Addiction Therapies

Fellowship is a beautiful and essential part of recovery. Many people find that they have never experienced a true connection with other people the way they do when they meet others in treatment.

The Pros

Living with addiction and other mental health disorders is a unique experience that can only truly be understood by others who are living with the same. Additionally, the experience of going to “rehab” or residential treatment is especially unique. People who experience treatment together go through transformational changes, supporting each other and witnessing one another’s growth along the way.

The Gray Area

Sadly, in treatment, many people who come in together will not stay together. Relapse is a high risk during the first few months of recovery. Since relapse is always lurking, it is important to take critical steps toward advocating against it. For this reason, many people argue for and against co-ed treatment.

Few residential treatment centers bunk men and women together. In hospital settings, for example, men and women might be assigned different corridors. Still, they are not in completely separate housing. They will participate in group therapy and activities together all day, and may share meals and be in common areas during down time together.

During their time in these settings, men and women are constantly interacting. Eventually, addicts and alcoholics in recovery will have to intermingle with members of the opposite sex and learn to do so in a healthy way.

Treatment is an opportunity to teach those in recovery how to:

• Have respectful boundaries.
• Utilize healthy tools for communication.
• Create balanced relationships.

The Cons

However, there can be complications, mostly involving hormones and neurotransmitters like dopamine. The first few weeks of recovery are still influenced by the presence of drugs and alcohol in the brain and body. Even after detox, the brain is still fresh off the last time drugs and alcohol were present.

This means that cravings, a need for producing dopamine (pleasure), and trying to balance hormones all create a complication. Without high amounts of supervision and organization, it is easy for co-ed clients in a treatment center to engage in romantic relations. Often referred to as a “rehab romance,” delusional trains of thought, high hormones and an incessant need for feeling pleasure can create a volatile situation between two clients.

The Harmony Format

At Harmony Place, all group activities and therapy are delivered to a co-ed audience, yet clients in our residential program stay in gender-specific housing at night – all on the same property, though. After the residential program, male and female clients are invited to stay in our large transitional living home, where the room accommodations are gender-separated as well.