Throughout their lives, many people will struggle to control their drinking—in fact, approximately 17 million adults over the age of 18 have an alcohol-use disorder, or AUD.
Yet no matter how severe alcohol-related problems may seem, most people benefit from some form of treatment. Independent research shows that about one-third of people who are treated for alcohol addiction issues have no further symptoms one year later.
Our proven approach to alcohol addiction treatment is personalized based on each client’s background and specific needs. Unlike other treatment programs, we focus on more than just abstinence. At Recovering Champions, we believe a successful treatment plan for alcohol abuse must address the underlying spiritual, emotional, and psychological causes of addiction.
What Are The Signs Of Alcohol Addiction?
While we often think of alcohol addiction as the inability to stop consuming alcohol despite damage to our health, alcohol use disorder is actually considered a disorder of the brain where it is unable to regulate alcohol consumption. Alcohol addiction can have obvious outward signs, such as an inability to control your drinking or compulsive binge drinking. But there are other signs, including psychological effects that may not be outwardly obvious.
Among those effects include:
- Inability to bring drinking down to a manageable level
- Strong cravings for alcohol
- Career, family, or interpersonal relationships affected by drinking
- Dangerous or risky behavior due to drinking
- Anxiety, depression, or nervousness when consuming alcohol
- Physical signs of withdrawal when not drinking
People struggling with alcohol dependence may not experience all of these symptoms or may experience different but related symptoms.
Massachusetts Alcohol Rehab And Treatment Programs
Alcohol Withdrawal and Detox
Alcohol withdrawal occurs when the body becomes habituated to the presence of alcohol and experiences physical symptoms when it is no longer present in the body. While they are most common in people who drink on a regular basis, withdrawal symptoms can happen to any drinker.
Withdrawal most frequently occurs about 8 to 10 hours after a person last drank. Symptoms can range from mild to severe, usually depending on how often the person drinks.
During withdrawal, drinkers can experience a sense of depression, unease, or anxiety, flashes of anger or confusion, difficulty sleeping, headache, and nausea. At its most severe, alcohol withdrawal symptoms can take the form of a condition known as delirium tremens, where people can suffer from seizures or fever and require medical intervention.
Because alcohol withdrawal can be medically complicated, people seeking to overcome alcoholism should always consult a medical professional and choose a qualified detoxification program to oversee their care.
During the detox period, the body experiences active withdrawal symptoms that need to be carefully managed, especially in the case of severe symptoms such as delirium tremens. Managing the detox process requires continual hands-on care and round-the-clock supervision from trained professionals, as well as a comfortable and secure environment to help keep clients safe, stress-free, and calm.
Recovering Champions partners with trusted, experienced detox providers who share our values and treatment philosophy. We only work with detox facilities that place client care, safety, and privacy as their top priorities. When a client is ready for treatment, we can recommend an appropriate alcohol detox facility for their needs.
Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP)
Once Recovering Champions clients have undergone a professionally-supervised detox process, the first step in their recovery treatment can begin. This is the partial hospitalization program, or PHP, where clients experience six hours each day of clinical addiction treatment while residing at our Wellness Lodge located near the ocean in beautiful Cape Cod.
For clients who are learning to manage their alcohol addiction, Recovering Champions offers a carefully structured schedule of daily treatment and activities designed to build stability and dependability into their everyday lives.
Additionally, all clients have access to our multidisciplinary clinical team including nurses, physicians, and treatment experts who help clients heal mentally, physically, and spiritually.
Among our clinical treatments for alcohol addiction and abuse include:
- Motivational Enhancement (MET)
- Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Equine Therapy
- Aquatics Therapy
- Physical Training
Clients can take full advantage of complimentary gym membership (and access to a personal trainer), as well as well-balanced nutrition through our on-site meals, which can help greatly with the lingering physical effects of alcohol withdrawal.
What truly sets alcohol treatment at Recovering Champions apart from other programs is the emphasis on the clients themselves. Because everyone’s experience with alcohol is unique—including their reasons for abusing it—the client develops their own treatment plan, goals, and strategies with the guidance and support of our clinical team. This instills not only a sense of purpose and responsibility within our clients but also allows clients to develop a treatment plan based on their own needs, rather than the external expectations or assumptions of an outside clinical team.
Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP)
The most critical stage in alcohol addiction recovery is the transition between the partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient phases of our treatment programs.
This transition is critical because the client is moving away from a self-contained recovery community within Recovering Champions and into a larger community where they must take on greater responsibility in managing their day-to-day activities and their real-world challenges and responsibilities.
To help ease this transition for our clients, who would otherwise have exposure to both alcohol and the experiences that could re-trigger their addiction, we provide what we call “wraparound” services during this transition period.
For each client moving from our PHP to our IOP stage, we ensure continuity in their medical, case management, and clinical staff, as well as their cohort of peers who are also in recovery. This way, the people they have formed close and supportive bonds with during recovery accompany them as they continue their journey toward sobriety.
Continuity is very important to the person in recovery, particularly for clients who have used alcohol as a way to cope with stress or change in the past. In fact, we find that continuity and stability can be a powerful predictor of future success and provide the foundation for a strong recovery.
Throughout their experience at Recovering Champions, clients take advantage of a client-to-clinician ratio of 10:1, well above industry standards.
Outpatient Program (OP)
As our clients become more comfortable managing their own schedules and coping with the demands of everyday life, we help them continue to stabilize and prepare for a formal re-entry with our Outpatient program.
In order to fully prepare for a return to regular life, Outpatient clients engage in weekly individual and group therapy to provide a baseline for recovery. This is especially critical for clients in treatment for alcohol addiction who will be exposed to frequent triggers for substance abuse when returning to their everyday lifestyles.
We work hard to ensure our clients feel properly prepared to face their everyday lives without needing to rely on alcohol for self-medication or to reduce stress and anxiety.
Individual and Group Therapy for Alcohol Abuse
A key component of a healthy recovery from alcohol abuse is having support from trained and licensed therapists who can help clients understand the underlying issues, stressors, and challenges that lead them to excessive drinking.
Recovering Champions provides clients with regular, personalized therapy sessions that help dig into these underlying issues for a lasting and rewarding recovery from alcohol abuse. Clients meet with an individual therapist weekly to discuss their ongoing treatment plans, their progress towards their rehab goals, and their ongoing needs and barriers to recovery. These sessions help people struggling with alcohol abuse identify how they can cope with the triggers that spur their drinking, as well as how to strategize ways to reach lasting and predictable progress in staying sober.
In addition, clients experience larger group therapy sessions, both for their peers at Recovering Champions and their own family members and friends outside the program. In these group sessions, therapists help the group break through the stigma surrounding addiction while reducing shame and providing a healthy atmosphere for group discussion. Since alcohol abuse is often deeply connected to social pressure, stress, and stigma, these group sessions can help clients find other coping mechanisms outside of alcohol to handle their everyday interactions.
Massachusetts Alcohol Addiction Family Counseling
While clients benefit greatly from peers and staff throughout their treatment experience, having a support network comprised of family and friends outside of our treatment center is a critical step towards sobriety.
Recovering Champions helps make this possible through ongoing family therapy sessions where clients’ friends and families are invited onto campus to learn more about addiction, discuss ways to help the client moving forward, and understand key triggers for—and tools to prevent—the risk of relapse.
We invite family members and friends into weekly family therapy sessions each Saturday to discuss the stigmatization of addiction and coping with the shame or guilt associated with it while also educating them about alcohol dependence and ways to process the trauma associated with a loved one struggling with substance abuse. Our overarching goal for this process is to help become unified, ensuring a more successful recovery—and lasting peace—for both family and client.
Medication-Assisted Treatment
Though we pride ourselves on helping clients recover without the use of medication, we educate clients who are eligible for medication-assisted treatment about the pros and cons of using medication during their recovery. It is the client’s responsibility to make an educated and informed decision about whether or not to use medication during their recovery in consultation with their physician and the medication provider.
We do not provide medications ourselves, rather we partner with—and provide transportation to—local providers for medication-assisted treatment. Medication is only provided for specific addictions based on the advice of the client’s physician.
Though we do not independently provide medication-assisted treatment, clients at Recovering Champions benefit from ongoing access to medical and psychiatric care. While some programs have waitlists to see psychiatrists or doctors, we provide our own medical staff for evaluations, professional recommendations, and regular care. In some cases, our on-site doctor can prescribe medications like vivitrol that can assist with alcohol treatment.
Alternative or Holistic Treatments
Everyone recovers from addiction using different methods. While some clients benefit greatly from more traditional alcohol abuse treatment methods such as individual or group therapy, others find solace in holistic healing methods including meditation, yoga, and inner spirituality. To that end, we provide a comprehensive array of holistic healing techniques for our clients, including ongoing therapeutic activities, Reiki, a Spirituality 101 course, and yoga instruction.
For two hours each day, clients engage in spiritual work with a guide, who helps them find a holistic healing technique that works for them and explores its potential to help them recover from alcohol abuse.
12-Step Recovery Model
A major component of the Recovering Champions treatment program is the 12-step recovery model, a legendary method used for the successful treatment of alcohol addiction for decades.
Each client is encouraged to participate in the 12 Step program due to its proven effectiveness, but they are not required to participate in order to experience Recovering Champions treatment.
Instead, we meet clients “where they are” with an individualized approach to recovery supported by our staff’s focus on compassion, understanding, and healing.
One of the aspects of the 12 Step recovery that is so powerful is the ability for people suffering from alcohol addiction to rebuild their sense of morals and values, as well as find a sense of community. Because so many people struggling with alcohol addiction feel they have become isolated and adrift, the 12 Step program helps them rebuild their moral compass and provides a framework to help reconstruct important relationships that may have become frayed or damaged.
The 12 Step program can be customized to meet each client’s unique beliefs and needs. While the traditional 12 Step program includes a spiritual component, atheists and others who do not participate in a religious faith can still find a modified version that works for them. At its essence, the 12 Step program helps clients find something larger than themselves to believe in, whether that’s God, nature, or even their relationships with their loved ones.
Aftercare and Alcohol Relapse Prevention
Once Recovering Champions clients become Recovering Champions alumni, that doesn’t mean we say goodbye. We offer an industry-leading alumni program with a full-time outreach coordinator and extensive aftercare support to ensure our alumni have access to the resources they need to stay sober.
This allows alumni of our alcohol treatment program to stay in touch with the peers who healed alongside them during their treatment through our Facebook group, for example, while also having access to aftercare staff who can help refresh key lessons, strategies, and coping mechanisms learned during treatment.
In addition, our aftercare support team provides alumni with connections to support groups in their area, including community Alcoholics Anonymous and 12 step programs to reinforce sobriety and positive healthy behaviors.
Like most professional addiction treatment providers, we understand that addiction can never be fully cured but instead must be successfully managed through ongoing effort and support. Nonetheless, we believe alcohol addiction can be treated successfully through a compassionate approach that provides non-judgmental care that builds up a network of support for the client when they leave the program.
Clients who have ongoing support from family, friends, or groups like Alcoholics Anonymous tend to stay sober for longer periods of time with fewer relapses than those who attempt to manage their recovery on their own.
Get Help For Alcohol Addiction Today In Cape Code, Massachusetts
At Recovering Champions we can help you or a loved one find the treatment program that best fits your unique needs and help you start on the path to a long lasting recovery. Contact one of our treatment specialists today to get started.