By Are your loved one(s) suffering from drug or alcohol addiction? If that’s so, then you should know the basic principles of addiction treatment. If you think this concerns only the methodology used in the treatment, think again. In actuality, 50% of the basic principles involve how well you understand the spine that holds up addiction treatment.
Medically-assisted detoxification is just the beginning.
While medical detox from substances is vital in any addiction treatment program, detox is only the beginning, and treatment doesn’t stop there. The patient has undergone severe trauma to his or her system due to substance abuse, which means that he or she will have to go through counseling for the majority of the recovery program. Otherwise, there is always the danger that he or she will fall back into his or her bad habit.
Addiction is never simple.
Before choosing any treatment for your loved one’s addiction, all affected need to understand that addiction is a complex ailment. The disease is treatable, but it involves more than just a weakness for the substance to which the individual has become addicted. Most of the time, individuals who enroll in addiction treatment have been using a substance for so long that the substance has affected their brains. The use of the substance may have affected more than the patient’s current behavior, and some of the negative effects of the substance are long-term.
Inpatient Treatment
During severe cases of substance abuse, addiction treatment may also involve inpatient programs. In this type of treatment, the patient is physically removed from his or her environment so that he or she can focus on getting better. Sometimes addiction is triggered by factors in the environment, like peer pressure or other stressors, which may push the individual to resort to substance abuse. Inpatient programs allow professionals to remove the patient from negative environments and closely monitor the behavior of the addicted individual. Individual and group counseling sessions are also common during the rehabilitation period at this time.
Family Interventions
Since the environment of the individual can trigger addiction, involvement from the patient’s loved ones is extremely important in addiction treatment. Otherwise, there’s always the danger of relapses or regressions. The problem is usually more than just the individual, and the environment she or he is in needs to be conducive to recovery as well. The patient is actually at his or her most vulnerable during the first stages of recovery, and the family needs to support the healing process. Without family support, the individual may just give up and turn to substance abuse once again.
Peer Counseling
Once the patient is out of the rehabilitation center, a group support system is extremely important. Peer counseling plays a major role in effective addiction treatment. In a group setting, the individual is able to see that she or he is not alone in the fight, and many others are suffering from the same conditions while trying to get back to their normal, sober lives. Peer counseling is a great source of strength for individuals who are recovering from substance addiction.
