Attending a rehabilitation program can be a beneficial first step to overcoming addiction. While this provides a foundation for recovery, individuals should expect to keep working long after rehab ends, including attending aftercare, managing triggers, and rebuilding their lives.
- Rehab provides initial treatment for people overcoming addiction and will often be followed by aftercare and ongoing treatments.
- It is not uncommon for people to experience triggers and relapses after treatment, particularly within the first year.
- Engaging with available services, aftercare, support networks, and community support groups can help reduce the risk of relapse and improve recovery.
First steps: What happens after rehab?
After completing a detoxification or rehabilitation program, individuals begin an important part of their recovery. They might return home, enter a sober living home, or move to new accommodations, where they will utilize their newly learned skills to navigate recovery.
People in recovery often have to rebuild many aspects of their lives after rehab, creating new habits in new environments and managing any challenges that they might face. They will likely continue with recovery interventions and may implement new strategies and routines during this time, such as attending support groups.[1][2]
Common emotions after leaving rehab
Entering this new stage of recovery can feel overwhelming, and you will likely experience many intense emotions. Substances may have numbed or altered emotions for a long time, so these new emotions can feel particularly raw.
This can be an incredibly labile time, with emotions rapidly and intensely emerging and changing. It is common to feel vulnerable and afraid because of this, along with feelings of guilt, anxiety, and anger.[3]
During early recovery, use support networks, talk with others to feel safe and process these emotions, and recognize positive feelings such as hope and empowerment.[3][4]
Common challenges after treatment
After completing treatment, common challenges that might be faced include:
- Returning to the environment or social group within which substance use took place.
- Lack of a sober support system.
- Lack of supervision, structure, and accountability to remain clean and sober.
- Encountering triggers and temptations and having strong cravings to use.
- Difficult emotions like guilt, depression, loneliness, and boredom.
- Struggling to adapt to a new lifestyle, particularly if substance use took place over many years and formed a large part of the daily routine.
- Experiencing a lapse or relapse.
Why discharge planning and aftercare are essential
Discharge planning and aftercare are essential when someone transitions out of rehab because they help people manage these challenges and reduce their impact on recovery.
Overcoming addiction generally requires more than the initial treatment process. Often, addictions develop as a result of many factors. While rehab can help identify and begin managing these factors, it is often crucial to continue addressing them, whether physical, psychological, or environmental, for the best recovery outcomes.[5]
Aftercare can involve formal treatments like individual, group, or family therapy, as well as psychiatric or addiction medicine. For some, mutual-help communities like 12-step programs or SMART Recovery are an important part of aftercare and help people stay connected to the recovery community.
Timeline-based recovery guide
Recovery looks different for everyone, and people might experience very different stages within each time period. However, the following can serve as a rough guide to offer key recommendations, identify challenges, and maintain motivation.
Temptations, lapses, and relapses can occur at any stage of recovery, and it is important to view them as learning experiences and continue recovery with adapted plans and improved skills.[1][5][6]
First 30 days after rehab
This period focuses on adjusting to the new normal, establishing healthy habits and routines, and learning to recognize triggers and cope with them. Using a relapse prevention plan and an aftercare plan during this time will help in difficult moments and keep things on track.
This can be a particularly challenging time, as it may be difficult to avoid the environments and social circles associated with past drug use, meaning that temptations, triggers, and emotions can be frequent and intense. In the first 30 days of recovery, the risk for relapse is incredibly high, making it especially important to stay actively engaged in treatment during this period.
For now, focus on self-care: eat well, stay hydrated, get good sleep, and use your support networks.
Days 30-60 after rehab
By this time, the new routines and habits will feel more comfortable, so the focus can shift to developing new recovery skills and healthy routines. This might happen through ongoing therapy or by keeping a daily journal, which helps identify and manage underlying issues and daily challenges.
At this stage, challenges might include reemerging cravings or emotional difficulties that can impact motivation and engagement in the recovery process. Healthy routines that make time for treatment, self-care, and personal development are also an important part of this stage of recovery and can help people rebuild a stable foundation for their sobriety.
Focusing on progress so far can help maintain motivation while you navigate new coping strategies.
Days 60-90
By this stage, healthy habits should feel like a normal part of the routine and will require less focus to maintain. Review relapse prevention and aftercare plans to identify what's working and what may need adjusting. This can be a good time to start focusing on other aspects of life, such as returning to career responsibilities or setting new goals.
Challenges during this time might include anxieties around rebuilding life and career skills. This might feel scary if there has been a long period of unemployment or impairment. Maintaining the positive routines and habits that helped during early recovery is important in this stage and can help lower the risk of relapse.
Take one step at a time; choose a goal to focus on, and use support networks and professional help to meet it.
6 months after rehab
Once recovery has become solid and consistent, it can be a good time to repair relationships or explore building new relationships and interpersonal skills. Professional support may help you manage any confusing feelings that come up.
Relationships can bring up triggers and emotional challenges.
Set clear boundaries for yourself and others so everyone understands expectations and how to respect the recovery process.
1 year after rehab
After one year, it can be helpful to revisit plans and recognize the progress made. People with a successful year of recovery might want to use their knowledge and experience to help others and set themselves longer-term goals.
This is a major milestone and should be celebrated.
Relapse prevention and navigating triggers
Relapse can be common after completing treatment. While the risk is highest in early recovery, it is possible to relapse at any stage, including after several months or years of sobriety. To reduce the risk of relapse, research suggests that longer-term treatment, ongoing therapy, stress management, and relapse prevention plans can be beneficial.[6]
Utilizing relapse prevention plans can help identify and manage triggers. Often, professionals will support the development of a relapse prevention plan during rehab treatment. This might include a list of trusted friends and family to contact for support, professional services to use in certain circumstances, and coping strategies to avoid or manage temptations and triggers.[6][7]
Review and adapt this plan during recovery, depending on what has and hasn't been helpful.
Aftercare and recovery services
Many rehab programs offer aftercare to provide continued support after program completion. This continued support can help people navigate recovery while monitoring and reviewing medications or other ongoing treatments.
People who receive aftercare and ongoing addiction treatment and therapy are twice as likely to avoid relapse as those who do not.[7]
Rebuilding your life after addiction
Addiction can impact all areas of a person’s life, which means that there can be a great deal of work required to rebuild a good quality of life during recovery.
Family and relationships
Interpersonal and family relationships are often negatively impacted by addiction due to issues such as mistrust, anxiety, emotional trauma, resentment, neglect, or anger. During recovery, people may need to understand what their loved one experienced to rebuild the relationship.[8]
This can take time, and loved ones may struggle to regain their trust after their negative experiences, so it is important to provide consistent, honest communication and actions. It can also help to let loved ones set their own boundaries and offer their views on how the relationship can continue.
Career
Academic and professional functioning is often affected by addiction. Rebuilding can take time after treatment and may require professional input and/or vocational training. Social workers or other professionals can provide psychosocial support that helps people return to work or build skills to enter employment.[5]
Identity and purpose
Addiction can quickly become the basis of a person’s identity, which means that this can be a critical part of recovery. People may find it challenging to identify their “true self” or their purpose in life, because they have spent so long identifying as “an addict”.[10]
Creating new goals and social connections can help, providing a sense of purpose and meaning that helps the individual regain their sense of identity within a more positive framework.
Hobbies
A common factor in relapse is struggling to fill time and returning to substance use out of boredom or stress. Addiction can be time-consuming, including obtaining, using, and recovering from substance use. After treatment, people might struggle to know how to spend their days, as they suddenly have many more hours to fill.[1]
Finding new hobbies that feel fulfilling, purposeful, and enjoyable helps ensure time is well spent and that boredom doesn’t affect recovery progress. Hobbies can also help alleviate negative emotions and provide a reward, further reinforcing and strengthening recovery.
Building a recovery support network
Building a support network during recovery can be one of the most crucial aspects of the process. Social and emotional resources, along with other internal and external support resources, can be key to initiating and sustaining recovery and are often referred to as “recovery capital”.[1][2]
Support networks can comprise family and friends, professionals involved in providing care, and community or recovery groups. For example, research indicates that utilizing a 12-step support group or similar group can significantly benefit long-term recovery goals.[2]
Building your aftercare plan
Aftercare, or Continuing Care (CC), can be implemented in various settings and may yield mixed results, though it is often an important part of improved recovery. A key aspect of CC is its flexibility, and it should always be tailored to the individual’s changing needs during their recovery.[4][7]
The essential components of a personalized aftercare plan
Key components of an aftercare plan typically include:
- Regular reviews and check-ins.
- Continuing with regular therapy sessions.
- Remaining compliant with any prescribed medications.
- Consistent engagement in scheduled health, mental health, or addiction treatment.
- Identifying individual needs and triggers.
- Development and practice of coping skills.
- Setting goals.
- Daily structure.
Sample daily routine template for early recovery
Setting a daily routine for early recovery should include aspects such as:[1]
- Waking up and going to sleep at the same time each day.
- Self-care routines, such as reading, taking a bath, going for a walk, or eating a nutritious breakfast.
- Therapies, professional appointments, or support groups.
- Spending time with loved ones.
- Engaging in hobbies or exercise.
- Working on personal goals or skills development.
- Planning to fill the most challenging times.
What long-term recovery can look like
Long-term recovery can be defined as 12 or more months of sustained abstinence. Reaching this goal can be challenging and will require many lifestyle changes, new habits, and consistent motivation.[1][6]
Over time, these changes can become part of a normal daily routine and lead to a renewed sense of identity and security. It is important to continue reviewing relapse prevention plans and maintaining ongoing treatments even after reaching this goal to maintain recovery progress. By this point, many emotional and physical improvements will have occurred, strengthening recovery.[6]
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