Similarities between a Rehab and a Vacation for mental health treatment

When it comes to mental health treatment, vacationing and going to rehab are trusted means of getting better over time. The essence of rehab is to submit yourself to the care and treatment of a mental health professional.  

This means that they will diagnose and evaluate your mental health condition so that they can suggest a proficient means of treatment for you.

At the rehab, you will understand the root cause of your mental health treatment so that you can have a clearer perspective on how to tackle it with the therapist’s collaboration.

One of the reasons why people with mental health issues don’t go for a checkup at the rehab is the stigmatization that comes with it.

Most people don’t want to be identified as someone with mental illness. Therefore, they prefer to deal with it on their own.

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However, rehab helps you understand the broad concept of your mental health problem so that you can get motivated to become better over time.

The concept of vacationing for mental health treatment helps the individual to take a break from whatever is stressing or affecting their mental health. It can be regarded as a self-motivated approach to figuring out what is wrong with them.

If correctly done, it can help the individual to spot the cause of their depression, anxiety, PTSD, etc, and set some measures to tackle them rightly. Also, a therapist at the rehab can suggest vacationing to the patient under their care.

They understand that vacationing comes with lots of benefits that will complement the rehab’s effort in restoring the mental health of the individual right on track. Before going on a vacation, it is important to check in with your healthcare provider.

Remember that you might be exploring unfamiliar environments for the first time, and the last thing you need is to settle in a place that will adversely affect your mental health.

Therefore, collaborating with your therapist or healthcare provider will help you plan a sober vacation that supports your ongoing mental health recovery.

4 ways on how a Vacation improves your mental health

Everyone needs a vacation from time to time due to the stress we face in different aspects of life. For instance, keeping a job that pays your bills comes with its stress. You will have to meet deadlines and remain productive so that you won’t get suspended or fired.

Hence, meeting the demands of your job can come with challenges that defy your desire to keep your mental health in check.

Going on vacation comes with some benefits that help to keep your mental health in good perspective. Here are some ways on how a vacation benefits your mental health.

Stress relief

One of the fastest ways to rid your body of stress is to go on a vacation. When you are facing difficulties in your workplace, your body releases the epinephrine and cortisol hormones because it feels you are in danger.

However, when you take some time off to heal and relax, your body transitions into an unperturbed state where it begins to self-repair the damage done.

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Improved mood

There’s a good chance that going on a vacation improves your mood and makes you happier. This means that the chances of being depressed or anxious reduce because you are away from everything likely to put your mood in a depressive state.

When you go back to your regular life, your improved mood will help you cope for some time.

Improved sleep

If you are having issues sleeping well, one advisable solution would be to take some time off. You need to unplug from work and other aspects of life that stresses you out.

When you go for a vacation, you can put your devices away and spend some time in bed. This will help you sleep better and heal the state of your mental health.

Sharper focus

When you go on a vacation, you are helping yourself focus better. Going on a vacation helps you think better and concentrate. Hence, you will be able to recharge physically and mentally.

THINGS TO DO DURING VACATION

A vacation presents you the opportunity of relaxing and having fun, away from the stress of work. Hence, it is necessary that while going on a vacation, you adhere to all the rules of a vacation. So that you do not develop any form of stress when you are supposed to be having a swell time.

There are some things you need to do when you are on a vacation, and they are listed below:

  1. Stay away from the Internet: In this age, Social Media platforms have proven to be our greatest asset and also our biggest distraction. During a vacation, staying on the internet has the capacity to dissuade you from enjoying yourself. Hence, it is vital to keep away from the internet during your vacation.

The only exceptions to this is, if you would solely use the internet for a form of relaxation. For instance, you can decide to stream funny videos on YouTube or Instagram that would help to bring down your stress levels.

  • Avoid getting much info from work: This is one mistake that people often make when they go on a vacation. They make sure they are always in the know, and this makes them unable to focus when they are on a vacation. If you are the owner of a corporate organization or business, it is important to delegate duties to someone who can be trusted.

If you happen to be an employee in an organization, then you can talk to a trusted colleague to take down important details for you. So, when you get back, you can go through all you have missed.

  • Rebrand your life’s perspective: Going on a vacation presents you with a golden opportunity to look at your life’s goals and see how far you have gone. You will be surprised to see how effective the vacation would turn out to be. When you go back to your normal routine, it would be easy to implement those plans.

BENEFITS OF A VACATION

We all face various volumes of stress in our lives and most times, we do not know how to help ourselves. For some people, taking a break from work is tantamount to loss in their business or workplace. No matter the kind of stress faced, it is necessary to have plans to go on a vacation.

  1. Stress reduction: Definitely, going on a vacation suggests that any form of stress you are going through will definitely reduce. When you are on a vacation, it is important that you do not do any work-related activity. It is imperative to leave behind, anything that reminds you of work. If you are in charge of an organization, you can leave someone in your stead to hold the fort till you arrive.
  • Better perspective: Owing to the fact that you would not be doing anything during your vacation. A vacation helps you to put your life in perspective. During a vacation, you will be able to reflect on your deeds and misdeeds and how you can become a better individual.
  • Better productivity: Since you have been able to clear your head due to the vacation, there is a 100% assurance that your productivity and performance would not be the same. You will be surprised at how effective and proficient you are in solving problems which you would not typically be able to solve on a normal stressful day.
  • Improved health: Stress has a strong capacity to affect the state of health of an individual, particularly mentally and physically. With a vacation, your stress levels are reduced and your health is in a good shape. At times, what we need is a vacation and not a hospital.

Having read all these benefits above, it is imperative to mention that a vacation presents one of life’s free advantages, which we do not pay attention to. Hence, as people who have busy schedules and lives, it is important to steal away sometimes to take a vacation. You will be surprised at the several benefits attached to it.

HOW TO USE YOUR VACATION TO YOUR ADVANTAGE

Taking a vacation is meant to be for fun and relaxation. However, if care is not taken, it could turn out to be a form of stress for them. While on vacation, there is a need for you to ensure that you enjoy yourself devoid of any form of stress.

The steps listed below, are quintessential in helping you have a good vacation during recovery:

  • Interact with people on the trip: Now, it is essential that while you are on vacation, you make conscious efforts to relax. For individuals who have not been in recovery before, they have no idea how tough a vacation can be. Hence, it is required that you make people understand that you are just leaving your comfort zone, and there is a need for them to exercise extra patience with you.
  • Remain connected with support groups and resources: A good number of times, it happens that people with whom we have our vacation with, are not usually the best of support. Bearing this in mind, if you have a support group back at home, ensure you make plans to remain in touch with them. The most effective form of communication in this sense, is to use social media platforms such as Skype, Facebook, WhatsApp and the likes.
  • Take a break from social media platforms: Social media platforms are interesting, and taking a vacation from them could be quite difficult. However, staying frequently on social media platforms has its own stress too. Hence, when you are going on vacation, you need to make sure that you do not frequent the social media as you use to. If possible, you can leave these platforms totally all through your vacation, it would be worth your while, as you would use that time to do something more productive.
  • Select your self-care: You should bear in mind that vacations are meant to be about relaxation and fun. You need to know what works for you. In that sense, there is a huge need for you to do something which would leave you invigorated, instead of being bored all through your vacation. You can decide to play videogames, do a book review, see movies amongst others.

WHAT AN ADDICTION REHAB INVOLVES

WHAT AN ADDICTION REHAB INVOLVES

Basically, an addiction rehab process comprises four essential steps which are: Intake, detox, rehabilitation and ongoing recovery.

INTAKE

This process involves determining if a rehab centre is good for you or not. At the rehab centre, you would be asked some certain questions, and from your answers, they would decide if there is a need for you to do some tests or not. The centre would be interested in finding out the degree of addiction, your family’s history as regards addiction and a host of others.

Rehab facilities would offer some programs which are:

  • Inpatient service
  • Outpatient service
  • The merger of both

DETOX

A good number of addictions which involves both alcohol and drugs, usually need a stage of detoxification. The benefit of having a detox is, it eliminates all signs of alcohol and drugs from the body. In most cases, there could be medication which is given for the purpose of reducing the withdrawal symptoms which could be linked with some drugs such as heroin.

Generally, detoxification is a safe process if it takes place in a medical setting that is well supervised.

REHABILITATION

After the individual has gone through the detoxification stage, the next phase is having to go through rehabilitation. This is the point where the patients would fully understand why they are addicted, and they would be aided in addressing the issues behind the addiction, so that they can continue with their lives without having to relapse to their addictive nature.

Under rehabilitation, there are some phases which are essential:

  • Individual therapy
  • Group therapy
  • Family therapy

RECOVERY

An essential point which should be noted is, after patients have completed their rehabilitation program, their recovery phase has not finished. As a matter of fact, for some individuals, recovery could be something which would take the rest of their life to complete. Sometimes, the path to recovery could be smooth for some, while for the others, it could be extremely difficult, because they would often face the temptation to relapse.

When a patient is done with rehabilitation, it is essential that the patient gets in touch with counsellors, in order to make plans for an aftercare. A good number of addiction rehab facilities have some follow-up programs which would help patients to get back to their regular life.