The decision to get needed treatment help is not only difficult, but will likely disrupt your daily routine in a big way. Entering drug treatment requires a certain degree of commitment in terms of time and energy, so it’s understandable why a person would want to take the shortest possible path.

Short-term treatment options for addiction offer a range of benefits, provided they can meet you where you’re at in terms of treatment needs. Ultimately, the pros and cons of short-term treatment have more to do with your overall condition and life circumstances than any benefits or drawbacks of short-term treatment.

If you need help finding treatment that meets your needs, we can help. Call our toll-free helpline at 800-934-1582(Who Answers?) .

Short-Term Treatment Options for Addiction

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, short-term treatment programs come in all varieties with varying treatment durations ranging anywhere from seven to 30 days in length. There are residential-based programs as well as outpatient programs, both of which offer many of the same types of services, including:

• Drug counseling
• Individual psychotherapy
• Medication therapies, such as methadone and buprenorphine
• Group therapies
• Support groups
• Motivation therapies

For people coming off severe addiction problems, a residential-inpatient-type program may suffice, whereas early stage or mild addiction problems may only require a short-term treatment approach.

Pros & Cons

Pros

Entering a treatment program means spending time away from home and family. In the case of residential treatment, this may entail anywhere from seven to 30 days of living at a treatment facility. In this respect, short-term treatment options for addiction cause considerably less disruption in your daily life as compared to the 60 and 90 day duration stays typical of long-term treatment.

Short-term treatment options for addiction are also considerably cheaper than other programs due to the limited treatment duration. On average, drug treatment costs can run anywhere from $300 to $3,000 a day depending on the scope of the program and types of amenities offered. Under these conditions, the costs of a long-term program can be astronomical.

Cons

The drawbacks of short-term treatment options for addiction only become an issue in cases where a person is coming off a chronic or long-term addiction problem. According to the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration, more severe forms of addiction tend to require more intensive, long-term treatment approaches due to the complexity of the addiction problem.

In effect, short-term programs don’t allow a person enough time to adjust to a drug-free lifestyle after living with addiction for months or even years at a time. Chronic addictions also tend to breed psychological problems, such as depression and anxiety disorders, which further worsen the severity of addiction over time.

Considerations

Addiction affects different people in different ways, so your individual treatment needs become the deciding factor in terms of which type of treatment program will work best. While short-term treatment options for addiction do offer a certain degree of convenience and flexibility, they can actually cause more harm than good for people who require a more long-term treatment approach.

If you need help determining which type of treatment program is best for you, please don’t hesitate to call our toll-free helpline at 800-934-1582(Who Answers?) to speak with one of our addiction specialists.