You’ve made the biggest and most important decision – to get treatment for your addiction. But you’re still not done with decisions because now you have to decide whether you’ll go somewhere close to home or not.
This is a no-brainer for a lot of people because, obviously, why travel far away if you don’t have to? Your friends and family are here, and you may even feel more comfortable if you know home is close by.
But think of it this way. You’re starting a new chapter in your life, and it’s going to be a big one. Wouldn’t you benefit from an actual fresh start?
Okay, being somewhere where nothing’s familiar is challenging in many ways, but it’s also a breath of fresh air.
Why Your Surroundings Are So Important During Recovery
When you regularly drink or use drugs, you can’t help but develop some habits.
You may not even realize it, but it happens. Habits in general have a lot to do with where you are and who you’re with, and addiction is no different in this aspect.
Here’s an example for you. You have a few beers every day after you finish work, and the routine is the same every night: get home, change into sweats, sit in front of the TV, and grab a beer. You’ve done this so many times that just getting home and sitting on the couch makes you think of beer even if you haven’t thought of it all day.
Those connections are firmly wired into your brain, and deciding to quit drinking doesn’t magically make them disappear. You can truly want to stop drinking alcohol and still crave beer every day after work when you get home and sit in front of the TV. And it’s even harder if the people around you keep drinking or using drugs.
How can you stay sober if your roommate keeps the fridge stocked with alcohol?
It’s not hard to see why a lot of people decide to go away from all of it to get better. Going away gives you a break from everything you connect with alcohol, right down to the stained sweats you only wear at home because you’re embarrassed to wear them outside.
That said, it’s not necessary for everyone to leave home in order to recover.
That part really depends on you and what you’re dealing with at home. But in some cases, surroundings have a huge effect on addiction, and if that’s something that sounds familiar to you, then going away is the obvious answer.
Pros and Cons of Going Away for Recovery
Some things are easier when you’re away, and others are more complicated. Here are some things that change.
You Get a Break From the Usual Triggers
A lot of things remind you of drinking or using drugs when you’re home, and that’s the biggest (and possibly the most useful) thing that changes when you go away for treatment. You won’t pass by the bar you used to visit every Friday night, nobody’ll invite you for drinks after work, and so on.
Of course, going away doesn’t take away cravings.
You’ll still feel them here and there, no matter how far away from home you go. But since you’ll be in rehab, you’ll have people there who can help you deal with them. After all, that’s why you’re there.
You Might Feel More Comfortable Away From People You Know
When you live in a small town, everybody knows everybody, and that can be a wonderful thing. It’s like living among friends. It also means you can’t keep anything private, which is especially tricky when you decide to go into rehab.
There’s no way someone won’t recognize you.
To be clear, there’s NOTHING embarrassing about asking for help and wanting to get better. But the fact is that most people would rather avoid running into someone they know, and the only way to be (somewhat) sure of that is to get somewhere farther away.
Staying Connected With Family Becomes Harder
If you go away, then you can’t see your family and friends as often, except on FaceTime. And that can be really hard if they were the ones keeping your head above water through your addiction. They can visit, sure, but that takes preparation, and it’s not practical or possible for everyone.
Then again, not everyone has people around them who support them. If your friends and/or family made you want to drink or do drugs more, then being away from them is actually a good thing.
You Have More Options for Treatment
You could have a treatment center close to home, but what if it doesn’t offer the kind of help you need? Perhaps you need help with both addiction and depression, and the nearest facility can’t give you that.
Situations like that happen a lot in small towns.
Say you live in Crested Butte, and you love everything about your town. Going away to rehab stresses you out, but there’s no facility nearby that has what you need, so you start to research rehab options near Colorado Springs.
That might just be exactly what you need if you change your perception. You’ll get the kind of help you need in a fresh environment, and your family is only about a 4-hour drive away.
It’s a win-win if you really think about it.
How to Be Sure That Staying Close to Home Is the Better Choice
What’s your life like at home? Do you live with people who support your decision to quit? Is your home a place that makes it easier for you to stay away from drugs or alcohol?
If you answered yes to both of those questions, then you don’t really have a reason to go away, except if you can’t find a suitable facility close by.
But if you live with someone who drinks all the time or your friends keep asking you to go out and party with them (in which case you should probably ask yourself whether those are your true friends or not), you’ll have a harder time with recovery.
Also, think about what kind of treatment you need.
Some people have serious symptoms of withdrawal, and they need medical supervision. Benzodiazepine and alcohol withdrawal can be very dangerous if you don’t have someone who looks after you, and that someone has to be a medical professional.
There’s really no simple answer to this. If your home is safe and there’s proper treatment close to it, then you don’t have to travel just for the sake of it.
But there’s a lot that goes into this decision.
Conclusion
If you were expecting to read something that would give you a clear answer, then this didn’t really help, did it?
But there’s no one simple answer to this conundrum because so many factors affect where it’s best to go for treatment. And a lot of it depends on your character.
The most important thing is that you decided to get help, and it’s the hardest decision you’ll have to make. So, if you were able to decide that, then this should be a piece of cake.
Well, sort of. It’s definitely easier, and that’s something.