Getting ready for rehab can feel intimidating – especially if you’re planning to travel to another city or state for your treatment. To help you manage any worries or anxiety, there are proactive things you can do to make your mind, body and spirit more receptive to the experience.
1. Talk to Your Employer
It can be challenging to admit to your supervisor that you need to seek rehab, but it’s best to be honest and upfront about it. If your addiction issues have become severe enough to impact the quality of your work, your boss and other co-workers will probably be pleased to hear that you are pursuing treatment.
You can choose to use the Family and Medical Leave Act, which enables employees to take 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave from work to seek medical attention for a severe health problem. Your company’s human resources department can work with you to complete and file any necessary paperwork, as well as to help you prepare for your time away from the office. Sorting out your employment status can be complicated. However, ensuring you have a job to come back to will be one less thing for you to worry about.
2. Coordinate With Your At-Home Support Network
When you enter a treatment program, you will have to leave your friends and family behind temporarily. Going it alone might feel like a shock to your system at first, but it will help remove distractions so you can focus solely on getting better.
It helps to agree on a plan, so you know how and when you will be able to communicate with your support system while you are working on your treatment. Make sure to leave someone you trust in charge of paying your bills and managing other responsibilities, so you can feel confident that those aspects of your life will not fall by the wayside during your time in rehab.
3. Have Realistic Expectations
You may begin the process with specific assumptions about what you will experience – either because you have been through rehab before, or because you are envisioning it will be like something you’ve seen on TV. However, it’s essential to your long-term healing and success to keep an open mind about what will happen in treatment. Assumptions can sabotage your recovery process.
With the right mindset, you can set yourself up to be successful and learn to manage your sober lifestyle. Don’t feel pressure to make perfection your goal from day one. Instead, focus on what you need to do to make progress, one step at a time.
Begin Your Recovery at Vista Taos
Family, friends and other loved ones will play a vital role in your happy, drug-free future. When you return home, they will remain a staunch support network for you. There might come a day when they will need you to return the favor, and you will want to make sure you’re physically and mentally healthy enough to be someone they can lean on.
At Vista Taos Renewal Center, we provide a nationally accredited addiction treatment program designed to help adult men and women of all backgrounds and beliefs. We offer multiple levels of care, as well as many sought-after amenities that complement addiction recovery. Contact us today to learn more about starting your journey with us.
