• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

FHE Health | Inpatient Rehab & Mental Health Facility in Florida Homepage

Drug, Alcohol and Mental Health Treatment

ContactCareers

Call for Immediate Help (833) 596-3502

MENUMENU
  • About
        • About FHE Rehab
          • About FHE Health
          • Our Staff
          • Locations We Serve
          • Testimonials
        • Our Campus
          • Gallery
          • Our Videos
          • The Health and Wellness Center at FHE Health
        • Our Locations
          • Alcohol Rehab
          • Detox Center
          • Drug Rehab
          • Mental Health Center
          • Outpatient Rehab
        • Careers at FHE Health
          • Employment Opportunities
        • Our Expertise
          • Accreditations
          • Educational Opportunities
          • Community Impact Award
          • First Responder Families Podcast
          • First Responder Paws
          • Education Scholarship
  • Addiction
        • Treatment Programs
          • Treatment Program Overview
          • Alcohol Addiction
          • Drug Addiction Treatment
          • Behavioral Addiction
        • Levels of Care
          • Continuum of Care
          • Addiction Detox
          • Inpatient Addiction Treatment
          • Outpatient Addiction Treatment
        • What We Treat
          • Alcoholism
          • Amphetamines
          • Benzodiazepines
          • Cocaine
          • Heroin
          • Opioids
          • Sedative
  • Mental Health
        • Mental Health Rehab
          • Mental Health Rehab
          • Onsite Psychiatric Care
          • Dual Diagnosis
        • Levels of Care
          • Residential Mental Health Care
          • Outpatient Mental Health Care
        • What We Treat
          • ADD & ADHD
          • Anxiety Disorders
          • Bipolar Disorder
          • Depression
          • Eating Disorders
          • Personality Disorders
          • PTSD
          • Schizophrenia
          • Substance Use Disorder
          • Trauma
  • Programs
        • FHE Programs
          • Specialty Program Overview
          • Restore (Mental Health)
          • Empower! (Women's Program)
          • Shatterproof FHE Health(First Responders)
          • Compass Program
        • Support Programs
          • Alumni
          • Family Support
        • Therapies
          • Acupuncture
          • Breathwork Therapy
          • CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy)
          • DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy)
          • EMDR Therapy
          • Expressive Arts Therapy
          • Individual Therapy
          • Group Therapy
          • Gambling Therapy
          • Massage
        • Medical Care
          • Medical Integration
          • Ketamine Infusion
          • IV Vitamin
          • Fitness & Nutrition
          • Medication-Assisted Treatment
          • Medication Management
        • NeuroRehab Services
          • Neuro Rehabilitation
          • Neurofeedback Training
          • Neurostimulation Therapy
          • EEG Brain Mapping
          • Insomnia Treatment for PTSD
  • Resources
        • FHE Guides
          • Understanding Drug Abuse
          • Signs of Addiction
          • The Disease of Addiction
          • Confronting Addiction
          • Staging an Intervention
          • Rehab Success Rate – Does It Really Work?
          • Withdrawal Timelines
          • Life After Rehab
          • LGBTQ+ Community Resources
          • Veteran Resources
          • FHE Podcasts
          • Remote Resources Toolkit
        • Learning Center
          • Help for You
          • Help For Loved Ones
          • Help For Alcoholism
          • Help With Substance Abuse
          • Behavioral & Mental Health
          • Life in Recovery
          • Rehab Explained
          • Addiction Statistics
          • Our Research Articles
          • View All Articles
        • The Experience Blog
          • Addiction News
          • Alumni
          • Community Events
          • Expert Opinions
          • FHE Commentary
          • FHE News
          • Treatment Legislation
          • View All Articles
  • Admissions
        • Insurance
          • Blue Cross Insurance
          • Beacon Health / Value Options Insurance
          • Cigna Insurance
          • Humana Insurance
          • TRICARE Insurance
        • Admissions
          • Steps to Addiction Help
          • Will Insurance Cover Behavioral Treatment?
          • Self-Pay Rehab
        • FAQ
          • Keeping Your Job in Rehab
          • Example Day in Rehab
        • Contact Admissions
          • Contact Us
          • Secure Payment Form
  • Contact
  •  
Home > Featured in Recovery > Setting Realistic Goals After Rehab

October 19, 2019 By Molly Lauroesch

Setting Realistic Goals After Rehab

Setting Realistic Goals After Rehab

After rehab, it’s easy to feel like the world is your oyster. However, getting sober and staying sober isn’t as easy as it sounds.

It’s easy to imagine all of the things you will accomplish — landing a dream job at a prestigious company, getting married to the partner of your dreams or starting a family — now that you’re sober, but it’s important to slow down. Recovery isn’t something that happens overnight, and re-acclimating to sobriety isn’t going to be a fast or simple process. Instead of reaching for the stars as soon as you’re out of treatment, it’s critical to set realistic and reasonable goals that are within the bounds of what is possible.

This is what you need to know about setting recovery goals after you’re finished with rehabilitation.

Creating a Road Map for Post-Treatment Success

Setting Reasonable goalsFor those who are newly out of treatment, whether inpatient or outpatient, the world often looks brand-new again. With the old occupations, like buying drugs or drinking all day, you may be wondering how to fill the days and how to set goals.

While the future is open to you, there may be some barriers that were created by past indiscretions. From legal consequences to gaps in career history due to time spent in rehabilitation, it’s important to acknowledge and live with these facts. While theoretically anything is possible, it’s necessary to keep a realistic grasp on reality, particularly when it comes to overcoming the roadblocks posed by addiction recovery and life post-treatment.

During this time, it’s very important for goals to be both short-term and easily attainable — and ideally in a step-by-step format that can help you stay focused on the next milestone to come.

For example, when you first get out of rehabilitation, you may be moving into a halfway house or your family’s home. If, for example, your goal is to get your own place, the first step will likely be getting a job, the next may be to get a car and the last may be to save enough money to demonstrate worthiness to a landlord. By creating this kind of progressive goal structure, it’s much easier to tackle things day by day.

Why Reasonable Goals Matter

So, winning a Nobel Prize is on your bucket list. That’s wonderful — winning a Nobel means accomplishing something outstanding — but it’s ultimately not likely, particularly not in the near future. While setting long-term goals is admirable, it’s not going to help you in the present.

Failing to meet objectives can be deeply disappointing, and nothing can hold you back like a personal failure. When your goals aren’t realistic and attainable in the near future, it’s easy to tell yourself that you’re not good enough to reach them, and this line of thinking can result in further substance abuse. Of those with substance abuse disorders, 40% to 60% will eventually relapse, so the more you can do to keep yourself on the right path, the better.

What a Reasonable Goal Looks Like

What does a reasonable goal look like?One of the primary objectives of many newly recovered addicts is to get a job. What this means, however, can vary greatly depending on education, job history, resume and references.

So, for example, you have a college degree and worked in accounting for a few years before quitting and taking a serving job to better accommodate your spiral into addiction before quitting work entirely to go to inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation programs. In this situation, getting a job is definitely a priority, but it’s important to be realistic. Getting back into accounting may not be immediately possible, especially without a consistent job history.

It’s critical to be realistic in your expectations — any job is better than no job, so there’s no real reason to hold out for an accounting job while ignoring all other options. Getting a job waiting tables again or working in retail can put money in your pocket while helping you save the cash you need to go back to school or aim for an unpaid internship that can help you get your foot back in the door. At this point, a career with the Big Four accounting firms — a common goal for accounting students — isn’t likely.

On the other hand, perhaps you don’t have a clear career history. Maybe you worked a number of entry jobs in retail, restaurants or warehouses that don’t necessarily align with a career path.

In this case, it’s in your best interest to find any job to help you get back on your feet, using your previous job history, or taking this time to figure out what you want to do and how you’re going to get there. If you’ve always dreamed of being an electrician, for example, now is the time to build a financial base so that you can enroll in a trade program to eventually reach your goals.

Challenges in Setting Goals

Accepting Goals are sometimes out of reachSetting recovery goals is never easy, particularly when you’re considering those outside of your control.

For example, maybe your goal is to reconnect with the family you isolated during your addiction. While this is a noble objective and can improve overall well-being, you can’t force family members to accept and forgive you, particularly if you hurt them deeply in the past. As such, it’s important to acknowledge the separation between yourself and your objectives.

If you apologize repeatedly and show evidence of changed behavior and your family is still unwilling to make amends, the ball is no longer in your court. Under these circumstances, you need to realize that you’ve done all you can and that the only thing that will make a difference is either continued effort or acceptance.

Challenges are a part of life, and they’re a part of setting goals too. By understanding that nothing in life truly goes according to plan, it’s easier for you to accept that not every goal you set for yourself will be as simple as apologizing for your wrongs.

Get the Help You Need

If you’re struggling with drug or alcohol addiction, you’re not alone. In the United States, over 21 million adults live with a substance use disorder.

However, help is here. At FHE Health, we’re experts in working through substance use disorders, offering a step-down model of care that emphasizes comprehensive treatment for the best possible results. From addressing behavioral issues that may be contributing to poor behavior to addressing healthy and realistic goal setting, we can help you succeed in the recovery process.

Filed Under: Featured in Recovery, Life in Recovery

About Molly Lauroesch

Molly has over 5 years of experience in the behavioral health field. She grew up just outside of Washington, D.C. and has been living in the South Florida... read more

Primary Sidebar

Learning Center

  • Help for You
  • Help For Loved Ones
  • Help For Alcoholism
  • Help With Substance Abuse
  • Behavioral & Mental Health
  • Life in Recovery
  • Rehab Explained
  • All Articles

Sign up for the Blog

Our Facilities

Take a look at our state of the art treatment center.

View Our Gallery

The Experience Blog

  • Addiction News
  • Alumni
  • Community Events
  • Expert Columns
  • FHE Commentary
  • FHE News
  • Treatment Legislation
  • All Articles

Footer

FHE Health

© 2025 FHE Health

505 S Federal Hwy #2,
Deerfield Beach, Florida 33441
1-833-596-3502
youtube facebook instagram linkedin twitter
  • Contact
  • Careers
  • AI Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Sitemap
A+ BBB and Top Places to Work - Sun Sentinel

Copyright © 2025 · FHE Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}

The FHE Health team is committed to providing accurate information that adheres to the highest standards of writing. If one of our articles is marked with a ‘reviewed for accuracy and expertise’ badge, it indicates that one or more members of our team of doctors and clinicians have reviewed the article further to ensure accuracy. This is part of our ongoing commitment to ensure FHE Health is trusted as a leader in mental health and addiction care.

If there are any concerns about content we have published, please reach out to us at marketing@fhehealth.com.

833-596-3502

Text/Call Me