In today’s fast-paced culture, we’re usually trying to save time, multitask, and speed through experiences. But shorter isn’t always better. This is especially true when recovering from a drug or alcohol addiction. At Discovery Place, we offer an initial 30-day program to help you get sober. While it’s great, adding additional time to your stay can reinforce your sobriety and give you extra tools for the recovery journey ahead. This is where Phase 2 of our addiction recovery programming, called Long-Term Recovery (LTR), makes all the difference.
When Shorter Isn’t Better
Sure, we love short wait times, short work weeks, short commutes, and shortcuts in general. Who doesn’t? Efficiency, ease, and instant gratification are held in high regard in the United States. In this era of smart phones, social media, and DoorDash, the average attention span has shrunk down to 47 seconds, according to Time. Consequently, we gravitate toward anything that doesn’t take very long, or else we lose interest altogether. Virtues like patience, persistence, and endurance have almost become dusty museum relics in our collective consciousness.
But there are still important aspects of our lives today that go against this grain, and trying to make them shorter doesn’t generate the best results. Shortening your education or training program doesn’t help when you’re trying to grow, advance your career, or learn a new skill. Getting fewer hours of sleep each night creates health challenges. Exercising less doesn’t make you more physically fit. Taking shortcuts with your work or taxes often comes back to bite you. Shortening the time you spend listening to your spouse or significant other will put you in the doghouse.
And shortening the addiction recovery process doesn’t yield better (or even similar) results. Achieving long-term recovery from substance abuse isn’t a quick fix, so trying to hit the easy button with rehab only sets you up for failure. You may recall several botched attempts at shortcutting recovery as you’re reading this. But there are no shortcuts to alcohol or drug recovery. That’s because overcoming addiction is about more than abstaining from substances. There are often deeper issues afoot when it comes to getting sober, requiring emotional healing and ongoing sobriety support.
Our Addiction Recovery Process at Discovery Place
At Discovery Place, we understand that shorter isn’t better in the addiction recovery journey.
That’s why our treatment approach emphasizes long-term recovery, not just addressing physical symptoms and quitting substances. We have three phases of care in our 12-Step Immersion recovery program, using the 12 Steps and peer support to promote sobriety, emotional healing, and spiritual growth in recovery:
- Phase 1 – 30-Day Rehab: This initial phase of rehab takes you on steps 1 through 5. You come in with a willingness to get sober, and we work to get you comfortable and acclimated to the program. Our guides, who’ve been through the program themselves, show you a way out from fear, anger, and the discomfort of early sobriety. This phase, especially (and particularly phase 2), emphasizes the connection between your higher power and sobriety, integrating faith and healing in the recovery journey.
- Phase 2 – Long-Term Recovery: After you complete our 30-Day Rehab and continue abstaining from drugs or alcohol, you enter into Long-Term Recovery. In this phase, you address many of the root causes of your addiction. Navigating steps 6 through 9, you overcome character challenges, embrace humility, and make amends for your past, empowering you to pursue hope in recovery.
- Phase 3 – Discover Living Program: Our final phase transitions you back into the real world and equips you to take responsibility for your own recovery journey. In our Discover Living Program, you learn how to integrate what you experienced in Phases 1 and 2 into your everyday life. Finishing steps 10 through 12, you develop the life skills required to become an asset to your family, friends, and community.
A Closer Look at Phase 2: Long-Term Recovery
As mentioned earlier, Phase 2 of our addiction recovery process, called Long-Term Recovery, is pivotal to helping you sustain lasting sobriety. But what happens during this phase that makes it so impactful for your recovery journey? Let’s take a closer look:
Once you’ve completed 30-Day Rehab at our main campus, you transition to our Long-Term Recovery campus 15 minutes away. At LTR, our goal is to set you up for long-term success and to maintain sobriety. We help you accomplish this by giving you opportunities to apply what you’ve learned in a safe, structured environment that prepares you for the real world back home. Some of this may involve fun outings and volunteer opportunities. But part of that practical application process requires you to take on more opportunities to be held accountable. Demonstrating to yourself and to others that you can show up and be counted on pays dividends to your commitment to staying sober. In this phase, you may have light responsibilities such as:
- Cooking
- Cleaning
- House chores
What’s also incredibly special about LTR is your opportunity to directly address and heal the underlying challenges that drive your addiction. After all, your addiction struggles don’t just go away after you’ve stopped using. There’s often unresolved past trauma still steering the ship, motivating you to self-medicate in any way possible to cope with its lingering effects. To combat this, we get down to the nitty-gritty of what’s troubling you beyond your physical addiction symptoms. In LTR, we find that men finally let their guard down, open up, and get honest with themselves. This sets the stage for real healing to take place.
During LTR, you continue to walk alongside a Discovery Place guide who’s been through the program previously. Partnering with a 12-Step sponsor, you actively work through steps 6 through 9:
- Step 6: Being ready to have God (or a higher power greater than ourselves) remove all your character defects
- Step 7: Humbly asking God to remove your shortcomings
- Step 8: Making a list of all people you’ve harmed and becoming willing to make amends with them all
- Step 9: Making direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others
SOURCE: Alcoholics Anonymous
Extending Your Stay: The Impact of Long-Term Recovery
While our cultural instant gratification tendencies may make a 30-day program sound more appealing, studies have shown that extending your stay in rehab can positively impact your treatment success. According to The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, studies of women in substance abuse treatment found high treatment success rates among those who spent three to six months or more in treatment. Alternatively, success rates were lower for those with shorter stays. In addition, research in Psychiatry Journal concluded that patients receiving at least three months of long-term residential or outpatient treatment had significantly better outcomes in behavioral functioning and lower rates of illicit drug use.
Though research backs the importance of long-term recovery, we’ve also seen its impact firsthand here at Discovery Place. Just take a look at feedback from some of our program alumni:
“Discovery Place changed my entire life. I had been to treatment 29 times before I got there, but I could never get over 30 days sober for over a decade. I was dishonest, irresponsible, childish and self-loathing. The men there taught me how to live and enjoy life. This is a special place that transforms the lives of its guests and the family and friends around them as well. This is the best treatment center on the planet.”
— Jake S.
“Discovery Place didn’t just help me stop using — they built the foundation that keeps my recovery strong long after leaving. Surrounded by compassionate people, I felt truly supported through the tightrope walk that is early sobriety. Without their genuine support and guidance, I wouldn’t be where I am today. If you’re looking for a place where people truly care about your recovery and your future, Discovery Place is it.”
— Jeffrey M.
The Recovery Journey Continues
It’s funny. The idea of staying longer in rehab is one almost no one agrees to when beginning Phase 1 at Discovery Place. But as time goes on, each man sees the benefits. “If someone had told me on my first day of the program that I’d be there six months, I would have said, ‘Absolutely not,’” shares Tyler, a program alum and current Discovery Place staff member. “I’d initially thought, ‘I’m here to do my 30 days, and then I’m gone.’ But something clicked here. Discovery Place is like a family. Coming here and being embraced by all of the guys really made a difference for me.”
Tyler goes on to say, “By the time you complete the three phases of the program, you have a sponsor, you’ve done the steps, and you know people in the community. It’s a lot easier to transition into normal life.” Sure, completing the program may take a few months. You’ll have to make some sacrifices as a result. But devoting a few months out of your overall span of life to get sober is not long when you think about how each of those days will impact your entire future.
By pursuing long-term recovery, you can fully heal from your addiction, create healthier habits, develop relapse prevention skills, and reclaim your life. If you’re ready to start your recovery journey at Discovery Place, call us today.
