Rehabilitation
Dr. Ashish Bhatt, MD establishes that proper aftercare treatment can help to prevent relapse and achieve long-lasting recovery.
Transcript
Hi, this is Dr. Bhatt with a moment from Straight Talk With The Doc. A lot of times people who enter rehab or treatment for their addiction or substance use disorders fixate it on a time frame. 28 days, 30 days. Addiction is a chronic illness. This is something that we have to learn with, cope with, and deal with for our lives.
Now, I don’t like people to remind themselves all the time that they suffer with an addiction or they’re an addict. But we shouldn’t forget that we’ve had a substance use disorder. And this entails receiving the proper treatment, and it often entails receiving treatment after we leave that short acute 28, 30, 45 days worth of treatment.
The importance here is aftercare. Just like any chronic illness, it’s important that we get maintenance, that we get the right support. The right medication, the right groups, the right interventions, the right environment. And this doesn’t change just because we went to rehab for 30 or 45 days.
The importance is we need to remember addiction is a chronic illness. It is something that we have to cope with and deal with for our lifetimes. And that once you get done with rehab, make sure that you’re working and focusing on proper aftercare plans in order to ensure that your sobriety and recovery is lifelong.