Can I Get My GED While In Drug Rehab?

Medically reviewed by

Jennifer Cousineau MSCP, LPCI, NCC

March 8, 2019

What Are The Benefits Of Getting A GED While In Rehab?

Navigating the complexities of addiction can be a complicated and exhausting process as can the task of obtaining a GED. However, rehab can provide the strategies, framework and, disciplined environment necessary for you to reach your educational goals. In fact, many individuals find that the stricter schedules and accountability of rehab lends itself to an environment that is conducive to both learning and success.

In addition, the individuals involved in your treatment will help learn how to best navigate the terrain of your recovery, while pairing it with your educational commitments. These professionals are qualified and trained to deal with the complexities and treatment of addictions and are also adept educators. Most importantly, they understand the synergy that is necessary between the two pursuits and are skilled and ready to assist you towards your success in each.

What Considerations Are Necessary?

While considering entrance into a treatment center, there are numerous logistical and personal considerations. These include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Will I fall behind in my studies during my stay in rehab?
• Do I have to be a new or current student to study for my GED ?
• What will be the quality of education while I’m in rehab?
• How will I balance both my recovery and my studies?
• Will studying for my GED detract from the focus or success of my addiction?
• Will education be secondary to my treatment in a capacity that hinders my success?
• What are the credentials of the individual’s instructing me in rehab?
• My self-confidence and focus are depleted: how will I combat this in order to succeed at my studies?
• What if I’m not in high-school or am a non-traditional student?

Can Getting A GED Help Me Find Success In Rehab?

Addictions commonly create feelings of loss, lack of self-confidence, and a myriad of other emotions that make a balanced life feel unattainable. Adding the complexity and stress of a GED to this endeavor may feel impossible. However, it is not only possible, it is something, that with the right support and skill-set, is more than attainable.

In fact, studying for your GED while enrolled in a treatment facility has reciprocal benefits. Having a GED helps an individual flourish within their recovery as they gain greater confidence, a sense of fulfillment, and accomplishment. You now have something to fight for, an incentive that can help combat the self-deprecating and destructive feelings your addictive lifestyle often creates.

Obtaining your GED may also potentially help you reach greater financial solubility. When asked, financial duress is one of the number one reasons why individuals turn to drug use as a means for coping or escape. Remember, in today’s ever increasingly competitive job market, a GED is a tool that will give you the necessary edge and qualifications to be more marketable in a greater diversity of careers. In addition to traditional classes, facilities offer sessions that help instruct you on how to manage your money once you have successfully utilized your GED and entered the job market.

How Does One Study For A GED While In Rehab?

Not just any program will be successful with helping you with these two goals. When considering your options, it is important that you thoroughly research treatment centers in order to find one that is tailored to help people such as yourself. These programs offer the following support and tools to help you obtain your GED:

• Patients engage in mandatory educational programs throughout their stay.
• Classroom sizes are kept small to allow for more intensive and personal instruction.
• Programs are tailored to the individual’s learning style with special care granted to any learning disorders or mental illnesses.
• One-on-one attention and tutoring sessions.
• Practice tests are utilized to help familiarize students with proper study and test taking skills.
• Process-oriented education helps students develop problem solving skills with an emphasis on logical thinking.
• A variety of tailored classes are available for you and your team to choose.
• A specific day-to-day schedule for those that are studying for the GED.
• Access to a private, quiet study room with on-site support.

Though the process may vary, the ultimate goals and procedures are often quite similar. The discipline and accountability that is crucial to your recovery transcends the addiction and becomes a cornerstone to your scholastic success. There are on-site tutors that will not only help you study and prepare for the GED itself, but help you understand and balance the additional stress of the rehabilitation process.

Why Not Wait Until Your Sobriety To Get Your GED?

Often times, people cite feelings of inadequacy as one of the reasons they began or continue their drug use. Depression, anxiety, lack of confidence—these are all reasons that may push someone towards drugs or make it increasingly hard to envision a life without them.

Inversely speaking, these are all part of the gamut of emotions you may encounter while trying to prepare for your GED. Not having a measure of success or personal fulfillment can make all of these feelings more prevalent for an individual. Not only is achieving a GED possible, but upon its success, it could grant you yet another tool to help you continue your journey through sobriety and onto a better and more fulfilling life.

What If I Need Help Making This Decision?

If you’re struggling to make the right decision, overwhelmed with the prospect of failure, or simply wanting to discuss your options in greater depth, please contact us at RehabCenter.net today. Achieving success and earning a sense of pride and accomplishment is easier with the framework, passion, and commitment of a committed clinic. No one has to go through this process on their own and we can help you every step of the way.