Understanding Homesickness In Treatment

Making the choice to move away for treatment is a tough one for many to make. Though a home may be a place of abuse, trauma, drug use, criminal activity, depression, or more, it’s easy to miss home. It’s also easy to choose to stay home. Home is comfortable, convenient, and familiar. Many a famous fictional character have quipped something similar to this: what is right is rarely easy. What is easy is rarely right. Leaving home may not be the easy thing to do, but often, in order to save one’s own life and progress in recovery, it is the right thing to do.

Homesickness for Familiar

Feeling homesick is natural during treatment because of the familiarity of home. Everything about early recovery can feel unfamiliar right down to the feeling of unfamiliarity. According to The Huffington Post, “Homesickness may take a toll on the emotional, behavioral and physical states of those it affects, according to a review of decades of research on homesickness published in the journal Psychological Medicine.” The experience of homesickness can be accompanied by “feelings of insecurity, loss of control and nervousness, physical effects, including sleep issues, fatigue and loss of appetite,” the article reports.

Impulsive Decisions

In conjunction with the already uncomfortable symptoms of withdrawal in early recovery, the added feelings of homesickness can start to feel unbearable. Sadly, many people make the impulsive decision to leave treatment early, against medical advice, to return home. With gusto, they believe that they will be able to make it on their own as long as they can just be home. Often, homesickness is a manifestation of cravings for pleasureable sensations. Instead of choosing to relapse, choosing to go home is a satisfactory choice. Unfortunately, upon returning home to familiar, triggering environments, many do relapse. Sometimes they are lucky enough to recognize the error in their ways. Most treatment centers are willing to allow the client to return, understanding the choice that they made. Others will continue to act in their addiction for days, weeks, months, or years. Many never make it back to recovery.

Harmony Place strives to make each of our residential treatment facilities feel like home. Operated out of private, luxurious homes, our program goes beyond expectation to make clients feel comfortable and cared for. We welcome those in need of treatment for dual diagnosis issues including both mental health and substance use disorders. Call us today for a private consultation and more information, 1-855-627-1417.