Stages in Addiction Treatment and Recovery
Not everyone’s progress through treatment necessarily or neatly conforms to a predictable pattern and yet there are some experiences that appear to be more or less typical among those embarking on a recovery focussed treatment. Here are the stages in addiction treatment and recovery. A big step It is not uncommon for people to assume […]
I Want to Get On With My Life. Why Does Treatment Take So Long?
Who wouldn’t want to put the enslaving misery of addiction behind them as quickly as possible? The question,”Why does treatment take so long?” is also an understandable reaction to the amount of time wasted by addiction. But this urgency may blind you to what is required to initiate and sustain recovery and prevent relapse. In […]
Detoxification and Withdrawal
Detoxification is the process of ridding the body of toxins, otherwise known as poisons, and is thus the exact opposite of intoxication. These toxins include drugs of dependence on which the body and the brain’s neurochemistry have come to rely in an addictive sense, such as alcohol, opioids/opiates, amphetamines, and the tranquilizers called benzodiazepines, as […]
Intervention: Principles and Practicalities
A family’s decision to set up a structured intervention to confront the self-destructive behaviours of a loved one in the hopes of persuading them to seek professional help is, for the most part, motivated by powerful emotions. Failure to recognise the kinds of feelings that may underpin the desire to undertake an intervention could see the process […]
Intervention – A Route into Treatment
It can feel desperately helpless watching the worsening of a loved one’s addiction or otherwise self-destructive behaviour or lifestyle. It may be obvious to everyone close to them that the addicted individual needs treatment. The question is how to help the person themselves recognise and accept this. Addiction is rarely, if ever, given up without resistance. The suffering individual […]
Drug Addiction Treatment Methods
Where drug addiction treatment is concerned, the treatment method adopted for each individual will need to take several things into account. These include: the drug(s) currently or recently being consumed, the history of the addiction(s), any co-existing mental or physical illnesses, previous treatments for drug addiction or related conditions and their effect. The treatment method selected will […]
Long-term Rehab for Addiction
Addiction is rooted in the urge to “fix” mental and emotional states quickly. In contrast, an important factor in any rehab treatment is the extended time needed for maintaining wholehearted commitment to the purpose. For a variety of reasons, addiction treatment programmes do not always sufficiently take long-term rehab for drug and alcohol abuse into […]
An Aftercare Programme – Plan Ahead
Aftercare refers to the formal engagement with therapeutic resources or self-help activity following an episode of addiction treatment, whether that has been undertaken on an in-patient or out-patient basis. The main idea is to identify ways the patient can sustain and build on any treatment gains. To maintain momentum, a break in the process of recovery should be […]
What is Substance Abuse Treatment
Substance abuse is generally defined as the use of any psychoactive substance to the extent that it severely affects physical health and well-being, social functioning, relationships, and personal responsibilities. It is widely thought that substance abuse refers to the consumption of illegal drugs. In fact legal drugs, either legally or illegally obtained, may feature in […]
What Is Residential Substance Abuse Treatment?
Addiction is as an all-consuming relationship with a substance or behaviour that is driven by a conscious or unconscious urge to feel something different which becomes self-perpetuating despite a range of harmful consequences. As the person consumes, he is consumed. Life narrows slowly and cunningly to the substance and its quest. Nothing else then matters. […]