A rehab centre is not just a place where you come to face and beat an addiction. In truth, it should be a holistic healing centre where you come to treat the diseases of body and mind in a way that will make you a better person and enable you to enter a process of sustained recovery. People struggle to understand this concept when it comes to recovery and they think that a rehab centre is simply a place where they can wait out a few weeks and get rid of an addiction.
The way in which a rehab centre works is all about holistic health and balance. While patients do go through the detox process first, in order to cleanse the body, they also enter multiple therapy sessions to cleanse the mind and process their experiences in a way that lends itself towards healing. Many rehab centres also insist on a healthy diet and exercise, as well as walks outside, yoga and meditation in order to help with the healing of the whole person.
People often don’t understand this about rehab. They think that they are going to a centre where they will stop drinking and then have to talk about their feelings for weeks on end. While this is certainly a part of it, a rehab centre has to do so much more in order to cleanse the body and mind of toxins. For one, they do have to cleanse the body but this is done first under the care of a physician and second, through the introduction of a healthy eating plan and exercise.
When it comes to recovery of the mind, rehabs also have to provide therapy, both in groups and individually, and have to be available to teach addicts how to think in new ways, develop new neural pathways and replace old behaviour with new behaviour. One of the biggest problems with those who have suffered from addiction is that they have adopted unhealthy thinking patterns and it is the responsibility of a rehab centre to reconstruct those bad patterns and assist in developing healthy ones.
Alcohol rehab is not just a place where people go to heal. It is place where they go to become better versions of themselves in both body and mind for the long term.
Read our comprehensive guide to alcohol addiction here or the difference between alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence here and the article to understanding alcohol addiction here.