Interventions » Addiction Treatment Center

What is drug addiction treatment?

Suki — Wed, 28 May 2008 21:14:10 +0000

What is drug addiction treatment? There are many addictive drugs, and treatments for specific drugs can differ. Treatment also varies depending on the characteristics of the patient.

Problems associated with an individual’s drug addiction can vary significantly. People who are addicted to drugs come from all walks of life. Many suffer from mental health, occupational, health, or social problems that make their addictive disorders much more difficult to treat. Even if there are few associated problems, the severity of addiction itself ranges widely among people.

A variety of scientifically based approaches to drug addiction treatment exists. Drug addiction treatment can include behavioral therapy (such as counseling, cognitive therapy, or psychotherapy), medications, or their combination. Behavioral therapies offer people strategies for coping with their drug cravings, teach them ways to avoid drugs and prevent relapse, and help them deal with relapse if it occurs. When a person’s drug-related behavior places him or her at higher risk for AIDS or other infectious diseases, behavioral therapies can help to reduce the risk of disease transmission. Case management and referral to other medical, psychological, and social services are crucial components of treatment for many patients. The best programs provide a combination of therapies and other services to meet the needs of the individual patient, which are shaped by such issues as age, race, culture, sexual orientation, gender, pregnancy, parenting, housing, and employment, as well as physical and sexual abuse.

In the field of drug addiction, interventions are essential

Suki — Fri, 23 May 2008 19:25:31 +0000

In the field of drug addiction, the entire concept of addiction has suffered greatly from imprecision and misconception. In fact, if it were possible, it would be best to start all over with some new, more neutral term.

Although the treatment for addiction, especially at luxury residential addiction treatment centers in Malibu, CA has proven to be extremely effective, the confusion comes about in part because of a now archaic distinction between whether specific drugs are â€œphysicallyâ€ or â€œpsychologicallyâ€ addicting.

The distinction historically revolved around whether or not dramatic physical withdrawal symptoms occur after an intervention, when an individual stops taking a drug; what we in the field now call â€œphysical dependence.â€

However, 20 years of scientific research has taught that focusing on this physical versus psychological distinction is off the mark and a distraction from the real issues.

From both clinical and policy perspectives, it actually does not matter very much what physical withdrawal symptoms occur.

Physical dependence is not that important, because even the dramatic withdrawal symptoms of heroin and alcohol addiction can now be easily managed with appropriate medications.

Even more important, many of the most dangerous and addicting drugs, including methamphetamine and crack cocaine, do not produce very severe physical dependence symptoms upon withdrawal.

Addiction Intervention

Suki — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 23:03:30 +0000

There

Your experiences are uniquely your own

Suki — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 00:29:41 +0000

What makes drug addiction treatment successful? Personal attention, for starters. You are your own person. You don

Doing the right thing

Suki — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 19:52:31 +0000

I thought I could get better without help from a drug addiction treatment center. I thought I was in control of my cocaine habit, and of my life. I thought I could quit whenever I wanted to. I thought drug rehab was for suckers

And Lord was I wrong. Thankfully, I realized it before it was too late.

The decision to enroll in a drug addiction treatment center was the best one I ever made. It

Can you remember the biggest mistake that you ever made?

Suki — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 19:41:21 +0000

Can you remember the biggest mistake that you ever made? I can. My biggest mistake was getting hooked on drugs. I used to hang with a group of guys that I thought were the coolest and they used to smoke and shoot up anything they could. It wasn’t long before I started doing what I could to be part of the crew and I started smoking and shooting like the rest of the group. I couldn’t believe that I was doing that, but I soon got to the point where I couldn’t stop. It was really bad. I became very hooked on cocaine. We were shooting it, snorting it, smoking it…as long as we had it it didn’t matter. Finally the problem got so bad that I tried to get away from that group of idiots, but you know how it is. When the cravings came around the bad crew had a way of doing the same thing. I knew that I needed help, so I checked out an addiction treatment center. The folks at the addiction treatment center took me in with open arms and showed me the way to a better life. It was amazing. I had been so messed up for so long that I really didn’t think that I would ever get sober again. The addiction treatment center changed all of that.