No one ever imagines they’ll have a husband with a drinking problem, a sister with a secret cocaine habit, or a best friend who’s struggling with pain pills. When someone you love is struggling with addiction, it can take quite some time to realize what’s going on — and even longer to figure out what to do next. If you’re considering drug or alcohol rehab for a loved one, researching and understanding what you need to know can be incredibly difficult amid the sadness, fear, and stress of living with addiction in your midst. Here are the simple facts about drug and alcohol rehab for a loved one and how it works.
Signs of Addiction & How to Know Someone Needs Rehab
Many people who observe substance misuse in friends or family wonder when it’s time to step in. How do you know when your husband needs to go to rehab? Does your sister really need help or just some good rest?
When dealing with disordered drinking or drug use, it’s important to remember that it’s not how much someone drinks that classifies them as a person with substance use disorder — it’s how they drink or use and what the resulting effects on their life look like.
Put simply, if someone drinks or uses drugs to make themselves feel a different way, they might have a problem with substances. But the key indicator of a problem is when that behavior causes negative effects in their life and they still can’t stop.
If — even as an outsider — you can see how drinking or drug use is harming your loved one’s job, finances, or relationships, then they might have a problem with drinking. Of course, drastic changes to your loved one’s behavior or physical appearance can be a sign of addiction as well. The nature of the changes would depend on the substance they are abusing: Weight gain often accompanies alcohol abuse, for example, while drugs like cocaine or methamphetamine cause weight loss.
Kinds of Rehab
Just as different drugs cause different changes in those who use them, so too do different kinds of substance abuse require different kinds of treatment. Today, addiction treatment is so much more than “rehab.” There is a wide variety of treatment for alcoholism and addiction available to fit the needs, goals, and preferences of almost any individual.
Most people with a serious substance use disorder benefit from a stay in residential addiction treatment. In residential addiction treatment, people live and learn at an addiction treatment facility for a number of weeks or months, remaining abstinent from substances as they learn to stay drug- and alcohol-free after treatment. Many of these people then continue on to outpatient treatment after their stay.
In outpatient treatment — also known as PHP (Partial Hospitalization Program) or IOP (intensive outpatient program) — clients attend sessions of treatment each day while returning to their homes or other outside living quarters each night. Outpatient treatments like IOP or PHP allow people to begin to exercise a bit more autonomy while continuing the therapy, counseling, and life skills classes that they experienced in residential addiction treatment.
Paying for Rehab
Residential addiction treatment isn’t just for the rich and famous. Residential programs and IOP programs are often covered by insurance plans. At Sunflower Recovery, for example, we are proud to be in-network with Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, Humana, United Healthcare, aetna, and accept most other insurance providers as well. Since every individual’s plan is different, call our admissions team for a no-commitment review of what your loved one could expect from addiction treatment, and what their benefits could cover. Isn’t it time for new hope to bloom in their life — and yours?