Are you ready to stop drinking? A formal alcohol rehab program may be your best chance.

The National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism reports that 8-9% of adults in the United States are consuming enough alcohol to cause problems in their lives. If you find that alcohol is interfering with your daily functions – how you perform in social, professional or any aspect of life – you may need to evaluate if you are an alcoholic. If you’d rather not see a professional immediately, there are online tools and forums to help you begin assessing if alcohol is causing issues for you. If you are an alcoholic, you needn’t go through the process alone. There are successful alcohol rehabilitation programs available and statistics to support their effectiveness.

At-Home Remedies

You may have tried living sober on your own. Perhaps you’ve reduced the events in your life you find stressful, started substituting alcohol for other activities like volunteer work, changed your diet to allow for proper nutrition, avoided situations that encourage alcohol consumption, and found the right social and moral support in friends and family to help you remain sober. Even if you find initial success in controlling the addiction on your own, staying vigilant and remaining sober long-term is difficult without additional and professional resources and support.

Finding Success with Alcohol Rehab

Going through an alcohol rehab program is the best choice to find the right combination of support. It blends the necessary expertise, guidance and support you need for long-term abstinence. According to the popular health and wellness site WebMD, treatment usually consists of three main stages to begin living sober, which includes immediately stopping the consumption of alcohol, rehabilitation, and maintenance.

When you stop drinking your body will begin the detoxification process. You may suffer minor to life-threatening symptoms. You may need additional
treatment, such as medication, to help you control symptoms such as depression, or hallucinations. It’s especially important for people who have been alcoholics for a long period of their life to seek the care at an in-patient facility and under the care of a physician. Alcohol rehab offers you support to complete the detoxification process as comfortable as possible while providing the skills to cope.

Rehabilitation under a guided alcohol program offers the emotional, moral and social support you need. It usually involves professional counseling to develop tools and techniques to remain sober. Rehabilitation may also involve medications to help you fight the addiction, if your detoxification symptoms or addiction cravings are more severe. The longer you have been an alcoholic, and the more you consume, the more alcohol rehab can help you through the difficult process.

The maintenance portion of rehab requires you to take control of your sobriety. After going through alcohol rehab, you will learn the important skills to remaining in control of your addiction and living the life you desire. Maintenance also includes participating in support groups to remain strong habitually, emotionally and socially, against addiction.

Alcohol Rehab’s Success Rate

You can expect are good results with alcohol rehabilitation programs. When you are following a program that many others have found success with, you can rely on the fact that it has been well researched, trialed and proven. Sources on WebMD also note that studies indicate alcohol rehab contributes significantly to helping people live sober, and more than half of participants remained dry after going through a year of treatment for alcoholism.

While you may still be weighing your options to begin living sober, having the right social, motivational and professional support is critical to your sustained control of the disease. This may be the most important decision you and your loved ones make together.