Residential treatment offers probably the best opportunity for a good solid base for recovery from addictive disorders.  Principally it offers safety away from the triggers, trials and tribulations of remaining in the environment where the drinking and drug use took place while seeking change. Unfortunately the home environment doesn’t change while you are in treatment and at some stage you have to return.  This can be a daunting and even dangerous situation to be confronted with.  Suddenly alone in the world fresh from rehab but stripped of all the safety that residential care offers.  There must be an alternative.

If you live close to the treatment facility going home to sleep and coming back in for a graduated reduction in therapy is an option. Stepping down from 7 days a week to 5:4:3:2 and then eventual discharge offers an opportunity to bring back to therapy the problems you have encountered living back in the community with family and friends.  But today many have chosen to travel to seek the quality of treatment that is going to give them the best chance of a successful outcome.  Many choose to travel abroad.  This step down reduction in treatment intensity is therefore not an option.

Recovery in Reality offers this option for those who choose to seek treatment at Nova Vida Recovery Centre.  When it is deemed beneficial to leave the confines of the residential environment the team at Recovery in Reality will help identify a suitable apartment in a safe locale and close enough to make the daily journey back to NVRC. If you have a driving license and confident enough to drive on the Portuguese roads R in R will provide a small car which will not only allow you to make that trip to therapy but also start to give you a little extra ‘freedom’ that you never had in treatment.  And, of course, with it that extra bit of responsibility that you need to start taking in your recovery programme.

For the first week spent in the apartment it is probable that you will return to the treatment centre everyday and even spend much of your free time with your familiar peer group. But soon you will be encouraged to take a day out and start to spend time alone to ensure you feel confident enough in your own company.  The following week two days out and so on until the treatment team and you mutually feel it is time to go home.  During this whole process you are safe in the knowledge that there is 24 hour support just a phone call away. Often this is 4 – 8 weeks after leaving the residential programme. When this day comes you will have enough experience under your belt to return to your home confident that you can successfully negotiate the difficulties of early recovery.

For some with a much more deeply entrenched addiction or a less than supportive home network it is necessary to spend much longer in step down treatment. Some take this option to stay close to the treatment centre as they make important decisions about their future.  On line further education or training can be facilitated with the help of Recovery in Reality.  Help with CV’s and facilitating job search is possible and Life Coaching for those who need a change of direction but just don’t know which way to go.

This step down supportive treatment phase takes you away from the institutional approach of many of the secondary establishments that may be recommended to you and restores the trust and responsibility.  At the end of the day you have a choice. You can return to drinking or using drugs or you use the opportunity of step down treatment to consolidate your recovery safe in the knowledge that professional support is just a stone’s throw away.