Drug Rehabilitation and Substance Abuse
Drug Rehabilitation and Substance Abuse
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Steven_Howarth]Steven Howarth
There are numerous causes or reasons why an individual would get addicted to a drug. For some, it is in an effort to contain psychological, health or mental problems. Most young people will however get addicted to drugs mainly when taking them for recreational purposes. However, you will acknowledge that the addiction cycle is always the same. It always starts with an individual taking the drug against the advice of qualified medical practitioner. This is irrespective of whether the drug is prescribed or non-prescribed. Given the harmful effects of drug addiction on the various aspects of an individual’s life, it becomes imperative that treatment be sought. This is exactly where drug rehab comes in.
Drug rehab, or drug rehabilitation in full, involves coming up with a comprehensive or all inclusive treatment plan after accurate diagnosis of the problem. It requires the full participation of qualified health professionals and in most cases doctors whose specialty is addiction medicine. Drug rehab incorporates a number of steps in which the addict get rid of the drug from the body, while addressing the predisposing factors that could have resulted to or been exacerbated by drug abuse. The individual would undergo treatment for the co-occurring physical, health and mental disorders as well as develop strategies and skills that will give them the capacity to pursue sobriety in the long term. Drug rehabilitation is mostly offered in a treatment center. Effective Treatment Centers will provide numerous Treatment Programs in an effort to meet particular needs for every individual client. This may be done in short-stay, outpatient, residential, or inpatient programs.
Drug rehab incorporates several therapies aimed at looking treating the various aspects of an individual’s life that are affected by drug addiction. These will include family therapy, group therapy, psychotherapy, behavioral therapy as well as counseling. One thing that you should acknowledge is that the administration of these therapies will depend on the nature as well as the severity of the addition. In addition, you cannot ignore the importance of drug detoxification in the treatment program.
The utility of medication in drug rehab will depend on the program’s philosophy as well as the addict’s needs.
For the rehabilitation program to be successful, the individual will have to acknowledge that he or she has a drug addiction problem and resolve to look for help. In addition, it is very important that the individual gets the full support of the family and loved ones.
The first step in drug rehab is counseling. This is aimed at establishing the drug that the individual has been addicted to as well as the extent to which it’s abused. It will also be important to determine whether the addict was combining several drugs as the detoxification process would not be the same for both.
The second step in drug rehab is detoxification process. As you may acknowledge, continued use of a drug results in drug residue being deposited in the body. In this case, these chemical deposits result in physical as well psychological dependency resulting in the addiction. In addition, the increase in drug residue in the body results in the development of chemical tolerance in the body in which case the effectiveness of the substances of the drugs continues decreasing. Chemical toxicity will definitely be increasing as the individual takes more of the drug. In this case, detoxification is aimed at getting rid of the chemical toxins in the body. There are numerous methods that may be used at this stage including cold turkey, weaning off, rapid detoxification and substitution method. Cold turkey involves abrupt stoppage of the consumption. This method is recognized as quite dangerous as it results in serious withdrawal symptoms. In weaning off, the individual would be allowed to continue taking the drug only that the amounts will be gradually reduced to such a time when the individual is completely free. As for substitution method, the individual would be given another drug that produces the same effects but comes with less harmful results. Eventually, the individual will be free of the harmful drug. Rapid detoxification is recognized as the most effective method of getting rid of the chemical toxins. The individual is placed under general anesthesia then the system is cleansed of the drug and toxins. By the time the individual rise, the chemical toxins will be done away with and the individual will be spared the pain of going through withdrawal symptoms.
On the third phase of drug rehab, the individual undergoes psychotherapy. In this case, counseling would be available in an effort to determine the underlying or predisposing factors that led to addiction. The individual would be counseled on how to deal with the factors without abusing the drug.
The fourth phase of drug rehab involves behavioral therapy where the individual is counseled on substituting his or her bad behavior with positive ones in order to avoid relapsing. This is especially important when the individual gets out of the rehabilitation center.
For more information on drug rehabilitation and substance abuse in general please visit http://www.stopping-drug-addiction.com
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