The Importance of Aftercare

So you did your 30 days. You completed your partial hospitalization or inpatient program.

Now what?

Will you attend IOP (intensive outpatient program)? Will you be going home or to sober living? If you’re going home, do you have a support system?

Once you are out of an inpatient or a partial hospitalization treatment and suddenly “free,” you may have sensory overload. You can be easily overwhelmed with all the new possibilities: You can now go where you want, when you want, and do whatever you want. So how will you stay sober?

As you are the most vulnerable in your first days out of treatment, having an aftercare plan in place that you can follow is key to your success. You need to maintain accountability in order to stay sober, and the first 90 days are the most critical.

IOP can be your best option. It eases you back into the real world, while still holding you accountable and giving you the added support and encouragement needed to keep you confidently working your individual plan in recovery.

Every other day in IOP, you will have to prove your sobriety. You are held accountable to your peers and clinicians while still having your freedom. Not only does IOP help keep you on the right path, it gives you a sense of accomplishment. You are able to literally see your progress as the days turn into weeks and weeks turn into months.  When you finally move on from IOP, you will have laid a solid foundation for your sobriety.

Where will you live? If you are not going home, you will most likely go into a sober living home. Residing in a sober home will put you with a group of like-minded men or women who want the same thing you want.

You will be encouraged to get a job, pay your way, and maintain a form of stability critical in sobriety – stability you did not have while you were using. You will gain necessary life skills that seem so easy in theory but, you may have lost while you were using…from tasks as simple as making your bed or grocery shopping to budgeting your money.

What if you go back home?

Sometimes sober living where you went to treatment isn’t an option for you. For example, you may have kids a family and a job waiting on you. What plans do you have in place?

Meetings are the answer. Your first stop when you get home should be a meeting. Let people know you just got home from treatment so that you can build up support for your sobriety. Find a sponsor as soon as possible. He or she can guide you through the steps and hold you accountable, especially since you will not have the structure and accountability that you would have living in sober living.

Nothing is guaranteed to keep you sober; however, these are building blocks to help you on your way. Aftercare is the key to living a successful life in recovery. It is the bridge to help clients fresh out of treatment hold onto what they learned while beginning on a new way of life in sobriety.