Rehab For College Students

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College students face many challenges in pursuit of an education. Many students are away from their homes for the first time in their lives. In addition, they can be exposed to drugs and alcohol regularly among fellow students. As a result, some students fail or struggle during college due to substance abuse. Rehab for college students helps get young adults back on the right track.

Launch Centers of Los Angeles, California is here for college students who struggle with substance abuse as well as mental health issues. Education and career development are among our program pillars. We believe that education can help young adults build self-esteem and confidence as they move forward in recovery.

What is Rehab for College Students?

Rehab for college students helps young adults continue their education while getting help for addiction and co-occurring mental health issues. Some students don’t deal with their issues, causing them to fall behind in their studies. As a result, they can develop long-term problems that affect them into adulthood.

College rehab gets students back on track when they struggle with mental health and substance use. College life can be difficult. Young adults face many challenges and social pressures that might lead to substance abuse or developing mental health issues. Therefore, college students and parents need resources to know how to overcome these issues and get back to their academics.

Resources for College Students

Signs of Mental Health Issues In College Students

College students might struggle during this pivotal time of their lives, and it is important to know the signs of mental health issues.

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Adult Children With Mental Illness

Young adults with mental illnesses need their parents and other loved ones to know how to support them best.

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Common Drugs Used By College Students

College students are exposed to certain drugs more than the general population, including ecstasy, marijuana & cocaine.

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Symptoms Of Failure To Launch Syndrome And What To Do

Failure to launch syndrome in young adults is often a sign of an underlying mental health or substance use disorder.

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Mental Health Treatment for College Students

Mental health issues are often linked to substance abuse. During college, young adults face many stressors with academics and social life. Many students now have limited access to the support they had at home. These stressors and a lack of support can cause mental health issues in college students. As a result, many students turn to drug or alcohol use to cope.

Common mental health disorders in college students include the following:

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
Anxiety disorders
Depression
Eating disorders

In addition, while most mental health issues develop during adolescence, some mental health disorders don’t appear until young adulthood. For instance, the following disorders don’t develop until later in life:

Schizophrenia doesn’t develop until a person is in their late teens to around age 30
Bipolar disorder also has a later age of onset with 25 being the average
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is often diagnosed in early adulthood

Therefore, some young adults develop these disorders while attending college. Since the above-mentioned disorders cause thought distortions, these students might not realize there is a problem. They could struggle greatly, especially if family members and lifelong friends aren’t nearby to notice their symptoms.

Rehab for college students needs to address dual diagnosis treatment for co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. College students with substance abuse issues often have mental health disorders, and they use drugs or alcohol to self-medicate. However, by treating both issues at the same time, college students can learn healthy ways to cope and continue to pursue their education goals.

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Rehab Options for College Students

College students need rehab options with flexible schedules so they don’t get far behind. However, if a student’s drug or alcohol use is severe, they might need to think about getting better first and then returning to school. It is best to consider the long-term effects of putting off rehab and seek the most appropriate treatment path to deal with the current situation.

Launch Centers offers flexibility with varying levels of care for college rehab, including the following:

Detox

First, college students need to get sober to engage in recovery. Detox is the first step in any rehab program. During detox, a person rids themselves of all substances. After a person stops using drugs or alcohol, they will go through withdrawal, which can vary in severity.

Detox is important to help college students manage withdrawal symptoms safely. In some cases, detox can be life-threatening—especially for alcohol and opioid use disorders. Detox is an inpatient service of about one to 2 weeks that keeps a person safe through this process. In addition, they might begin medication-assisted treatment (MAT) during this time to ease withdrawal and reduce the risk of relapse.

Partial Hospitalization Programs

Partial hospitalization programs (PHP) are similar to residential treatment programs except a person doesn’t reside in the facility. However, they still need to attend several hours of treatment nearly every day of the week. Most people attend PHP for 2 to 4 weeks.

For college students, PHP helps provide the structure that they need in life. Many students struggle with creating a structure for themselves as they are on their own for the first time. College students with addiction might indeed struggle even more with structure. After PHP, students could move onto less restrictive programs.

Intensive Outpatient Programs

Intensive outpatient programs (IOP) offer high levels of support with increased flexibility. Therefore, IOP could be a great option for college students because they still get a lot of programming with flexible hours. At Launch Centers, college students can enroll directly into this program if they do not need detox or PHP for stabilization.

During IOP, a person attends a program for a few hours about 3 to 5 days per week. These sessions often occur in the evenings to allow students to attend classes during the day. IOP might be one of the best options for college rehab because it is flexible and intensive.

Outpatient Programs

Outpatient programs (OP) are best for aftercare when a person completed higher levels of care. OP focuses more on maintaining sobriety and recovery with the greatest amount of independence. A student might attend OP once a week or a few times each month.

Overall, OP will focus on underlying mental health issues and coping strategies. OP is also a great way to practice recovery skills while still getting support and guidance along the way.

Lastly, all of the college rehab programs at Launch Centers also focus on developing life skills and building a career for young adults. To some extent, all of our programs will provide help with these critical skills.

Life Skills and Career Development

Life skills and career development are a pillar of our programs at Launch Centers. We believe that these skills are critical to a high quality of life. While these might not appear to be therapeutic on the surface, life skills and career development offer college students the opportunity to build self-esteem, confidence, and independence. All of these will help young adults maintain sobriety.

People with addiction and mental health issues often have shortcomings in other areas of life as well. For instance, they might not know how to take care of their finances or how to cook healthy meals for themselves. These life skills are critical to improving mental health and reducing stress. Therefore, building these skills minimizes common triggers for substance abuse.

The life skills and career development program at Launch Centers focuses on some of the following:

Finances and budgeting
Time management
Nutrition and healthy eating
Self-care and stress management
Job seeking and interview preparation
Resume building
Enrolling in educational programs

Our programs also focus on identifying a college student’s strengths. By building on existing strengths, many weaknesses can improve for young adults. Our life skills and career development program is strengths-based for this reason.

Benefits of Rehab for College Students

When college students struggle with mental health and substance abuse, their academics are sure to follow. By getting into rehab as soon as they can, they increase their chances of succeeding in their academic goals. In addition, they can build healthy social relationships and learn lifelong skills to maintain sobriety.

Rehab for college students offers many benefits including the following:

Continue taking college courses with flexible program schedules
Education and career support services during rehab
Learn valuable life skills for a high quality of life
Safe and secure place to work on recovery
Therapy for underlying issues causing addiction
Relapse prevention strategies to maintain sobriety
Peer support with other young adults in recovery
Create a structure and routine in life
An encouraging community of recovery during rehab
Build self-esteem through strengths-based college rehab

Overall, rehab for college students helps young adults overcome addiction to get back to their academic goals. Many young adults struggle with the temptations of party culture and peer pressure to use drugs and alcohol during college. While college students might slip up, there is always hope to get back on track.