There's a miracle in completing a residential drug and alcohol program for the first time. It is the biggest thing that can happen to any addict. When you make the commitment to go to a 28-day treatment program, you may not realize that afterward you still have some hard work ahead. Anyone new to recovery can't wait to start the next chapter, but now there's the work in 12-step and new orientation toward wellness that's necessary to stay in recovery. And for over half of us in recovery, it's time to start looking at the issues that caused you to use mind-altering substances in the first place. This is a disease that's located in the brain and the brain needs anywhere from 3 months to 2 years to heal itself through "retraining" from impulsive thinking and the addictive, morally bankrupt mentality. It's time to view addiction as the disease it is and stop thinking there's an acute (28-days) treatment that will "cure" a chronic disease. It been studied that a new "habit" takes at least 120 days to become part of us. As a society we look at the rehab as the beginning of a new life, which it is, but it is also treatment that provides "crisis" intervention rather then providing the sustainable internal changes that support health, there just isn't time for these changes to

become ingrained.

The latest studies from NAAPT show that to effect a sustainable recovery, the sober living stay should be for at least 6 months. At six months your odds go down to a 50 % relapse, 50 % success rate. At a year of sober living, the rate is 90% success.