The Difference Between Inpatient and Outpatient Treatment

Given how serious a problem addiction is it should probably not come as a surprise to learn that there are lots of different treatment options available for people who are suffering from an addiction. There are broadly speaking two different types of treatment outpatient and inpatient. It is important to make sure that you understand the difference between them so that you can choose the right one for your addiction problem.

The obvious difference between inpatient and outpatient treatment is where the treatment actually takes place. If you are in an inpatient program you will be required to stay at the treatment facility twenty four hours a day. On the other hand with an outpatient program you will continue to live your regular life and simply attend treatment for about an hour a day. In theory the choice between the two should be based on what you are addicted to and how serious that addiction is, in practice it usually comes down to how much money you have.

An inpatient treatment program is generally regarded as the best way to get over an addiction because you are supervised twenty four hours a day. This means that you are not going to have access to whatever it is that you are addicted to which is naturally an important part of getting over your addiction. In addition an inpatient program offers the advantage of providing you with a full days worth of treatment. Normally you will attend counseling sessions and support groups throughout the day as you can dedicate all of your time to getting over your addiction.

An outpatient treatment program is far less rigorous and less strictly controlled than an inpatient program. That means that you are going to continue to have access to whatever it is that you are addicted to. This is a major issue for most people in these programs since being exposed to your addiction makes it far more likely that you are going to use it. The other problem is that you will likely only have counseling sessions once or twice a week which means that progress is likely to be slower. Most people in an outpatient program will also attend a support group a couple of times a week.

Clearly there are advantages to an inpatient program and the results do tend to back this up. People who use inpatient programs are far more likely to get over their addiction than people in outpatient programs. That being said there is a huge variation in quality from one program to another so it is hard to draw generalizations. While an outpatient program does not have the same level of success they do help a lot of people. If you have an addiction it is important to make sure that you get some sort of treatment regardless of what that is.