehab facility for programs such as:
- Trauma therapy program
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)
- Intensive outpatient program (IOP)
- Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)
- Partial hospitalization program (PHP)
Contact Midwest Recovery Center for Permanent Recovery
It is advisable to work closely with our treatment center after drug rehab to maintain permanent sobriety. If you have not made arrangements for maintaining recovery outside the rehab, our therapists can offer much-needed help. Contact Midwest Recovery Center at 833.627.0039 to schedule an appointment.
