When someone you love is struggling with a mental health disorder, it’s easy to feel powerless. No one wants to watch someone they love in pain or discomfort. Yet, mental health is complex. You may be an adept problem-solver in every other area of your life – but when it comes to your husband’s depression or your wife’s anxiety, what can you do to help?

In this article, Cottonwood Tucson discusses the choice to seek mental health rehab for a loved one and how to make an informed decision. 

Smashing The Mental Health Stigmas

Once upon a time, many people were a bit sheepish about seeing a psychiatrist, psychologist, or mental health counselor. Whether it was pride or misconceptions about mental health treatment doesn’t matter. The fact is, many people denied themselves the help they deserved.

Fortunately, today much of the stigmas around treating mental health have slipped away. We’ve since learned that many great women and men throughout history have had mental health challenges. Depression, anxiety, or any other condition that might call for mental health rehab care is nothing to be ashamed of. No more than any other health problem. 

When Is Outpatient Mental Health Care Not Enough?

Most people struggling with their mental health begin with a therapist or counselor. Often they can find sufficient relief with weekly or biweekly talk therapy alone. They may be referred to a psychiatrist for evaluation and find medication a helpful addition to a treatment plan to manage their symptoms. 

However, seeing a therapist a few times a month isn’t enough for everyone. When medicine is necessary, finding the right medication regimen to manage symptoms effectively isn’t always easy. It also isn’t unusual for a person to find some relief early on, but find they hit an impassable barrier to their progress or “plateau”. Mental health rehab is often the best solution in all of these situations.

When is it time to seek mental health rehab?

• Someone is a danger to themselves or others (call 911 or 988  if danger is imminent)
• When outpatient mental health care hasn’t delivered the results you’re looking for.
• If you have hit an impasse or plateau in your progress and feel “stuck”. 
• When someone’s mental health disorder is making life unmanageable. 
• When a person has psychological symptoms they cannot explain or resolve. 

Accurate Diagnoses and Mental Health Breakthroughs

Whether a person feels stuck after some time, or like they’ve never really begun to heal in the first place — mental health rehab is often just what is needed to reach a breakthrough. When someone has more complex mental health challenges, such as borderline personality disorder (BPD) or a dual-diagnosis condition that is compounded by substance use disorder, mental health rehab is especially helpful. 

Accurate diagnosis often takes time and observation. A residential setting makes it far easier for the clinician to get to know the client and develop a deeper understanding of their challenges. It also allows time to see which therapeutic methods yield the best results so treatment can be fine-tuned. This sort of precision diagnosis and granular management of treatment simply isn’t possible sitting in a therapist’s office for a few hours a month. 

That is not to say that outpatient therapy isn’t helpful, of course. It can be tremendously useful. There is no question that therapy and counseling on an outpatient basis have improved the quality of life for millions. It’s more a matter of being able to determine when it’s not enough.  

How Mental Health Rehab Transforms Lives

Residential mental health rehab offers an immersive therapeutic experience in a safe, inclusive environment. When your loved one enters residential treatment for depression or anxiety, they receive a level of support that simply isn’t possible at the outpatient level of care. This is sometimes necessary to achieve a thorough diagnosis of their condition or to stabilize them. 

Many of our clients previously found relief from outpatient counseling and therapy but simply found themselves “stalled” after several years. They felt they were no longer making progress or even sliding backward into sadness, worry, or old, unhelpful behavior patterns. 

Mental health rehab helps transform people’s lives in numerous ways. First, it provides answers and reasons why they feel the way they do. Simply having your feelings validated and explanations for your symptoms can provide much relief. But more importantly, inpatient mental health treatment is the best method we have for reaching an accurate diagnosis and making real changes in days and weeks instead of months and years. 

Some of the many benefits of residential mental health rehab:

• More precise diagnosis of mental health disorders owing to more time for evaluation.
• Provides a safe, stable environment in which to open up entirely and share feelings. 
• Allows clinicians to adjust a treatment plan in response to results in real-time.
• Can resolve an impasse in mental health progress and enable breakthroughs. 
• Offers sufficient time for medications (when needed) to take effect and yield benefits. 
• Empowers the patient with knowledge of their condition and the tools to manage it. 

Arizona’s Renowned Luxury Mental Health Rehab

If you or someone you love seeks better mental health, Cottonwood Tucson can help. 

Cottonwood Tucson is the premier mental health and depression treatment center in the desert Southwest. For over 25 years our mission has been to deliver the highest quality evidence-based treatment available for mental health disorders and substance misuse.

Our private residential treatment program is situated on 35 peaceful and serene acres in the Sonoran Desert foothills. You and your loved ones deserve the expert mental health treatment and innovative therapies that only Cottonwood offers. Let’s talk about what we can do together to help the person you love.
Call us anytime, 24 hours a day at (888) 433-1069.