intensive outpatient therapy
the most important follow onto AA is to rehab is AA or NA, depending on your poison and attending attending an intensive outpatient therapy program. I feel like the intensive outpatient program is reinforcing of material that we learned at rehab, but that reinforcement is critical to an ongoing recovery. I learned that if one does rehab and then IOP and then sticks with AA or NA the chances of success in your recovery will be 92%, a 92% failure if you do not follow the programs all the way through. I’m not saying this as a detractor from somebody going to rehab and stopping there, because I think the outcomes will be extremely positive, but I do believe that attending meetings as frequently as possible after rehab is critical. I’m lucky that I do not have cravings at this point but I have to be careful because I’m in what’s called pink.. The pink. To the time when when it’s feeling optimistic and powerful, but still in a stage of caution because once the pink period ends, and you think it’s OK to pick up a drink, then your toast. When I left rehab, I pursued a philosophy of cautiously optimistic, which I find is helpful, because optimism is great, but making sure that the optimism doesn’t parlay back into picking up poison is important to be aware of.