What Are Recovery Programs?

After completing rehabilitation treatment, a person often continues his or her recovery via recovery programs. These programs are performed on an outpatient basis and can take a variety of approaches to help a person maintain his or her sobriety.

When a person returns to a home or sober living facility after rehabilitation, there may be new and unanticipated challenges to sobriety. Recovery programs are designed to help a person navigate these challenges.

Recovery programs are often designed with the 12 steps in mind. The 12 steps originated with the Alcoholics Anonymous program in the 1930s, yet can be modified across many program applications. The 12 steps are a means to help a person acknowledge his or her drug abuse, the damage it has caused a person and his or her loved ones and how a person can move forward with his or her life. Examples of a few of the 12 steps in Alcoholics Anonymous are:

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol -- that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him.
3. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
4. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
5. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

Not all programs incorporate the spiritual component that Alcoholics Anonymous does. However, research has shown that recovery programs that have a spiritual component have longer success rates.

Different Models of Addiction Treatment Therapy

Addiction treatment therapy may incorporate different models of behavioral therapy. Behavioral therapies are the most common approaches to recovery because they teach a person how to think and act when faced with different situations.

Three common models of addiction treatment therapy are cognitive/behavioral therapy, motivational interviewing and motivational incentives.

Cognitive/behavioral therapies involve helping a person identify thoughts that can be classified as addictive thinking and thoughts that can help a person maintain his or her sobriety. These thoughts are then turned into actions, such as learning coping behaviors that help a person relieve anxiety and depression.

Examples of treatment therapies that utilize cognitive/behavioral approaches include art therapy and music therapy. Moral reconation therapy, a therapy that teaches people to think more about social and legal concerns instead of solely focused on the person, is also an example of cognitive/behavioral therapy.

Motivational incentives are a therapy model that focuses on rewarding positive behaviors instead of reflecting upon negative ones. For example, family therapy can reward a person with praise for continued sobriety. Inpatient rehabilitation programs also incorporate motivational incentives where participants can earn prizes or rewards for participation and achievements in sobriety.

Alcoholics Anonymous uses motivational incentives in the forms of "chips" that signify when a person has met time milestones in his or her sobriety. Examples can include chips for a year's sobriety or five year's sobriety. These chips are hard-earned rewards that can be very meaningful to the person.

Principles of Effective Treatment

Recovery programs all have the goal of helping a person stay sober. However, there are many ways to accomplish this -- and this fact is a principle associated with effective treatment. No one program will work for every person. This is why rehabilitation facilities may offer numerous programs and approaches, such as moral reconation therapy and family therapy, to allow a person to discover what he or she best identifies with.

Additional principles of effective treatment include that the person stays in the program for a long enough time to be effective. For some people, this can be a lifetime. By working to discover a program the person best responds to, he or she can ensure the best chance at a successful recovery.

For help finding the best rehab recovery programs El Paso TX offers, contact El Paso Drug Treatment Centers at (877) 804-1531 today.