Rehabilitation is a process that has a goal of restoring something that was lost. The loss may have occurred due to disease, an accident, or the abuse of some type of substance such as alcohol or drugs. Regardless of the type of rehab involved, patients who undergo this process of restoration often face challenges that are difficult for others to understand. Fortunately, the challenges that face rehabilitation patients, while difficult to endure, can often help them emerge from the process stronger in both mind and body.
One of the first challenges that rehabilitation patients face is dealing with their own feelings of self-doubt. Accident victims are often still traumatized from the event that led to their current state of physical incapacity and find it very difficult to think that getting back their lives is even possible. In like manner, patients who are about to undergo drug rehabilitation may have a lot of trouble imagining a life without dependence on the chemicals that keep them in the bonds of addiction. Plunging forward in spite of these self-doubts is often the first step in the road to a successful recovery.
Along with doubting themselves, there are often at least a few other people around the rehabilitation patients who think they will never overcome the obstacles facing them. This is particularly true when the patient is going through rehab to adjust to life without an eye, a leg, or an arm. Even when loved ones try to hide their doubts, they are often picked up on by the patient, and may feed their own doubts about the ability to adjust to their new circumstances and get back to the business of living.
The slow process that is common in emotional and physician rehabilitation can often be maddening for rehabilitation patients. This is especially true when there is some setback in the rehab therapy that appears to indicate the patient is getting worse rather than better. While in the throes of a setback, it is hard to remember that it is not unusual for patients to take a few steps forward only to go back a step or two from time to time. During these periods when progress is slow or non-existent, the patient must often look away from the circumstances of today and focus more on where he or she wants to be several months from now.
Most of the challenges facing rehabilitation patients are all centered around the issue of confidence. Even patients with a strong will to recover can falter from time to time, and wonder if the effort will ever bear fruit. For this reason, most rehabilitation centers will offer counseling along with physical therapy and other skill building programs designed to help people recover their lives. Trained counselors at these rehabilitation clinics can help the patients deal with the depression and sense of apathy that often takes hold when the therapy is not producing immediate results. By assisting the patients to keep working toward recovery, the counselors play a major role in helping people in rehab emerge from the programs with the tools they need to rebuild their lives and begin enjoying life once more.