The decision to enter residential rehab is not an easy one. You need to decide if you are ready to beat the addiction that you have been suffering from. You need to find out if you have insurance coverage or enough in savings to pay for the tens of thousands of dollars that it will cost to stay the duration at a residential rehab facility. You need to make sure you can take time out of your life in order to give your full attention to recovering from your drug or alcohol addiction.

When entering the residential rehab, you will most likely have talked over the phone to one of their counselors who will assess whether or not you are a good candidate for their facility. You will determine if there are openings available for your stay and make a "reservation" in order to have a spot for you to enter the facility. When you get there, they should be expecting you and should know something about your present and past medical and addiction history.

You will need to bring clothing, books, writing implements and paper or a journal. It is amazing how much you can learn about yourself with the use of a journal and some time to think. You should never bring drugs or alcohol to a residential facility unless you plan to surrender them for destruction. It does you no good to be in a residential rehab and still be using surreptitiously. On the other hand, you can trust a loved one to destroy your remaining stash for you so you can enter the treatment facility as clear of drugs and alcohol as you can be.

Be prepared for possible withdrawal symptoms upon entering residential rehab unless you are completely clean at the time of your admission. You should know, however, that these facilities are very skilled at handling people who are in withdrawal. The facility will help you do your best to recover from the withdrawal process so you can more fully attend the programming without being jittery or sick from withdrawal symptoms.

You will likely have a roommate at a residential rehab facility. This is because they really don't want people to isolate themselves in their room with no one to talk to or to ask for help if there is a problem. A roommate forces you to socialize to some degree so you begin to learn the names and faces of the people present at the facility.

Be prepared to stay several weeks at the facility. Some rehab programs have fixed times for length of stay and other programs are more flexible, allowing you to leave when you are actually ready to face the world of non-addiction for the rest of your life. The residential rehab program you decide upon should be one that works for you.