Your Complete Guide to a 30-Day Rehab Program

30-Day Rehab Program

These days, everyone knows about 30-day rehab programs – or at least they think they do. We’ve seen residential treatment portrayed on TV for decades, after all! Having both attended and worked in rehabs though, I can tell you that fiction is rarely representative of real life.

There are certain things they get right. Group therapy is an essential part of the process. Residents can build deep relationships. And tough love is sometimes necessary.

But they also get a lot wrong, creating many misconceptions and potentially putting people off the idea of rehab.

To help you understand how you can benefit from a 30-day rehab program, I’m going to provide a guide, with insight from my personal experience.

Let me start by assuring you that rehab can become your most-prized experience. Here’s what you need to know.

Before getting into the nitty-gritty, I’ll give a quick rundown of what a 30-day rehab program is and why it’s so popular.

What is a 30-Day Rehab Program?

The definition of a 30-day rehab program is, technically, in the name. But you’re probably hoping to learn about a little bit more than how long it takes.

There are 3 traits of a thirty-day program we can focus on to better understand why you should attend:

  • The inpatient experience
  • Structure
  • Fixed parameters

The Importance of Residential Rehab

While there are excellent outpatient programs which are as comprehensive as the inpatient equivalent, residential rehab is the optimal choice. It not only makes the process of disconnecting from your triggers seamless, but also facilitates a much more immersive process.

In a residential thirty-day rehab program, you spend the entire time living on the premises. Everything is provided for you, including food, accommodation, and psychiatry. You are away from the office and your family, which relieves you of the burden of your normal responsibilities. You are away from the places and situations that have triggered your substance use.

This may already seem like a major benefit, but the true gains are from the fact that, for this period of time, your whole life revolves around recovery.

In between sessions, there are few distractions to keep you from doing the ‘homework’. Your social circle is made up of people going through the same process as you. And you’re in an environment of encouragement towards growth.

Recovery Requires Structure

One of my biggest bugbears of fictional portrayals of rehab is the trope that there’s no real structure. The protagonist has group sessions and occasional one-on-ones with their therapist, and the rest of the time they just kind of hang around.

Everyone knows that this approach would never work in rehab for a physical injury. If your physio tried to take this tack, you’d look for a new one. So why should it be any different with recovery from addiction?

Thirty-day rehab is extremely structured. Everything from meals to sessions to lessons to activities is organized for optimal effectiveness. Treatment is comprehensive, and you even get work you need to do when alone.

This is not to say that you don’t get free time or that rehab is tedious. Free time is scheduled into your day and sessions are meaningful and often enjoyable.

Knowing Your Limits

Comprehensive recovery from addiction can take a lot longer than thirty days. But that does not mean a 30-day program is insufficient. In fact, because you’re there for a fixed time, you have a clearer idea of the kind of progress you should be making every day. The limits also allow for the amount of structure that makes rehab so effective.

In addition, many people get perturbed by the thought of too long a period in rehab. Stays with no set end-date can cause a lot of anxiety, especially for people who already feel very vulnerable.

Now that you have a better idea of what 30-day rehab is and why it is so widely recommended, I’ll give you a rundown of what the actual experience is like.

Beginnings

I arrived at rehab having completed detox in a hospital in my hometown. With the prospect of a thirty-day program ahead of me, I felt a lot of anxiety.

I had the good fortune to attend Seasons in Malibu, which is a luxury rehab. As such, the facilities and surroundings looked incredible and the staff who greeted me were amazing. Still, this only went some way to putting me at ease.

When you enter any medical institution, you need to fill out some forms. I’ve always believed this is more for the sake of easing your anxiety than collecting extra information. Presented with questions you know the answer to, you feel yourself on solid ground.

So, once the admin was done, I got a tour of the rehab and an introduction into what I should expect from the program. Importantly, I was also informed of what was expected from me.

I was shown to my room, and left to settle in. I finally felt like I could let go of some of the tension.

A New Social Circle

The most unexpected outcome of rehab was that I actually made friends. When I arrived, I felt incredible shame. Naturally, I assumed I’d project that onto everyone else. Why would I want to be friends with people who had messed up as badly as I had?

Of course, that perspective was always going to change over the course of the process, as I realized that everyone around me had more courage than anyone else I’d ever met. But I did not need to go through the process to appreciate this new group of people.

Unlike most social circles, the group you spend time with in rehab is more open to honesty and sharing. You’re all feeling vulnerable and the fact that you’re all in the same place in your lives erases the instinct to judge each other.

I loved my new social circle from day one, and felt their love for me. At this point, I knew that I would enjoy my time in rehab, no matter how difficult the process might get.

Therapies and Sessions

The environment facilitates the recovery process, but it is the therapies and sessions that drive your healing.

Therapy

There are a number of different types of therapy you will do in rehab.

Group therapy is crucial in treating addiction. It provides you with a supportive space to share, but the benefits don’t begin and end there. Addiction destroys relationships, often through dishonesty and manipulation. As such, a huge component of the effectiveness of group therapy is that you’re relearning how to relate to others in a healthy way.

You also get to learn from how others are navigating the recovery process. You therefore don’t only have your own experience to guide you.

Individual therapy is just as important as group therapy. It gives you the space to explore your particular issues, which have led you down the path of addiction. Your therapist will help you understand why you struggled and used substances to cope. Together, you’ll identify your patterns of thought and behavior, giving you a foundation on which you can begin to make changes.

Your therapist will also explore whether you have any co-occurring mental illnesses. Without taking co-occurring disorders into account, treating the addiction alone is unsustainable, as it is often the one that led to the other.

Family therapy involves your family members who have experienced many of the negative consequences of your addiction. Their behaviors are also often triggers for your substance use, and parental dysfunction is often what leads to substance abuse in the first place.

Holistic therapy refers to things like mindfulness and meditation, art therapy, equine therapy, and more. These may not seem as necessary as traditional therapy, but can be fundamental to your recovery. Mindfulness and meditation in particular have been proven effective in treating mental illness and addiction.

Sessions

Most people know about the 12-Step Program, but not all rehab centers use it. While it is certainly effective for some people, others do not find it helpful. Depending on the rehab you attend, you will have sessions in which you learn the fundamentals of the treatment module.

These are ‘classes’ in which the expert staff guide you and your peers through the evidence-based processes that will form the basis of your recovery. They will train you in various types of activities you’ll need to work on during your free time and which will help you continue your recovery when you have left rehab.

Leaving

There is much more to rehab than what I’ve described above, but to understand the full experience you will have to take the opportunity to go. The last thing I’ll discuss is how it feels to leave.

Arriving and leaving were the most difficult parts of rehab for me. But this time, it was anxiety associated with going outside of the safe space I’d come to treasure that made leaving tough.

Fortunately, my therapist and the rest of the staff helped me prepare for life outside of rehab. They helped me see that I was doing well in my recovery and was set to continue my success. They gave me tools to manage the difficulties I would face in a healthy way.

The fact that Seasons provides aftercare as well made a huge difference. Recovery doesn’t end after thirty days. Continuing with the program in a less structured way gave me the support I needed.

Still, it was tough to leave the people who I related to more than anodyne else. We made plans to keep in touch, and it was clear that our connection was not just circumstantial.

Conclusion

A 30-day rehab program can seem intimidating. But the reality is that it can be the most memorable time in your life. It is a period during which you get to work on yourself while surrounded by others all doing the same. The environment is one of healing and progress, and when the time comes to leave, you’re both excited and a little bit sad.

If you or a loved one is suffering from addiction, get in touch with Seasons in Malibu now to start a world-class 30-day rehab program in beautiful surroundings.