Key Differences Between Treatment and Recovery

The key differences between treatment and recovery lie in their focus, purpose, duration, and role in preventing relapse. Treatment and recovery are fundamental, serving distinct roles in the healing journey for patients facing addiction, mental illness, or substance use disorders.

Treatment is a structured intervention to stop harmful behaviors and stabilize a patient. Medical detoxification, hospitalization, therapy, and professional services manage acute symptoms in drug rehab settings or outpatient programs. Treatment addresses the end behavior caused by prolonged substance use and provides a path toward initial stabilization. Relapse is the return of deleterious behaviors or symptoms after improvement. Relapse occurs in patients with addiction, mental illness, or chronic conditions, leading them to revert to old patterns and require immediate addiction help. For example, a patient who has relapsed after a period of sobriety needs immediate treatment for withdrawal symptoms or psychological distress. Treatment is short-term, protocol-driven, and led by clinical professionals in drug rehab or outpatient programs. The goal is to help the patient move from crisis to a manageable state of health.

Recovery is a continuous, holistic process that starts during or after treatment. Recovery focuses on rebuilding a healthy lifestyle, ensuring long-term change, and preventing relapse through emotional growth, behavioral change, and social support. Recovery is lifelong, unlike time-limited treatment. Recovery therapy involves addiction recovery programs, therapy, peer support, and personal commitment. Rehabilitation empowers patients to transcend mere behavior cessation and fosters a life where behavior holds no value.
Treatment halts the crisis, while recovery maintains the solution. Treatment focuses on symptom control and clinical care, and recovery emphasizes personal transformation, habit building, and connection with others who share experiences with substance use disorder treatment.

What are the Key Differences of Treatment and Recovery?

The key differences of treatment and recovery are rooted in their distinct focuses, processes, and outcomes. Treatment includes medical or therapeutic interventions that manage or eliminate the underlying issues, such as disease, injury, or disorder. Treatment is time-bound and involves professional methods like medication, surgery, or therapy. Recovery is a long-term process to regain optimal physical, mental, or emotional functioning. Recovery is not linked to a fixed timeframe but continues after treatment, emphasizing overall well-being and daily functioning capacity.

• Purpose: Treatment focuses on the direct cause of a condition, aiming to alleviate symptoms or cure the underlying health issue. Recovery focuses on restoring well-being and aiding a return to normal functioning. Treatment addresses the immediate issue while recovery ensures long-term health and stability.
• Duration: Treatment for short-term conditions like infections requires 1–2 weeks, while chronic or complex conditions like mental health disorders or cancer require 3 months to 18 months. Recovery is a prolonged process that lasts 6 months to several years after treatment ends. Ongoing healing and management span 1 to 5 years, depending on the severity and type of condition.
• Approach: A structured medical model guides treatment, with healthcare professionals like doctors and therapists providing interventions and procedures to address illnesses. Recovery is flexible and involves personal effort, lifestyle changes, and rehabilitation. Recovery involves continuous support and guidance from healthcare professionals, focusing on the patient’s active participation in healing.
• Goal: Treatment aims to eliminate or manage the immediate health issue, including disease, injury, or disorder. Recovery aims to restore a patient’s ability to fully engage in daily life, improve mental and physical health, and guide the return to a balanced, healthy lifestyle. Understanding what is Recovery and what is Treatment clarifies the distinction between addressing immediate health concerns and the long-term process of regaining well-being.
• Support system: Treatment relies on healthcare professionals, including doctors, nurses, and therapists, who provide expert care and guidance. A broader network comes into play in recovery. Family, friends, support groups, and continuous professional help are support systems. Recovery support is community-based and long-term.
• Measurement: The handling of measurement varies between treatment and recovery. Treatment success is objective, measured by medical tests, lab results, or symptom reduction. Recovery is subjective, gauged by personal well-being, the ability to resume daily tasks, and quality of life improvements focused on perceptions about progress.

What are the Main Advantages of Treatment over Recovery?

The main advantages of treatment over recovery are listed below.

• Crisis Stabilization: Treatment addresses urgent health issues like acute illness or injury by stabilizing patients and providing rapid relief. Treatment prevents further harm in crises. Recovery focuses on long-term healing, lacking immediate stabilization during critical moments.
• Structured Environment: Treatment occurs in a structured, controlled environment like a hospital or clinic, where specific protocols ensure optimal care. The patient focuses on immediate recovery without distractions. Recovery occurs in less structured environments like homes or support groups, requiring self-discipline and commitment.
• Professional Supervision: Doctors, nurses, and therapists supervise the treatment, providing expert care and guidance and ensuring immediate medical needs are met. Recovery involves professional support alongside self-management and informal networks, including family, friends, and group therapy.
• Diagnostic Clarity: Treatment involves thorough diagnostic assessments to identify the illness or condition, facilitating a tailored treatment plan. Recovery focuses on managing symptoms and long-term well-being without the clear diagnostic clarity presented in treatment.
• Access to Medical Interventions: Direct access to medical interventions like medications and surgeries that quickly address the root cause of health issues are provided in treatment. Recovery focuses on rehabilitation, lifestyle changes, and emotional support rather than direct medical intervention.
• Immediate Symptom Relief: Treatment provides immediate symptom relief for acute pain or illness. Quick relief improves the patient’s condition and provides comfort. Recovery is gradual, and symptom relief takes time and depends on the patient’s healing progress.

Treatment provides immediate symptom relief, stabilizes the condition, and cures or controls the underlying health issue. Treatment reduces problem severity, prevents complications, and improves short-term health and well-being. Therapy addresses acute medical or psychological needs and establishes a foundation for recovery and long-term healing.

1. Crisis Stabilization

Crisis stabilization involves immediate medical or therapeutic interventions that control or mitigate health crises. Crisis stabilization addresses life-threatening conditions, controls severe symptoms, and halts disease or injury progression to prevent complications. Mental facilities aims to manage urgent situations swiftly to prevent escalation. Crisis stabilization provides interventions like medications, surgeries, or emergency procedures.

Crisis stabilization offers quick relief during urgent health crises, making it more advantageous than recovery. Heart attacks, severe allergic reactions, or acute mental health conditions require immediate intervention to prevent worsening conditions or life-threatening outcomes. Treatment stabilizes a patient’s condition swiftly. Recovery is a long-term process focused on healing after addressing an immediate crisis. Recovery lacks the urgent intervention that treatment provides during a health crisis.

For example, medication to dissolve clots or surgery to stabilize the patient’s condition are treatments during a heart attack. Recovery focuses on lifestyle changes, physical rehabilitation, and ongoing medication to prevent future heart issues.

2. Structured Environment

A structured environment is a controlled, organized setting with specific protocols, procedures, and supervision to ensure patients receive appropriate care and treatment. The environment offers a clear framework for care, emphasizing monitoring, routines, and professional oversight. Hospitals, clinics, rehabilitation centers, and other medical facilities deliver interventions organized to address immediate needs.

A structured treatment environment provides immediate, intensive care with close monitoring by healthcare professionals. Timely interventions stabilize the patient and manage symptoms. Treatment requires medical procedures, medications, and interventions administered in controlled environments to prevent complications. Recovery occurs in unstructured settings, such as at home or in casual environments, where patients manage their conditions. Recovery is vital for long-term healing, but lacks the immediate oversight and support of structured environments. For example, a structured hospital environment ensures careful monitoring during recovery from anesthesia and after surgery, allowing for prompt management of any complications.

3. Professional Supervision

Professional supervision involves oversight by trained healthcare providers. Doctors, nurses, therapists, and specialists guide and monitor patient care. Supervising ensures accurate adherence to the treatment plan, making necessary adjustments, and providing appropriate care based on the patient’s condition.

Professional supervision benefits treatment by ensuring skilled professionals promptly address medical needs. Healthcare providers monitor patient conditions, assess progress, and intervene swiftly if complications arise during treatment. Close supervision is critical for precise medical care, surgery, intensive care, and severe condition management. Recovery involves less frequent professional oversight. Recovery includes check-ins with healthcare providers but focuses on self-management and long-term rehabilitation with less direct supervision for patients. Immediate, hands-on care and adjustments during treatment provide safety and reassurance that are not readily available during recovery.

For example, professional supervision monitors patients for complications like infections and adverse reactions to anaesthesia after surgery. Healthcare providers immediately address issues, preventing further health problems.

4. Diagnostic Clarity

Diagnostic clarity means accurately identifying and understanding a medical condition through healthcare professionals’ assessments, tests, and examinations. Diagnostic clarity determines the exact cause of a patient’s symptoms or illness, enabling the creation of an accurate, targeted treatment plan.

Diagnostic clarity benefits treatment by enabling healthcare providers to create specific, effective plans that target the root cause of a patient’s condition. Precise diagnosis enables targeted interventions, including medication prescriptions, surgery, or specialized therapies. Diagnostic clarity ensures effective treatment by accurately identifying the underlying condition. The identification allows healthcare providers to select the most appropriate and targeted interventions. Wrong interventions lead to reduced efficacy. Recovery focuses on managing symptoms and improving long-term well-being, rather than establishing a precise diagnosis during treatment. Recovery emphasizes rehabilitation, lifestyle changes, and emotional support instead of diagnosing or addressing the cause, resulting in a reduced focus on diagnostic clarity.

For example, severe chest pain requires diagnostic clarity in treatment, including tests like an electrocardiogram (EKG), blood work, or imaging to identify a heart attack, angina, or another issue. Doctors administer the correct medications or perform the necessary procedures to stabilize patients.

5. Access to Medical Interventions

Access to medical interventions involves the availability and use of various treatments, procedures, medications, or technologies for managing health conditions. Surgery, prescription medications, diagnostic tools, physical therapy, and specialized treatments are interventions healthcare professionals use.

Access to medical interventions benefits treatment by providing immediate, direct methods of managing or resolving acute health issues. Interventions targeting the underlying causes of illness or injury benefit patients. For example, medications that reduce infection, surgeries that correct physical damage, and therapies that address specific health concerns benefit patients. Recovery focuses on rehabilitation, symptom management, and lifestyle changes without immediate medical interventions. Patients rely on self-management or external support instead of direct healthcare during recovery. For example, a severe infection requires immediate access to antibiotics and medications to combat it effectively. Lack of these interventions risks worsening the condition.

6. Immediate Symptom Relief

Immediate symptom relief denotes the rapid alleviation of discomfort, pain, or distress due to a health condition. Medications, therapies, and medical interventions provide fast relief from symptoms like pain, nausea, anxiety, and inflammation.

Immediate symptom relief is crucial for managing acute discomfort and preventing patients’ suffering while addressing the condition’s underlying cause. Medical professionals focus on quick interventions to relieve symptoms and stabilize conditions during treatment. Medical professionals comfort the patients and prevent prolonged distress. Recovery focuses on long-term healing, where symptom relief takes time as the body or mind heals gradually. Recovery focuses on rehabilitation, lifestyle changes, and ongoing support. Immediate symptom relief is not the primary objective.

For example, severe pain after surgery requires immediate relief through painkillers or anesthesia to ensure comfort during the healing process. Acute allergic reactions require treatments like antihistamines or epinephrine injections to alleviate symptoms such as swelling and difficulty breathing quickly.

What are the Main Advantages of Recovery over Treatment?

The main advantages of recovery over treatment are listed below.

• Relapse Prevention: Recovery focuses on preventing relapses and long-term setbacks. Treatment addresses the immediate cause of a health issue. Recovery emphasizes strategies and behaviors that help patients avoid old patterns. Coping mechanisms, education, and ongoing support for sustained success are Long-term prevention.
• Personal Empowerment: Recovery empowers patients to heal on their own. Recovery involves patients making choices about their care, such as following a rehabilitation plan, setting goals, and appropriately managing their health. Recovery emphasizes personal decision-making rather than treatment guided by healthcare professionals. Autonomy fosters ownership and responsibility for well-being.
• Holistic Well-being: Recovery emphasizes holistic well-being by addressing physical health and emotional, psychological, and social aspects. Treatment addresses immediate medical issues. Recovery focuses on improving satisfaction, mental health, and emotional resilience over time for a balanced life.
• Long-term Lifestyle Change: Recovery requires long-term lifestyle changes that support health and well-being. Adopting healthy habits such as improved nutrition, regular exercise, and stress management is essential. Treatment contrasts by addressing immediate needs rather than fostering lasting, sustainable habits.
• Peer and Community Support: Recovery involves peer and community support, including support groups, counseling, and group therapy. Connections with others facing similar experiences offer emotional support, accountability, and encouragement. Treatment involves professionals in clinical settings. Recovery fosters community, which is essential to progress, and isolation.
• Sustainable Coping Strategies: Recovery teaches sustainable coping strategies for life’s challenges and stressors. Mindfulness, relaxation techniques, and skills for managing emotional or psychological triggers are strategies. Recovery focuses on equipping patients with long-term tools for managing health and well-being, while treatment emphasizes immediate symptom relief or medical interventions.

Recovery leads to wide-ranging, long-lasting effects. Restoration improves physical, emotional, and mental health, helping patients regain normalcy and control over their lives. Recovery fosters long-term growth, cultivates healthy habits, and enables independent health management. Resilience, emotional balance, and well-being, ensuring patients overcome health issues and thrive moving forward, are the things recovery fosters.

1. Relapse Prevention

Relapse prevention involves strategies and tools that help patients avoid unhealthy behaviors after treatment. Create a plan to maintain progress, address challenges, and manage triggers that lead to issue recurrence.

Relapse prevention supports long-term recovery after treatment completion. Treatment addresses immediate medical needs and manages acute conditions. Recovery sustains treatment progress and prevents harmful behaviors or symptoms from returning. Restorative care provides ongoing support and develops coping strategies that help patients maintain their well-being and avoid future setbacks.Treatment focuses on short-term fixes and does not prepare patients for the challenges faced after leaving the clinical setting. Relapse prevention helps patients remain resilient and heal beyond treatment.

For example, recovering from substance abuse involves attending support group meetings like AA or NA, practicing coping strategies for triggers, and maintaining a network for emotional support.

2. Personal Empowerment

Personal empowerment involves patients gaining confidence, knowledge, and control to make informed decisions about their health and life. Taking responsibility for actions, developing self-awareness, and actively participating in recovery is essential instead of relying solely on external guidance or medical professionals.

Personal empowerment in recovery shifts the focus from others’ treatment to active participation in healing. Treatment involves passive roles where medical professionals lead care plans and make decisions. Recovery encourages patients to make progress. Empowerment boosts self-confidence, motivates, and fosters resilience. Patients in recovery learn to make healthy choices, develop coping strategies, and navigate challenges with personal strengths and support systems. Control sustains improvements and reduces formal care dependency.

For example, recovering from addiction involves setting sobriety goals, establishing a daily routine, and selecting supportive environments. An empowered patient actively engages in therapy, practices self-care, and monitors emotional triggers in mental health recovery.

3. Holistic Well-being

Holistic well-being is a complete health state encompassing physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual aspects. The balanced approach recognizes the interconnectedness of these areas and focuses on nurturing the whole person instead of treating a specific illness or symptom.

Comprehensive well-being supports healing by encouraging harmony in all aspects of life. Treatment targets resolving particular problems by reducing symptoms or managing conditions. Healing improves life satisfaction beyond traditional medical approaches. Recovery builds emotional strength, nurtures relationships, encourages positive routines, and motivates finding meaningful goals. The wide-ranging method results in lasting benefits, and patients flourish in multiple areas of life. Comprehensive well-being tackles underlying causes and lifestyle influences to prevent health problems and promote enduring recovery.

Comprehensive well-being involves consistent physical activity, meaningful social bonds, mindfulness techniques, and a balanced approach to work and personal life during mental health recovery. The elements foster emotional balance and mental clarity.

4. Long-term Lifestyle Change

Long-term lifestyle change involves continuously modifying daily habits and routines to improve physical, mental, and emotional health. Adjustments to diet, exercise, sleep, stress management, and personal practices are needed to maintain wellness and prevent health problems.

Long-term lifestyle change offers a key recovery advantage by building sustainable habits that promote lasting health and well-being. Treatment addresses medical conditions with medication or surgery, but does not provide tools for maintaining health after treatment ends. Recovery focuses on transforming daily life to support healing, reduce relapse risk, and improve quality of life. The shift lets patients control their future health instead of returning to patterns contributing to the original problem. For example, recovering from heart disease requires a long-term lifestyle change. Adopt a heart-healthy diet, exercise regularly, quit smoking, and manage stress.

5. Peer and Community Support

Peer and community support provides emotional, social, and practical assistance from patients with shared experiences or within the same recovery network. Assistance from peers with lived experience, mutual aid networks, neighborhood circles, and groups committed to helping patients sustain long-term health.

Connections with patients who have been through similar challenges support the healing process by creating bonds, promoting responsibility, and offering encouragement in ways that formal care environments lack. Professional services occur in clinical facilities, but recovery spaces allow patients to engage with peers who genuinely relate to their hardships. The shared narratives help counter feelings of loneliness and judgment while forming a dependable support web during tough periods. Relationships built through peer interaction and local engagement inspire participants and reinforce constructive habits through empathy and authentic recovery stories.

For example, recovering from addiction, joining a support group like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) or Narcotics Anonymous (NA) offers encouragement, shared stories, and mentorship from others on similar journeys. Peer support programs and community centers offer group therapy, workshops, and drop-in spaces for members to talk openly and find comfort in shared experiences.

6. Sustainable Coping Strategies

Sustainable coping strategies are long-term techniques patients use to effectively manage stress, emotions, and daily challenges. The approaches are constructive, flexible, and enduring, without causing harm or reliance over time. Reliable coping methods enable patients to face challenges productively, supporting emotional strength and lasting balance.

The enduring techniques substantially benefit the healing journey by allowing patients to handle ongoing life stressors independently after formal care ends. Clinical care focuses on short-term symptom control and crisis response but tends to overlook the development of enduring emotional and psychological tools. The recovery phase highlights the importance of building practices such as self-awareness, reflective writing, boundary-setting, and trigger management for long-term use. Emphasizing hands-on, repeatable methods prepares patients to maintain wellness through life’s shifting pressures, helping prevent setbacks and the return of severe symptoms.

For example, sustainable coping strategies include deep-breathing techniques during anxiety, a consistent sleep schedule, and daily gratitude practices to support emotional balance in mental health recovery. Attending support groups, engaging in physical activity to reduce cravings, and avoiding environments that trigger a relapse in addiction recovery.

What are the Factors that Influence the Choice between Treatment and Recovery?

The factors that influence the choice between treatment and recovery are listed below.

• Severity of the Condition: Severe or life-threatening conditions are given priority treatment. Heart attacks, severe infections, and acute psychiatric episodes require immediate medical intervention. Mild or stable conditions enable recovery, emphasizing long-term management and rehabilitation.
• Stage of the Health Journey: Dealing with a medical condition impacts treatment choices. Diagnosing and managing these issues is essential. Recovery aids in rebuilding life and prevents relapse or decline.
• Support System Availability: Strong emotional, social, or familial support equips patients for recovery after treatment. Intensive and prolonged treatment ensures safety and progression without such support.
• Personal Readiness and Motivation: Mindset impacts health and recovery. Mentally and emotionally prepare for health management and achieve increased success through active participation and self-management. Lack of readiness requires treatment to build stability before recovery efforts work.
• Access to Resources and Services: Healthcare, therapy, medications, and recovery programs significantly impact decisions. Limited healthcare access leads patients to rely more on community-based recovery supports. Well-resourced settings provide accessible treatment and are the first step.

Is Treatment time-limited while Recovery is ongoing?

Yes, treatment is time-limited, while recovery is ongoing. Treatment has a defined start and end. Treatment addresses immediate health concerns through professional interventions like medication, surgery, therapy, or hospitalization. Intervention begins after stabilizing the condition or managing its symptoms. Antibiotic courses, surgical procedures, and short-term therapy plans have specific durations based on clinical goals. Recovery is a continuous, evolving process that extends indefinitely. Emphasizes long-term healing, personal growth, and sustainable habits for well-being and relapse prevention. Recovery has no strict endpoint as it adapts to life changes, challenges, and progress. Addiction recovery and mental health management require lifelong support and self-care strategies.

The examples of recovery are listed below.

• Addiction Recovery: Overcoming substance dependency includes attending support groups like AA or NA, learning relapse prevention strategies, building new routines, and developing coping skills for a substance-free life.
• Mental Health Recovery: Focuses on managing depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder. Continued therapy, medication adherence, peer support, and personal empowerment strategies are involved to maintain emotional balance and well-being.
• Physical Injury Recovery: Patients undergo physical therapy, modify daily activities, and gradually regain mobility and strength after an accident or surgery. Recovery emphasizes long-term function and pain management, exceeding initial medical treatment.
• Eating Disorder Recovery: Healing from disorders like anorexia, bulimia, or binge eating requires therapy, nutritional rehabilitation, body image work, and community or family support. These elements help develop a healthy relationship with food and self.
• Trauma Recovery: Emotional and psychological healing after trauma from abuse, violence, or disaster is an example of trauma. Therapies like EMDR, mindfulness practices, and rebuilding trust and safety in one’s environment are key to recovery.
• Financial Recovery: Regaining economic stability after debt, job loss, or bankruptcy. Budgeting, rebuilding credit, increasing income, and learning financial literacy to achieve long-term stability.
• Relationship Recovery: Rebuild trust and communication after conflict, betrayal, or divorce. Couples therapy, personal reflection, and establishing healthy boundaries and emotional safety are recovery examples.
• Medical Recovery: Long-term healing follows serious illness or surgery, such as cancer recovery or heart surgery. Continuous health monitoring, lifestyle changes, support groups, and adjustments to prevent relapse or complications are Medical Recovery.

Is Recovery dependent on personal commitment?

Yes, recovery is dependent on personal commitment. Support networks, counseling, and expert input contribute to healing, but commitment determines progress. Recovery calls for intentional involvement, self-reflection, and steady personal effort from each patient. Dedication appears through attending peer groups, maintaining wellness routines, applying coping tools, and continuing through obstacles.

For example, maintaining long-term sobriety in substance recovery depends on the determination to steer clear of triggers, reach out for help, and stay aligned with their recovery plans. Managing mental well-being involves everyday actions to cope with anxiety or low mood, such as reflective writing, present-moment awareness, therapeutic sessions, and setting personal milestones. Healing is stopped without an inner drive to change, even when external support is available.

What are Examples of Treatment?

The examples of treatment are listed below.

• Medical Treatment: Medical treatment includes medication, surgery, and clinical procedures for physical illnesses or injuries. For example, antibiotics for infections, chemotherapy for cancer, and surgery to repair broken bones.
• Psychological Therapy (Psychotherapy): Psychological therapy involves talking with a licensed mental health professional to address emotional and psychological issues, including treatment for anxiety, depression, trauma, and relationship problems.
• Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT): A specialized approach to addiction treatment combines medications like methadone or buprenorphine with counseling and behavioral therapies to treat substance use disorders.
• Physical Therapy (Physiotherapy): Physical Therapy restores movement and function after injury, surgery, or illness. Exercises, manual therapy, and education to promote recovery and prevent further issues are physical therapy.
• Occupational Therapy: Helps patients regain independence in daily activities like dressing, cooking, and working after illness or injury, and is used in stroke and injury recovery.
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): Structured psychological treatment helps patients recognize and change negative thought patterns and behaviors. It is commonly used for depression, anxiety, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
• Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT): Effective therapy for borderline personality disorder and emotional regulation issues combines mindfulness, distress tolerance, and emotion regulation techniques.
• Holistic Therapies: Complementary treatments like Yoga, Meditation, and Acupuncture improve traditional methods by addressing the mind-body connection. They help with stress, anxiety, chronic pain, and wellness.
• Inpatient Rehabilitation: 24/7 treatment programs in hospitals or residential facilities assist patients with severe medical or psychological conditions, including detoxification, stroke recovery, and psychiatric crises.
• Outpatient Programs: Structured treatment programs involve therapy or medical services without overnight stays. The programs are standard in addiction, mental health, and physical rehabilitation care.

Does Treatment end when symptoms improve?

No, treatment does not end when symptoms improve. Improvement in symptoms is a key milestone because it indicates that the treatment is effective, motivates continued progress, and helps guide the next phase of care. Treatment continues beyond initial relief to ensure long-term stability, prevent relapse, and resolve the underlying issue. Stopping treatment too early leads to symptoms returning or incomplete healing. For example, patients must complete the course of antibiotic treatment to eliminate infection and prevent resistance. Initial symptom relief occurs in early therapy sessions. Continued treatment addresses the root causes and builds coping skills. Chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, or depression require ongoing treatment, even with well-managed symptoms. The goal shifts from short-term relief to long-term management, preventing flare-ups or complications.