Outpatient Drug Rehab for Teens

There are many pros and cons to outpatient drug rehab for teens. Depending on the teen, the type of drug being abused and the severity of the drug addiction, outpatient drug rehab for teens can be a highly effective way to help treat teen drug addiction.


However, for some teens, the drug use is too severe and the addiction is too strong for an outpatient drug rehab program to be sufficient in treating teen drug addiction. If you are considering your drug treatment options for your teen, there are a few factors to weigh when trying to make the best decisions for your teen and their drug addiction recovery. Keep reading about outpatient drug rehab for teens to learn more about which option is best for your teen.

Pros and Cons of Outpatient Drug Rehab:

Teen drug addiction is something that no parent wants to face when it comes to their children. Drug addiction can often cause long-term mental and physical problems for the addict as well as academic struggles and even more dangerous situations of drug overdose among teens. That is why it is important to get your teen help as soon as possible if you suspect they might be doing drugs, that is where the benefits of an outpatient drug rehab center for teens can come into play. These outpatient programs are mostly beneficial for those teens that are still in school and need to be getting back on track academically while still getting help with their drug abuse and drug addiction problems. Outpatient drug rehab for teens typically treat teens that have only had a short-term problem with drug abuse. The outpatient program is typically the most recommended method for cleaning up the teen drug use. During their outpatient drug rehab experience, the teen can continue his or her life almost as normal. They can go to school, go shopping, hang out with friends and family while living the life of a normal teen. However, during that time the teen will be attending regular classes on drug abuse and drug addiction as well as therapeutic appointments to help get over the addictive tendencies to do drugs that have caused the problem with drug addiction in the first place.

Many times teens will turn to drugs as a way to cope with low self-esteem problems, struggles with appearance/weight, bullying, making friends, family troubles and academic struggles. The therapy will assist them with resolving these emotional issues that helped to create their drug addiction problem in the first place. During this time, it will quickly become apparent to see if the teen is making strides in their drug addiction recovery, or if they are continuing to need the drugs to live. If they are still continually getting high, lying about doing drugs, and lying about their whereabouts so they can go do drugs or stealing money to buy them, it is clear that the outpatient drug rehab for teens is not enough for this particular teen drug addict. If this is the case, they will likely need to consider attending a residential drug treatment for teens to get them away from the temptation from drugs altogether. While for some teens that are dabbling in drugs, a residential drug rehab center might be too much at once and might make the problem worse in the long run, for those teens with long-term drug addiction problems, it is a better option than an outpatient drug rehab program. 

Teens that are in an outpatient drug rehab program might do well in that setting, while other teens will be "forced" to attend therapy sessions, group meetings and classes and then will go and hang out with the same friends that got them hooked on drugs in the first place. Ultimately it is best for the parents to see what is the most beneficial decision to be made when it comes to their child's problems with drug addiction to decide whether or not outpatient drug rehab for teens are an adequate enough program to help them in their drug addiction recovery.

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