Addiction Treatment And The Importance Of Geography
If you or a loved one is ready to enter an addiction inpatient rehab in Colorado, or any of Denver’s surrounding areas, you are probably at the point where you are very serious about beating your addictions. Peaks Recovery is a gender-specific inpatient recovery facility in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and whether you are reading this because you are considering one of our programs, or if you just want to learn more about what you can do to get better, we’re here to help.
During recovery, addicts will not only become free of the substances that have taken over their lives, but they will also learn valuable coping techniques meant to help them prepare the groundwork for a brighter future while opening up new avenues of potential for a fulfilling life ahead.
Even In The Darkest Moments, There Is Always Hope In Recovery
As you begin this endeavor, we’d like to offer some food for thought about how your environment, and especially your specific geography, can affect your recovery. We offer these thoughts in the hope that it may help you and your family make healthy decisions that will support your success.
After all, you wouldn’t be here right now unless you were committed to getting better. Ultimately, that’s what we want for you as well.
Recovery from drug or alcohol addictions is a difficult, but rewarding journey that is sure to change your life for the better. At the beginning, and leading up to your intake, it may be hard to see through to the “light at the end of the tunnel,” but rest assured, that light is there – and it’s not an oncoming train.
Mitigating The Risk
One of the most essential tasks in preparing for your substance abuse recovery is to remove yourself from harm.
While you may not see your neighborhood, your friends or your family as harmful – and they may not be, per se – somewhere in there are significant triggers that have a direct effect on your using behavior. These triggers are guaranteed to have a direct impact on your stress level and recovery process.
Getting A Fresh Start: Change Is Good
While making a major, sweeping change in your first year of recovery is not recommended, removing yourself temporarily from your immediate environment for the detox and rehab period is integral to building the foundations for success.
This is true for several reasons:
- It takes you away from the people and places you were “stuck to” while using
- It surrounds you with people who are on the same journey of recovery, and who you can lean on when things get tough
- It allows you to focus on your recovery rather than have the distractions of everyday stressors that may lead you back to using
- It helps you to develop healthy routines and habits that you can carry forward when you are finished with your inpatient program
If someone in your life is struggling with drug abuse or addiction, Peaks Recovery Centers can help. We are a long-term recovery center dedicated to helping young people rediscover the joy of living through age-specific, gender-specific treatment. Call us at 855-476-1296 today to find out more.
Addiction Recovery: Denver To Colorado Springs
If you are looking for addiction treatment programs in Denver because that is your hometown, a temporary move to Colorado Springs will take you far enough away that you are removed from the using environment, but not so far away that you can’t see or be with your loved ones when you want to see them.
Many Denver addicts find that they are unable to succeed in recovery locally because they just aren’t receiving the support they need to get and stay clean. Inpatient recovery in Colorado Springs gives them a fighting chance for a fresh start in an environment that is free of past baggage, and a platform from which to reinvent themselves.
It’s A Slippery Slope
In one sense, you will be leaving your past, and many of your location and people-based triggers behind, and this is a good thing. Most addicts find it nearly impossible to sustain their recovery if they are constantly confronted with reminders of their using lives. Those that can, are a rare commodity. As it is often heard in recovery circles, “it’s a slippery slope,” meaning that no matter how well you are doing in your program, if you are constantly exposed to old using behavior and environments, it is inevitable that you will fall back into old ways.
Getting yourself far away from these temptations will help you focus on what’s important – and that’s you, getting better every day.
Colorado Springs Inpatient Recovery
Our Colorado Springs inpatient recovery facility provides a gender-specific sober living environment designed to help you rediscover the joy of living while you learn how to cope with your drug addiction or alcoholism. We provide a structured daily routine that is tailored to the individual’s needs, combining one-on-one therapy with group therapy, 12-step meetings, and activities throughout the day and evening.
Benefits Of Relocating From Denver For Addictions Treatment
Though Denver, Colorado, has much to offer as a city, the cost of living in Colorado’s capital can be prohibitive for a young adult early in their recovery. Our addiction treatment program in Colorado Springs helps to establish both a foundation for recovery as well as a financial foundation.
By removing the stressors of higher financial responsibility, participants can better focus on their recovery, while building a supportive fellowship of clean and sober individuals. Once they have established a firm footing living in sobriety, our clients are able to return to their hometown of Denver with a renewed sense of purpose and hope. Additionally, because our clients are working for the majority of their program, with our support, they are able to learn how to budget and build a savings account that will allow them the opportunity to be financially independent in a post-treatment scenario.
Once they have developed a close fellowship and a solid financial foundation, our program participants are more likely to be successful in their long-term recovery when they do integrate back into society.
A Geographical Change And “Doing A Geographical”: The Difference
You may read or hear many things in the recovery that advise against “doing a geographical ” which may confuse some people for the purposes of this discussion. Let’s take a moment to talk about the differences between getting some distance from your trigger environments early in recovery and “doing a geographical.”
What we’ve been talking about here is simply removing the addict from a dangerous environment. It’s not meant to be forever, though that is a decision that each individual must make on their own. After inpatient treatment ends, many will transition to a sober living environment and continue to attend treatment on an outpatient basis. This time away is simply aimed at breaking the cycle of abuse, helping to instill positive habits, behaviors and coping mechanisms that will form the basis of a life in recovery.
Are You Making A Fresh Start, Or Running Away?
The common recovery phrase “doing a geographical” means something entirely different. Though the technique has worked for some, it’s not bulletproof and is actually fraught with challenges that can easily lead to a relapse. “Doing a geographical” in this sense means picking up and moving to a new environment, usually a new city in a new state, and starting over with the intention of wiping the slate clean. For many addicts and alcoholics, this scenario offers the illusion of a fresh start in a place where nobody knows about them or their past behavior. Sometimes, this may include a criminal record, being fired from their job, or any number of other embarrassing or concerning stigmas, so showing up without having to be accountable for any of this may seem very attractive.
The Endless Cycle Of Addiction
The problem is that moving away does not erase the past, and denying that any of it ever happened is a sure-fire one-way ticket to a relapse. These individuals quite often will find themselves back in the same situation all over again and may go on to repeat the “geographical” over and over again, essentially chasing their tails into the sunset until they are arrested, hospitalized, or die from some addiction-related misadventure. If the addict or alcoholic is unable to confront their addictions and learn to live in sobriety, there will never be enough miles in between to make a difference. They will always end up back at square one.
Addiction Recovery Denver to Colorado Springs: Temporary Geographical Change is Positive
If you are an addict or alcoholic living in Denver, or anywhere in the state of Colorado, choosing an addiction recovery program in Colorado Springs could be one of the kindest and most helpful decisions you could make. You’ll still be in your beautiful home state of Colorado, close to your family and your roots.
However, you will be far enough away from your daily triggers, whether they are location-based or people-based, to be able to focus on your recovery without distraction.
Peaks Recovery: Gender-Specific Inpatient Recovery Program In Colorado
Peaks Recovery Centers is one of only a few in-patient addiction recovery facilities in the state of Colorado that offer gender-specific programs for both men and women. If you are interested in finding out more please reach out to us today.
Drug & Alcohol Detox
Peaks Recovery is medically staffed by a primary care physician, a psychiatrist, and round-the-clock nursing. The medical team’s acumen provides the safest medical detox in Colorado.
Inpatient & Residential Treatment
Peaks Recovery is licensed to provide the highest level of inpatient and residential programming in Colorado. In addition to satisfying state criteria, we have further received the highest recognition from the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) for our 3.7 and 3.5 levels of care.
IOP Treatment
Peaks Recovery provides accommodating support for individuals who may be experiencing some obstacles in their recovery journey or are looking for a step down from an inpatient program.