After spending far too many months or years battling alcohol addiction, each addiction sufferer comes to a fork in the road. That fork is about making a choice between continuing to destroy their lives or stopping the drug and alcohol abuse in favor of choosing to live a better life. The only realistic option addiction sufferers have if they want to arrest their addictions is to seek help from a reputable rehab.
It’s the only way they can safely deal with their withdrawal symptoms and also get the therapy they need to learn how to better cope with life. As you contemplate getting help, it’s normal for you to have questions and concerns. Everyone does. One of the things that a lot of people ask about is, how long does alcohol rehab last? The short answer is very simple. Alcohol rehab takes as long as it takes for you to arrest your addiction. Yes, the length of time is different for everyone. The amount of time someone needs to spend in rehab will depend on certain factors such as:
- How long they have been living with the disease of alcoholism
- How much alcohol do they drink each day and with every drinking session
- How much harm has been done to their mind and body
- Addressing any additional concerns such coexisting psychological issues
As you can see, a lot of work needs to be done to help you get from a raging alcoholic to someone who can control their impulse to drink. The question about how long rehab lasts is a legitimate question. We would like to use the next section to give you a general idea of how long you might need to stay in rehab. Again, you need to be prepared to let the process take as long as it takes until you are reasonably healthy again.
How Long Does Alcohol Rehab Last?
We want to mention a couple of things before we get into details. First, everyone has different circumstances, which translates to everyone having different needs in terms of how long they need to stay in treatment. Second, we want to discuss this in terms of two groups, the average alcoholic and the hardcore alcoholic. As for the average alcohol, the detox process will typically take about a week. The first five days could be rough, but medical professionals will be standing by to help with any serious distress issues.
After going through withdrawal, clients start therapy. This is where things can vary from one client to the next. It really boils down to addressing the issues that seem to be driving each client’s need to abuse alcohol. The more issues a client has, the more work they need to do in therapy. As a general rule of thumb, the therapy portion of treatment for the average alcoholic is about four weeks. That includes investing time helping a client develop better coping skills so they can protect themselves from future relapses. Things are a little different for the long-term or hardcore alcoholic. They need a higher level of care because of the detox process. For some of the people in this group, going through withdrawal too fast presents a danger. For that reason, they might have to go through some kind of a tapering process that could take weeks.
After detox, the hardcore alcoholic might need more than therapy. They might need help relearning how to live a normal life. That’s a big deal because people get lost after years of alcohol abuse. They forget about how to handle basic responsibilities like eating right, getting exercise, and handling responsibilities like working and paying bills. For people in this category, rehab could take anywhere from three months to six months, maybe more. The point is they need to commit to the entire process if they want to arrest the addiction a return to a normal life.
Based on this information, you now should be able to set expectations in terms of the time commitment you need to make for treatment. The first thing you need to focus on is admitting you have a problem and requesting help. When you are ready to request help, we want our addiction treatment facility to be the first one you call. You can reach out to one of our representatives by calling 833-497-3812. With this one simple call, you can start the process of combatting your addiction on the way to reclaiming a normal life.