Drug abuse can severely inhibit the life of a drug abuse addict and their families, friends, and loved ones within their social circles. Drug abuse can start at the tender ages of twelve years old or even young in more severe cases. Fortunately, there are drug abuse treatments within centers and plans that help drug addicts regain their life and control of their actions by offering them detox of the body, soul, and mind within the context of a safe environment and caring individuals. Many methods are used to help an addict detoxify their life. Some treatment includes mental and physical assessments, detox, individual therapy, group therapy, support groups, and residential and outpatient treatment programs.
1. Mental Assessment
An addiction assessment is utilized to devise a unique and long-term plan for the person suffering from addiction. The patient’s medical and mental conditions are evaluated with a mental assessment, as well as any past responses to treatment. Assessing the patient’s medical conditions, mental health issue, and substance abuse history can help paint a complete and efficient treatment plan, medically based, that will serve the individual needs of the patient.
The assessment will show to what extent the addiction has risen, and whether there are any co-existing medical conditions. The types of assessments vary, and they may come in the form of medical or self-assessment questionnaires and physical exams, also known as physical assessments. The effects that the drug has had on one’s life is examined, as open-ended questions are asked to provide a proper diagnosis. The information provided by the person suffering is strictly confidential.
2. Physical Assessment
Physical assessments may include urine samples to see what kind of drugs are inhabiting the body. Urine testing is usually used because it’s easy and fast. These are typically sent to a third party to be tested for an outcome. Blood samples are not commonly requested, but they may be required if there is substantial evidence that the drug use is causing unnecessary bodily harm. An example of this is blood tests being ordered to see if excessive alcohol consumption is harming the liver. Sometimes hair samples or other kinds of biological specimens (saliva, sweat, etc.) are called for to test for certain types of drugs, or the metabolites of said drugs.
3. Detoxification
The detox of drugs is the primary step when trying to obtain a comprehensive rehab program that promises the correct tools that are required for a complete recovery. Detox can help the individual stop fatal or horrific consequences from taking over one’s life. Sometimes a person may try to stop a drug by going ‘cold turkey,’ but the complete cessation of a drug in this manner can have dire consequences.
For detox programs, the outcomes seem relatively simple. The goal is to promote healing in a physiological nature after a drug addiction that has run a long course. First, detoxification is achieved through ‘stabilization,’ and then the period of the actual detoxification. Detoxification alone may help the patient, in short-term, stop physically doing the drug, but sans therapy and follow up care, the risk of relapse is quite high. Therefore, detoxification is essential for the treatment of the physical, psychological and sometimes spiritual kind.
4. Individual Therapy
Individual therapy involves face to face and one on one talks with a therapist who is trained. It happens between a sufferer of a drug and a clinician of mental health. Individual therapy helps facilitate deeper interpersonal relationships. An example could be that a heroin survivor may feel more at east when working with a psychological care specialist in a private setting while being able to benefit from a group setting on another day. Both can help the patient process feelings with other survivors of trauma while also obtaining the one-on-one supports he or she needs.
5. Group Therapy
Group therapy involves others who are in a similar situation, and it requires them talking and sharing thoughts and ideas to help one another and share a kind of friendship. Group therapy can be made up of a group of maybe three to four, or even more than twelve individuals. They usually happen two times a week for maybe one to two hours per session. These seem to have a more therapeutic effect when they occur in an inpatient setting.
6. Support Groups
There are several support groups available that are considered recovery support groups. One of them is called the Secular Organizations for Sobriety group. They offer an environment that supports one for the sake of recovery. In this team, ‘sponsors’ are not used, and they do not use any spirituality within their twelve-step programs.
Another somewhat popular program is the Rational Recovery. They do not utilize the group approach, but they do promote a lot of self-management skills. They surprisingly do not label addiction as an actual disease. They mention that one is responsible for their actions outside of a group. This group uses online resources to help people practice new methods to abstain from abusing and using drugs and alcohol. Most organizations do use the twelve-step program, and many groups also have a spiritual component attached to it, but there are also groups that are more secular. These kinds of organizations give a feeling of community and provide much-needed support.
7. Residential Treatment Program
A residential treatment program is also called long-term addiction rehabilitation programs. They can offer many services, like education concerning addiction, sessions for skill building, follow-up care, and referrals to helpful support groups. They can also offer medical detox, individual therapy, management of medication, and counseling for families and couples.
This kind of treatment is quite helpful because it pushes a person to stay for the predisposition amount of time for the necessary changes to take place. This length of time helps the patient come out of the facility with confidence and knowledge on how to apply any learned skills and tools that were used. This kind of treatment programs offers a twenty-four-hour care where the primary focus is centered on people’s achievements and recovery maintenance from addiction.
8. Outpatient Treatment Program
Outpatient treatment is best suited for those individuals who can’t leave their jobs or who can’t stop attending school to work on their drug addiction. They occur several times a week for a certain number of hours. They do also provide quite a bit of flexibility, but the effectiveness may not be as good as other treatments, as they leave too much room to makes mistakes or relapse back into old ways.
Outpatient treatment options are useful for people who are otherwise stable and with mild symptoms of their drug addictions, yet they are willing to be part of a treatment plan to prevent the worsening of their addiction. Outpatient treatment can happen in a psychologist office, doctor office, community clinic and sometimes even over the phone. Usually, a schedule is made revolved around the individual’s work and school life.
Ultimately, substance abuse interferes with one’s life and those around the afflicted sufferer of addiction. Any of these treatment options should be carefully considered.
