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What outpatient care means for Lohan

Lindsay Lohan was released from the UCLA Medical Center on Tuesday after only staying only 22 days of her 90-day court ordered stay. According to reports, both the UCLA doctors and Judge Elden Fox agreed that it was time for Lohan to receive outpatient care. But, what does this mean for the actress' future? According to Dianne Schwartz, credentialed alcohol and substance abuse counselor and co-o
Recovery is a long, ongoing journey, but moving toward outpatient care is a step in the right direction for Lohan, according to an addiction specialist.
Recovery is a long, ongoing journey, but moving toward outpatient care is a step in the right direction for Lohan, according to an addiction specialist.AP file

Lindsay Lohan was released from the UCLA Medical Center on Tuesday after only staying only 22 days of her 90-day court ordered stay. According to reports, both the UCLA doctors and Judge Elden Fox agreed that it was time for Lohan to receive outpatient care. But, what does this mean for the actress' future? According to Dianne Schwartz, credentialed alcohol and substance abuse counselor and co-owner of Realization Center, Inc, the word cured doesn't exist in the world of addicts. Realization Center, Inc. specializes in outpatient addiction treatment in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Though they did not treat or advise the Lohan case, they do treat patients who have had similar stories. "Outpatient is a level of care," she said to TODAYshow.com. "There is no cure for addiction," she said. "It’s arrested, but there is no cure. It is a chronic illness." Lohan's civil lawyer, Ed McPherson, told Us Weekly that the star would undergo "fairly rigorous outpatient" treatment. Schwartz says this means Lohan will be coming back to the center for therapy sessions, which can range in duration from half an hour to an average work day. There, the actress would "develop healthy coping mechanisms, not the ones that are destructive like drugs and alcohol." She would also have routine urine tests and breathalyzer tests to make sure she's not slipping in the wrong direction. "She would be seen individually to also talk about what's going on, what she’s trying to numb out in her life," she said. The hardest challenge for Lohan will probably be trying not to fall into her old lifestyle, especially if she keeps the same friends who encouraged her partying behavior. Moving to a new city, like New York as her mother Dina said she would on the TODAY show, could be a good fresh start, said Schwartz. "She can't become sober and clean if she hangs out with the people she used to," she said. However, Fox ordered Wednesday that Lohan must live in Los Angeles. "In Lindsay Lohan case, she’s done things totally against her own interest," Schwartz said. "I don’t think she’s done it for publicity. I think she’s a lost person, and I don’t know much about her. I just read it from the headlines."