How long does recovery take?

Addiction in and of itself is a sick, debilitating, invasive disease that affects all manner of people. It has no definitive characteristics, nor does it have a particular type of individual that it seems to prefer. The truth of the matter is that it is one of the very few diseases that science simply cannot figure out. Fortunately, although the disease itself has yet to be figured out, a solution to it does exist, in the form of addiction recovery. Treatment in an addiction recovery center ensures that individuals receive professional care, constant monitoring, and individualized therapy sessions designed to revamp the way they think and show them just how useless drugs are. The process itself can vary from center to center, but the national consensus is that most treatment plans take between 30 and 90 days, depending on the severity of the addiction. More severe addictions to rarer drugs can take much longer, particularly because of the additional length of the intake process (which usually takes two to three days.) This process is where staff assesses your mental and physical health, gauges just how severe your addiction is, and  recommends a treatment plan that lines up with their findings. After the intake process comes the detoxification stage, which is where the body is purged of the drug and must battle through the withdrawal phase. This is by far one of the longest parts of the recovery process, and, depending on the amount of a drug in your body, it can take anywhere from a few days to weeks. Your nutrition and physical well-being are even more important at this stage than most others. You will likely have a team of professionals around you almost all the time to make sure you receive the nutrients, vitamins, water, and supplements you need to be as healthy as you can be. After the drug has been purged from your body, you enter the treatment phase. This phase can be completely comprised of counseling and therapy sessions, it can be integrated with medicine for underlying issues, and can even involve family members and friends. The plan length is purely based on your addiction recovery team’s analysis of your situation, and what will work best for you. After treatment, you will enter the continuing recovery phase of your journey. This is the last phase, and has no definitive end. This phase includes your transition from the treatment center to the rest of your life. In the continuing recovery phase, the goal is to achieve complete sobriety by incorporating the lessons and skills you learned from the treatment center into daily activities!