The benefits of long-term treatment are one of the defining characteristics of  MARR. Typically recognized as treatment lasting 90 days or longer, long-term treatment can sometimes not be as appealing as 30 day quick fixes and other shorter programs. 

Due to the nature of addiction, it takes longer than 30 days to recover. Time is needed to truly address the addiction from a holistic standpoint and the work you put in is a direct correlation to the quality of recovery you’ll experience. The National Institute on Drug Abuse says, “Generally, for residential or outpatient treatment, participation for less than 90 days is of limited effectiveness, and treatment lasting significantly longer is recommended for maintaining positive outcomes.”

That’s why MARR is organized into two phases, with phase one focusing on the foundations of recovery for approximately 6 weeks, learning life skills, and transitioning into the workplace for approximately 14 weeks. With an optional phase three lasting from 12 weeks up to 2 years where clients continue practicing the recovery lifestyle with peer support at our extended residents.

MARR’s Phases

When clients begin life at MARR, they enter Phase 1 of the program. This phase lasts 6 weeks and focuses on the foundations for recovery. This time is vital for lasting recovery because it gives clients the time to recognize they’re in a safe environment and take the time to re-group while beginning the healing process. 

After those 6 weeks, Phase 2 begins and lasts an additional 8 weeks. Throughout this time, clients learn the best recovery life skills as they transition into working part-time, while our professional clients take on additional groups. This phase reinforces their need for recovery tools as they experience outside environments that may trigger their addiction. 

Phase 3 is an optional part of MARR, lasting anywhere from 12 weeks to 2 years. It is a sober living community to continue practicing the recovery lifestyle with peer accountability and support. Clients who choose to continue care at MARR in this phase still have access to the clinical and medical staff and attend MARR groups. We find that this phase is a crucial step in recovery for many of our clients. It allows them to establish themselves in early recovery and have a network of support.

All of these phases work to support clients towards a life of lasting recovery, which takes time and a community that will walk with them.

If interested in learning more about MARR, the first step is a phone call or message to our Clinical Assessment Team. Our licensed and certified clinicians are available for a confidential and complimentary conversation about the next steps you can take to get help. Call us at (678) 736-8694, or you can reach out via the chatbox.

Are you losing hope after the last treatment attempt didn’t stick? For those who have been in treatment, perhaps several times, and it hasn’t stuck or worked, or for the family members who are hesitant about “giving it another go,” it will be hard. But MARR not only knows how to help clients who have been in treatment before but specializes in effective long-term treatment after multiple relapses.

The MARR Difference

At MARR, we understand that high-quality treatment isn’t easy to come by, and many of the clients we work with have experienced a lower level of care before coming to us. In fact, the majority of our clients have been to treatment 3 or 4 times before they come to MARR and experience success at a high-quality facility. So, what does high-quality mean to us?

For one, we’re experts in treating substance abuse disorders and co-occurring disorders. We’ve been serving the addiction community for over 45 years and have stayed true to our proven methods and evolved with clinical care best practices. We teach clients how to live full lives in recovery, not just how to stay dry. Our gender-separate addiction treatment focuses on holistic recovery, helping our clients heal physically, mentally, and spiritually.

Our recovery centers are spiritually based and incorporate the 12-Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. Plus, we are state-licensed and accredited by The Joint Commission. Perhaps most importantly, MARR emphasizes long-term recovery.

Why Long-Term Treatment

At MARR, we offer three phases of treatment – the first two combined being approximately 14 weeks and the optional phase three lasting from 12 weeks up to 2 years, depending on the client’s needs. Through these phases, our certified counselors and staff work with each client to address their addiction holistically, addressing any other mental or medical problems that affect their recovery – this takes time.

Unfortunately, many treatment centers market their shorter programs, appealing to the mindset that an addict can beat their addiction in one month or less. If only it were that easy. If you or a loved one have been through one of these programs and relapsed, you’re not alone, and it’s not you that’s failing.

From experience, we have witnessed that longer treatment leads to a higher chance of lasting recovery. The National Institute on Drug Abuse says, “Generally, for residential or outpatient treatment, participation for less than 90 days is of limited effectiveness, and treatment lasting significantly longer is recommended for maintaining positive outcomes.” In other words, longer treatment gives clients a much higher chance of not relapsing.

Common Reasons Relapse Occurs 

Unfortunately, the risk of relapse in addicts is high. Causes of relapse include withdrawal symptoms, other mental health obstacles such as trauma, depression, and more, the people in their lives, access to their drug of choice, and many other factors. While we can’t promise relapse won’t occur, MARR’s treatment model focuses on all of the possible risks the addict will encounter and creates a safe environment for clients to process these emotions and real-life situations while in our care. This ultimately gives them the best chance of long-term recovery. 

Don’t Give Up On Your Addicted Loved Ones

The addict isn’t the only one affected by ineffective treatment. The family members and loved ones of those seeking recovery are often exhausted and resentful because they’ve seen first-hand their addicted person relapse. At MARR, we are passionate that family members are involved in the recovery process throughout the treatment program. We offer a Loving Someone with Addiction workshop, family webinars, and family therapy depending on the case. Our goal is to treat the entire family unit to be successful, even if they’ve previously attempted treatment once (or several times) before.

Recovery is Still Available for You

If you have previously tried a sober living, 30-day program, IOP, PHP, or another treatment program, and haven’t seen lasting recovery, you have not failed. If your loved one has had negative experiences in treatment, it does not mean treatment isn’t the option. We hope that this helps you understand different levels of treatment and that there is indeed hope for you or your loved one.

If interested in learning more about MARR, the first step is a phone call or message to our Clinical Assessment Team. Our licensed and certified clinicians are available for a confidential and complimentary conversation about the next steps you can take to get help. Call us at (678) 736-8694, or you can reach out via the chatbox.

Celebrating recovery is one of our favorite activities here at MARR. Luckily, September is National Recovery Month and is another reason to honor everyone who has experienced the freedom that comes through recovery. National Recovery Month 2021 marks the 32nd year of the tradition and its theme, “Recovery is for Everyone: Every Person, Every Family, Every Community,” is a needed reminder that no one is alone in their recovery journey.

What began in 1989 as “Treatment Works! Month” to showcase the work of substance abuse professionals is now dedicated to everyone recovering from substance dependence and all mental illnesses. Sponsored by Faces & Voices of Recovery, the month honors every person who has overcome addiction.

For Every Person

At MARR, we love recognizing each person’s recovery individually because their journey to recovery is unique and worthy of recognition. That’s why our alumni are invited to participate in events and meetings throughout the year with the intent to continue the community building that they experienced while here at treatment and to share their stories with others. We also offer our alumni app, Marr4Life, as a platform for those living in recovery to connect daily with others on the same path and stay connected after graduating from our program.

For Every Family

The idea that we’re all in this together isn’t just a catchy slogan at MARR. When we say we walk with you for life, we mean with you and your loved ones. During National Recovery Month, MARR will be hosting both Men’s and Women’s Olympics, along with our monthly speaker meeting, for both alumni and family to join. Along with events, we offer resources and workshops for families with a loved one in recovery.

For Every Community

We’re nothing without our community of alumni, current patients, staff, and everyone involved in helping free people from addiction. To foster that community we publish our podcast, Stories of Recovery, to share first-hand accounts of what recovery has done in our patient’s lives. In addition to our efforts, the Georgia Council on Substance Abuse is dedicated to helping the recovery community by offering recovery community centers in every county in Georgia to bring positive change during National Recovery Month and beyond.

How Can You Honor Recovery?

If you or a loved one is currently living a life of recovery, congratulations – your hard work does not go unnoticed. If interested in getting help for either yourself or a loved one, the first step is a phone call or message to our Clinical Assessment Team. Our licensed and certified clinicians are available for a confidential and complimentary conversation about the next steps you can take to get help. Call us at (678) 736-8694, or you can reach out via the chatbox. We’re ready and honored to take the first steps of recovery with you.

Spirituality in Recovery 

Sometimes people looking for treatment have difficulty with spiritual terms often used in 12 Step Recovery. These terms might seem strange, mystical, or outdated. Perhaps they seem in conflict with providing competent medical care. 

They might raise questions for people seeking treatment. If substance use disorder is a medical condition, what does spirituality have to do with getting better? Aren’t there medical facts and best practices behind how to treat the disorder? And doesn’t spirituality take us into the realm of unproven and faith-based assumptions?

All of these thoughts and concerns are reasonable. However, they probably come from some confusion about what spirituality or “having a spiritual experience” means in the context of the A.A. literature. 

The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous pragmatically talks about spirituality. Above all, the spirituality required for successful recovery involves open-mindedness. 

The text states directly: “Any alcoholic capable of honestly facing his problems in light of our experience can recover, provided he does not close his mind to spiritual concepts. He can only be defeated by an attitude of intolerance or belligerent denial” (“Alcoholics Anonymous” page 568).

In other words, the spirituality we encourage at MARR is not a dogmatic set of beliefs. Instead, we help our clients foster an open attitude to trying new solutions. 

Also, spirituality in recovery does not exclude competent medical care. In fact, we believe that the open-mindedness that our clients foster through a spiritual approach actually enables them to receive the care they need. 

MARR is licensed by the state of Georgia and accredited by the Joint Commission. Our clinical staff is made up of licensed and certified mental health clinicians. The spirituality our clients develop in treatment frequently provides them the open-mindedness to make good use of the high level of medical care available to them at MARR. 

What is a Spiritual Experience?

In the Big Book of A.A., the terms “spiritual experience,” “spiritual awakening,” or “psychic change” come up again and again. 

But such a transformation may be more accessible than it initially sounds. The Big Book describes a spiritual experience as a “personality change sufficient to bring about recovery from alcoholism.” It also says that it “manifests itself in many different forms.” This means that the experience looks different for different people. 

These are not usually single, dramatic moments in which everything changes. Rather, spirituality in recovery frequently takes the form of the “educational variety.” In other words, the spiritual change takes place gradually over time. Eventually, this gradual change results in “a profound alteration in [the person’s] reaction to life.” 

For many, this change may include returning to the faith tradition of their youth. It might also mean joining a spiritual community for the first time. Many times it may have nothing to do with organized religion at all. The only requirement is that the person “not close his mind to spiritual concepts.”  

At MARR, we believe Twelve Step Recovery, at its most basic level, means a willingness of the person to say “I don’t know.” It means having at least a little bit of a desire to see things from a different perspective.

Laying Aside Our Judgments

The Big Book addresses issues of spirituality and belief directly in the chapter titled “We Agnostics.” The chapter makes clear that recovery does not require a specific approach or religion. The only thing that the chapter seems dead set against is “prejudice.” Seven different times it asks the reader to remove or lay aside “prejudice.” 

What does this mean? Prejudice about what? It asks the reader to put aside judgments about the meaning of “Higher Power”, “God”, “prayer,” and other spiritual terms. It asks them to allow themselves to have a new experience of what these things can mean to them.

Suppose spirituality is about being willing to be open to something new. In that case, the words “God” and “prayer” have much more to do with an attitude and posture of humility. They become less about the content of the person’s belief system and more about the openness to a new experience. 

Spirituality in Recovery Means Freedom

Of course, as long as we have minds, we will make judgments about people and situations. On a basic level, judgments about our surroundings help us survive. But with the help of the tools in 12 Step Recovery, our clients have the opportunity to catch these judgments before they harden into harmful prejudices. 

In conclusion, staying spiritually healthy means trying to keep ourselves open to being surprised by life. A prayer common to 12 Step Fellowships beautifully summarizes this sentiment.

“God, help me to set aside everything I think I know about You, about others, myself, and my own recovery, so I may have a much-needed new experience in You, others, myself, and my own recovery.” 

Regardless of beliefs, a spirituality of open-mindedness provides the opportunity for a new experience of life. It allows a person an opportunity not only to escape addiction but to have a life they never thought possible. 

Our Clinical Assessment Team is available for a confidential and free conversation about the next steps you can take to get help for yourself and your loved ones. Call us at (678) 736-8694, or you can reach out via the chat box in the lower right-hand corner of our website.

Spring reminds us every year how life works. For something new to emerge, the old has to die away. Even if we don’t consciously take note of this happening, we get reminded of it annually. For us in the treatment field, there’s a deep metaphor here. 

By the time clients or family members pick up the phone to call us, they are usually in the midst of loneliness and desperation that has settled in for a long period of time. It feels like the deepest parts of the winter. But unlike winter, there is typically no sense of when the days will start to brighten and warm up.

In fact, many times, the hope that the days will get better has been stamped out by the disease of addiction. Often, by the time people reach us, they are under the impression that their lives are irrevocably damaged. Even if they think there’s a chance they or their loved one might stop using substances, they often carry a sense around with them that life will never really be good again. 

But based on over 45 years of experience, we know that this does not have to be the case. Although pain, grief, and loss are common to those entering recovery and must be encountered and felt, there is an alternate perspective on how we can view these heartaches.  

Rather than the end, we can see this period as a painful but potentially life-changing transition, an invitation to something new. 

The old way of life, centered around the addiction and all that it entails, is dying away. The former coping mechanisms, systems of denial, and avoidance strategies wear thin. And this process can be painful. 

Those previous ways of handling things simply will not work anymore for our clients. This is often true for our clients’ family members as well, who have grown so used to living under the sway of the family disease and codependent patterns it creates.

At times, this transition certainly can feel like dying. It’s difficult to find the words to express the loneliness people with addictions and their families feel as the disease progresses. 

These difficult feelings are thoroughly disorienting. The hope of something better can often feel impossible to access. That is where we come into the picture to help in this rebirth process. 

Along with clinical expertise, best practices, and individualized treatment plans, we carry the hope that is continually restored and renewed that recovery into a life full of meaning and connection is possible, no matter how impossible it seems. 

We carry that vision and hope for our clients and their families until they can carry it for themselves. 

We’ve seen it happen countless times. Like the early spring, the sun gradually stays out longer, and the cold begins to melt away. It often sneaks up on our clients and families in quiet moments. They may notice themselves genuinely laugh from their gut or relax their posture, perhaps for the first time in years. 

This melting away of the cold continues. All that is required is a posture of honesty, openness, and willingness to try something new.

Before long, life can be completely different for our clients and their families. A passage from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, perhaps, gives the most succinct description of this winter months’ transition into the spring of early recovery. 

“Life will take on new meaning. To watch people recover, to see them help others, to watch loneliness vanish, to see a fellowship grow up about you, to have a host of friends – this is an experience you must not miss” (Big Book of AA, page 89).

In time, the genuine connections formed in active recovery create a sense of well-being and community strong enough to drive away even the longest and loneliest winter. 

At MARR, we firmly believe that this type of complete recovery is possible for people suffering from addiction and for their family members who are suffering as well. Our Clinical Assessment Team is available for a confidential and free conversation about the next steps you can take to get help for yourself and your loved ones. Call us at (678) 736-8694, or you can reach out via the chat box in the lower right-hand corner of our website.