Residential treatment can be a good reprieve from daily life. It takes you away from home, lifestyle, stressors, and other cues that are associated with drinking and using – called “triggers.”
This allows people to heal and feel more in control of their lives.
On the other hand, the point of residential treatment is not to create a bubble of solitude, free from all stress and anxiety. The fact of the matter is, life still goes on. Problems arise, people don’t meet your expectations, things don’t go as planned, etc. All of these things, as much as they can cause pain in the moment, are also opportunities. Residential treatment offers the opportunity to triggers without turning to the familiar coping style of changing feelings through substances.
This forces reality to be dealt with just as it is, for new coping skills to be realized and practiced. And after that getting through that difficult moment, the realization is that it is possible. That’s why when people feel triggered, when all is said and done and the moment has passed, it is so often a success to be celebrated.
Kirsten Helgager, PsyD
Clinical Psychologist
AToN Center 888-535-1516
