Addiction to drugs or alcohol is a mental disorder. As with most other afflictions of the brain, treatment is neither simple, nor straightforward. Effective treatment requires the involvement of talented and committed specialists willing to work out personalized, multi-pronged treatment plans. At our drug rehab in Nelsonville, such individualized treatment is what our addiction specialists excel at. If you would like to speak to one of our professionals to learn about the way forward for an addiction that challenges you or a loved one, you should call. We help so many each year who are just like you.
Drug abuse is not the same as drug addiction. Only a small fraction of those who abuse drugs actually end up addicted. It's not hard to recognize when you cross the line from abuse to addiction. Usually, you know what's happened when you begin having a great deal of trouble staying away from your drug of choice for any reasonable length of time. If you are hit with cravings and even withdrawal symptoms, you know that addiction has happened to you.
Many of the characteristic effects of addiction come about as a result of changes to the brain (sometimes characterized as damage or injury) caused by excessive exposure to addictive substances.
Since brain damage is involved, addiction usually takes a scientifically managed care approach to treat. A drug rehab center is a medical institution that specializes in such care.
To many people contemplating treatment for addiction, it can seem as if the process should be simple enough: they need medical assistance getting past the cravings and withdrawal symptoms that appear over the first few weeks, but they should be independent soon after. Nothing could be farther from the truth, however. Addiction is a highly complex mental disorder requiring treatment of two different kinds.
Detox: The first step in drug rehab programs addresses the self-perpetuating cycle of use that addiction comes with. Drug detox in Nelsonville involves tapering the patient off of the substance. As the patient experiences withdrawal symptoms such as pain, agitation, insomnia, belligerence, seizures, convulsions and hallucinations and cardiac irregularities over a period of weeks, detox specialists use medications of different kinds to help suppress them to ensure safe emergence from the process. By the end of the course, the patient's brain returns to a semblance of normalcy.
Preventing relapse: Many addicts signing up for detoxification make the mistake of assuming that the fading away of symptoms post detox indicates successful escape from addiction. This is not true, however. Addiction can only be managed, not cured. Those who neglect to pay attention to understanding what escape from addiction truly involves often quit treatment after detox. This can be a mistake, however, because addiction, when not treated with a thorough approach usually returns.
Relapse prevention in Nelsonville requires long-term psychological treatment at a drug rehab treatment center, with a variety of therapeutic approaches. In therapy, the addict learns a number of psychological skills to help both overcome addiction, and avoid temptation. Most patients learn enough skills to successfully stay away from addictive behavior, once they receive a couple of years of therapy. Many others require periodic therapeutic intervention off and on through life.
Addicts and their families have the option of choosing between the inpatient treatment approach or the outpatient one for drug addiction rehab. In many cases, families unthinkingly reach for the outpatient option because it tends to be cheaper. It's important to give the matter some thought, however.
Inpatient treatment programs aim to keep the addict in a protected environment, under the supervision of addiction experts at all times. Inpatient care can be extremely useful as a way to offer personalized treatment to each patient. Withdrawal symptoms are effectively controlled, and patients receive intensive psychological therapy at every stage of the program. Once detoxification concludes, therapeutic intervention intensifies, and continues as long as necessary to make sure that the patient does have the skills needed to resist a slide back into addictive behavior.
Such closely supervised treatment simply is unavailable with the outpatient approach. Studies at our drug rehab in Nelsonville have shown us that patients receiving inpatient treatment enjoy far improved chances of long-term sobriety.
Unlike regular hospitals, drug rehab centers do not receive close, rigorous oversight by the authorities. Patients and their families need to put in research of their own to ensure that they do receive scientifically valid treatment. Self-education is the best way to achieve this goal. At our drug rehab in Nelsonville, we help our patients in this goal each day. If you have any questions at all or would simply like to speak to a professional about an addiction, we would be glad to be of assistance. Call us now at (877) 804-1531.