What Are The Next Steps After Alcohol Detoxification?

Removing alcohol from your body is a great first step toward sobriety, but the detoxification process, or detox, doesn’t actually treat alcoholism. During detox, your body metabolizes any remaining alcohol out of your system, which clears your mind and heals your body so that you can truly begin the recovery process. But you’ll need to change your habits, lifestyle, thought patterns, and coping mechanisms if you truly want to live an alcohol-free life. Detox won’t help you do that, but taking these next steps can help you maintain the sobriety you’ve achieved.

5 Steps To Stay Sober After Alcohol Detox

1. Enroll In A Professional Treatment Program

Professional treatment programs, which are designed to help you break the habit of compulsive substance use, can be inpatient or outpatient. Inpatient programs provide full-time residential treatment. Outpatient programs provide flexible part-time treatment.

Here, at Meta Addiction, we specialize in outpatient recovery. Our services include:

• Partial hospitalization, which may be ideal for you if you’ve already completed a residential treatment program and need continued support.
• Intensive outpatient, which uses a combination of therapy, peer support, and life skills training to help individuals move towards a less structured and more hands-on recovery.
• Outpatient, which teaches individuals practical skills and strategies needed to ensure their recovery as they re-enter everyday life.

Without enrolling in a professional treatment program, you may never fully learn how to break the habit of substance use, which can increase your risk of relapse.

2. Participate in Behavioral Therapy

Now that you’re alcohol-free, you need to break your alcohol consumption habit. Therapy can help you:

• Understand why and how your addiction began
• Identify and change harmful thoughts that can lead to destructive behaviors
• Develop healthy coping strategies
• Learn to regulate your emotions
• Begin to deal with negative emotions
• Heal from past trauma

You should also take advantage of family therapy. Having your family’s unconditional love and support can help you remember that you’re not alone on this journey. Family therapy can help your family and loved ones work through addiction-related challenges and address and change their dysfunctional patterns.

3. Attend Peer Support Groups

Peer support groups can also be a great source of encouragement during recovery. Life was not meant to be lived alone. Consider attending Alcoholics Anonymous or another 12-step support group in addition to the peer support provided by your treatment facility.

4. Start to Build An Alcohol-Free Life

Once you’ve undergone detox, enrolled in a treatment program, and participated in therapy, start building an alcohol-free life. Find new hobbies. Eat a balanced diet. Exercise. Explore new ways to deal with stress. Meditate. Try yoga. Whatever you do, work towards building a life that’s full of healthy, beneficial, and refreshing activities. This is your chance to live the life you’ve been fighting for. Make it fun, vibrant, purposeful, and sober.

5. Seek Out Aftercare Support

Recovery can be a tricky journey, so keep aftercare resources near and dear to you. Aftercare support can help you:

• Find a place to stay
• Readjust to everyday life
• Land a job
• Overcome major life transitions
• Finish school
• Manage your finances
• Set and achieve goals
• Deal with legal challenges

Regardless of where you are on your recovery journey, you can depend on aftercare programs for assistance and support.

Let Us Help You Maintain Your Sobriety

Here at Meta, the majority of our executive team members are in active recovery. We know what it takes to maintain sobriety. Our flexible, outpatient programs can help you get there. Contact us today if you’re ready to take the next steps in your sobriety journey in the Boston area.