This is a rehab center that is focused on helping alcoholics overcome and learn to control the desire to drink. The main target of alcohol rehab centers is to assist their patients in going through the hard period of withdrawal from alcohol along with providing them with coping tool to help them resist drinking in the future. The services of this type of center will usually go beyond support groups and self-help programs. Alcohol rehab centers will offer medical support to ease the physical effects of detoxification and psychological therapy. If you are an inpatient in the program, you would move into the center and receive attention 24/7 as you work to gain control of your alcohol addiction.
There are also outpatient alcohol rehab centers where the patient would choose to remain the home with family members. The outpatient center will establish a regular schedule of counseling, support group activity, and physical examinations to help in the patient's recovery process. The outpatient approach may be more productive but it all depends on how severe the alcohol addiction is. For severe alcohol addiction, it is best if they choose inpatient treatment.
A key fact that alcohol rehab centers take into account is that alcoholism is not a disease that anyone can cure. Once you are an alcoholic you will always be an alcoholic for the remainder of your life. This is the reason that alcohol rehab centers focus on helping the patients to develop coping skills to help them resist the temptation to consume alcohol. During the beginning of the recovery period, the rehab center will provide monitoring to make it a little easier to deal with the withdrawal symptoms that start soon after your body starts to learn to adjust without drinking. Some of these withdrawal symptoms can be very serious and require medical treatment so this is why the patient is carefully monitored when starting alcohol rehab. Depending on the individual, these symptoms can last from several days to months. The more serious symptoms happen to those that are considered hard drinkers and drink more than eight beers a day.
Alcohol rehab centers will also address both the mental and physical impact of alcoholism along with providing them with support, the sill set, and inspiration to overcome their addiction to alcohol and to keep it in check after the treatment is complete. Many who complete successfully the treatment at alcohol rehab centers will continue to participate in support groups in the community. By doing so it will help them to maintain a network of individuals that understand the temptation to drink alcohol and offer support to them to help them resist the urge to drink. Those that are recovering alcoholics will usually join a support group and attend weekly meetings.