Can I Do Rehab at Home?

Rehab at home is possible, but it’s also important to remember that it’s a better option for some than others. Here’s what to consider.

Am I a Good Fit for Rehab at Home?

If you haven’t considered going to rehab at home until now, the good news is that it absolutely is an option if you or someone you know is struggling with drug or alcohol addiction. But just because it’s possible doesn’t mean it’s the best path for everyone struggling with these issues. Plenty of people attend residential rehab programs and go on to find success. At-home addiction treatment models didn’t develop because residential rehab doesn’t work. They developed because residential rehab doesn’t work for everyone.

But how do you know whether you or someone you care about can benefit from rehab at home? Before you decide, it’s worth taking the time to investigate who makes a good fit for at-home rehab, and we’ve put together this guide to help.

Lifestyles That Benefit From At-Home Rehab

At-home rehab is a particularly beneficial treatment option for individuals who:

  • Have work commitments they can’t put on hold
  • Have children or family responsibilities they can’t step away from
  • Are musicians on tour or actors filming a project
  • Have successfully completed rehab then relapsed
  • Are young adults struggling with addiction rooted in a lack of purpose

If any of the above describe you or someone in your life, rehab at home could provide the personalized support needed to make a breakthrough in recovery.

Have You Tried Rehab Before?

One of the best ways to identify whether at-home rehab could be beneficial is to examine past experiences with residential rehab programs. We’ve found that the people best suited for at-home rehab have successfully gotten sober and completed some of the best residential rehab programs, but then struggle when they return to the real world and do not have the foundation they need to stay committed to sobriety. When this happens a couple times, at-home rehab is often a critical step to making sobriety “stick” in new ways.

Is you or someone you know a good fit for our at-home rehab program? Answer these eight questions to find out.

Find Out Now

How Rehab at Home Compares to Residential Treatment

To help you better understand how rehab at home works, here are the stages of a residential rehab treatment plan and how they compare to at-home recovery:

  • Intervention

    Whether planning recovery at home or a residential rehab facility, an intervention is often a critical first step. It can happen anywhere, but it’s generally best to select a place where the person you care about can feel safe and comfortable, like their home. When that’s the case, planning the rest of the stages of an at-home addiction recovery program is much easier because you won’t necessarily need to relocate them to get the help they need.

  • Transportation

    With residential treatment programs, transportation to rehab—especially following an intervention—is unavoidable. Yet this is also one of the times people are most likely to relapse. They may justify one last drink or hit before going to rehab, and they end up not going at all.

    While sober transportation is one option when somebody needs to get to or from rehab, you don’t have to worry about transportation with an at-home option because all aspects of treatment can be delivered at home, eliminating the need to go anywhere to get help.

  • Intake/Detox

    In a conventional rehab setting, the intake process is what happens when someone first enters the treatment facility. It generally requires filling out paperwork and undergoing inspections to ensure the person is not bringing any alcohol, drugs, or paraphernalia into the facility. This often leads to a detox period. Detox timelines and intensity will vary depending on the individual’s substance use issues, but during this time, the goal is to make sure the individual’s body has time to safely acclimate to the cessation of using drugs or alcohol.

    During at-home rehab, the intake process happens right where your life is already happening. This can make a vital difference to success because during the residential intake process, they can only hold you accountable for what you bring into rehab. Someone may go into rehab without any drugs or alcohol, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be any when they return home.

    With at-home rehab, part of the intake process is making sure anything that leads to cravings or triggers are removed from the home. This not only makes the treatment experience easier—it also makes it easier to stay committed to sobriety.

    In the detox stage, it all depends on the individual whether they’re in a residential facility or at home. Some individuals may be able to safely detox from home under the supervision of medical professionals, while others may need to enter a detox facility depending on the frequency of use and the substances they’ve been using.

  • Treatment and Therapy

    Some of the most common therapies used during rehab include:

    • Dialectical behavioral therapy
    • Cognitive behavioral therapy
    • Relapse prevention therapy
    • EMDR therapy

    With at-home rehab, you have access to these same clinical options from the comfort and convenience of your home. Family therapy becomes much easier to integrate into recovery when your family is there alongside you already. It’s also much easier to explore creative treatment options since you don’t have to worry about conforming your plan to the schedules and needs of a dozen other people in recovery.

  • Aftercare

    With residential treatment, it’s common for aftercare and case management to become an afterthought. This isn’t always intentional, but many people make the assumption that the hard work happens in rehab and it gets easier from there. The reality is that rehab is just the beginning and the real work happens when rehab is over, but not many residential programs emphasize what happens when treatment ends.

    Because you work with the same treatment team during the entirety of at-home rehab, aftercare becomes much simpler. There’s no need to transition from the treatment facility back into your everyday life. This reduces the risk of relapse because you’re already in an environment that’s conducive to recovery, as you’ve been working with a sober companion to make it that way.

  • Ongoing and Long-Term Recovery

    One of the broader issues with residential treatment programs is they operate under the model that recovery happens in 30-, 60-, or 90-day intervals. While these programs can help many people get sober in the short term, they can fall short when it comes to long-term recovery if your treatment needs extend beyond those short intervals.

Where to Get Started With At-Home Addiction Recovery

Does rehab from home sound like something that could provide a breakthrough in recovery for you or someone you care about? ALYST Health makes it simple with:

Online Sober Coaching With Our Virtual Care Team

With our virtual care team, you gain access to online sober coaching, therapeutic services, psychiatric assistance, and more. This program is perfect for someone who has recently completed a rehab program and requires post-treatment accountability or more accessible treatment options.

Accountability Program

Our virtual accountability program is designed for individuals who need to validate their newfound recovery with secure and accurate lab testing from home.

To learn more about how our at-home recovery team can help you achieve your goals, contact us today.

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