Long Term Treatment entails an individual who is recovering from substance abuse spending a great deal of time in treatment over a prolonged period of time. Typically this will entail at least some time in a residential treatment program, and the longer stays can range from 3 to 12 month stints at a residential rehab recovery facility. There are options ranging from low income rehab facilities to luxury drug rehab programs.

Shorter treatment programs do not give those battling substance abuse an adequate amount of time to break from their old habits and to develop new habits and life skills. They do not separate the user from the environment and people that made them use, and without this any progress is tenuous at best and easily reversible.