When Staying Close to Home Makes Recovery Harder

For many, the idea of traveling for addiction treatment seems excessive. Why go somewhere else when there are treatment options right at home? In some cases, those at home find what they need. In other circumstances, however, proximity to home complicates any progress that could be made and makes treatment nearly impossible. Knowing when things would be better with distance – whether it’s people, resources, or triggering environments – can change the game between success and repeated relapse.

Not everyone needs to exit their familiar environment as sometimes problems exist that people try and run away from or fail to take responsibility for. However, when the problem IS the environment, comprehensive recovery becomes more effective when there is physical distance between the person and their triggers – or at least the people, places, or situations that perpetuate an addictive lifestyle.

The Dealer on the Corner

Sometimes the most unfortunate circumstance is proximity to a source. Someone who’s in outpatient treatment from their block can just as easily walk into their dealer’s corner on the way home. The dealer that sold them drugs is still on speed dial. The friends with whom they used still know where to find them.

Constant relapsing opportunities exist that would not otherwise exist with geographic separation. In moments of weakness – even in early recovery – that person can find exactly where they need to get drugs in under five minutes.

Even residential treatment can be complicated if this occurs close to home. After someone goes for their 30-day program, they come back home, right where every corner, block and building has a corresponding relationship with addiction. A boca raton drug rehab facility takes people out of that dynamic and provides treatment in environments where dealers aren’t texting, using friends aren’t near and the physical environment does not constantly buttress patterns of addiction.

Treatment elsewhere removes access. There’s no one to call. There is geographically unknown familiarity where no one inherently knows where access exists. This distancing gives time – cravings may come but enacting upon them requires much more legwork.

Toxic Relationships and Enabling

Relationships with family members contribute to addiction in unseen ways. Parents who overcompensate by giving money or enabling behaviors; partners who use together or bypass any consequential behavior; family members whose malady or pathology keeps children involved in addictive patterns.

When treatment is close to home, family members can visit often and bring their baggage right back into treatment. Upon discharge, persons return right back to the same household where enabling or maladaptive functioning occurs with good intentions but not favorable behaviors.

Creating distance – with geography – where family can’t just pop by helps establish boundaries where persons in treatment finally have the time for which they’ve been waiting to work on themselves without constant modulation through triggering relationships. Note that this does not cut family members out of the picture forever – for no one can live without family support – but cutting them off for the beginning of treatment helps establish a necessary barrier.

The same is true when persons have partners who use drugs/alcohol or enable addiction-related behaviors. When people want to break up with their using partner but have no excuse to do so, they fail at trying to remove themselves because treatment is too accessible and comfortable. When away, people have time and space from unhealthy relationship dynamics to get a breath of fresh air free from judgment and focus on themselves.

The Same Thing Day After Day

Addiction becomes woven into everyday routines – the bar someone visits on a Wednesday before hitting up a take-out Thai restaurant down the block; the commute someone uses that goes by the liquor store; the friend who always insists on just one drink that turns into two bottles each.

These routines are so automatic that just finding a new path or new approach isn’t enough – they need bootstrapping helps.

When treatment is close to home, upon discharge these routines foster old ways. People fall back into commutes where all roads lead to frequent temptation; they see old friends who trigger old thoughts; they participate in weekend planning that redirects them back toward drunken debauchery.

When people treat away from home, these routines change. Different locations – they drive different routes, they explore different environmental engagements; they’re encouraged to do different things. This systematic routine change/complication urges people who would otherwise fall victim to temptation/intervention efforts to build up an entirely new way of thinking to avoid complacency.

These are new patterns and once persons return home again, they bring these new patterns with them instead of trying to implement new efforts in a recognized environment.

Privacy Stigma

For many in small towns, privacy isn’t treated with dignity; it’s often violated at crazy levels. A person whose car shows up at a local rehab means treatment gossip gets around quickly. These realities add pressure to an already dramatic situation.

For those who’ve empowered shameful egos – for some accountability is helpful – for others – the stigma associated and lack of privacy prevents them from engaging fully within treatment. They’re worried about their reputations; they’re worried about who will know; they’re worried about public employment opportunities down the line. They cannot engage honestly within self-examination because they have other concerns.

Distance means anonymity – no one knows their life story. They can be fully honest in therapy – and group sessions – without fear of any word getting back into their community’s ear. This privacy allows for fuller investment into treatment without worrying about community reputation – easier said than done – but done nonetheless.

Fresh Start Psychologically

There is something psychologically important about distance and change; psychology tells practitioners that familiar environments breed familiar identities – the addict whom everyone knows as the screw-up/success story/loser – the identity is constantly reinforced through social engagement and environmental support.

New environments help persons play around with fresh personalities. Nobody knows someone here and there’s a new freedom to be different, try new things without surprise or skepticism. The practicality of this conceptual psychological fresh start matters just as much as geographic distance practically.

And it makes for a statement – when you leave your hometown for treatment it’s an even bigger step than making a one-day outpatient effort at the local community center – this investment matters more; this decision keeps participants less recalcitrant when tough stuff starts to hit them halfway through.

When Local Treatment Makes Sense

But distance isn’t necessary for all persons all the time. Those with engaging support systems find benefits at home while those with stable employment and housing situations – and favorable relationships that do not undermine recovery – find it better to participate when their good things at home would be detrimental with distance.

For some new parents, too, it’s a hard choice. No one wants to be away from their kids but no one wants kids with an active addict, either; some choose local treatment to help while others consistently provide residential treatment elsewhere because they know it’s better for their kids in the long run.

Final considerations include financial concerns and insurance issues. Sometimes local options are all that’s covered or travel isn’t feasible at the moment; when this happens, local treatment with solid aftercare work can be affective enough especially when there are no adversities going against recovery efforts at home.

Making the Decision to Distance

Are there active drug users in your household? Is it easy to access drugs? Are relationships working against you or for you? Is your environment such where sobriety feels impossible?

If yes then distance is medically necessary instead of optional. It’s not a luxury ticket – an upgraded first class plane transfer – but rather necessary given all obstacles imploring addicts trapped under resources and restrictions where recovery cannot be upheld unless distance in created from people, places, situations that supported addiction’s advances.

This does not mean never coming back home again – but rather establishing good standards of what recovery should look like in supported environments and re-integrating one’s standards gradually through normal everyday life efforts once success has been achieved.

The Practical Realities

Providing treatment away from home results in questions – for what will post-treatment look like? How will aftercare occur? Is there a sober community? What’s housing like? Employment? Day-to-day structure? These questions need answering before discharge occurs; some use distance sparingly – a temporary effort – or some discover they need permanent relocation for without going back it jeopardizes recovery efforts completely.

But either direction has merit regardless of situation if extremes cannot exist back in familiar places. It involves acknowledging whether proximity – to home – is helping or hurting; for many addicts and alcoholics the honest answer is yes it IS harder.

Distance doesn’t mean running away – it means creating enough space to do the hard work and recovery without any consistent obstacles or triggers weighing down progress.