Substance Abuse Treatment
Substance Abuse Treatment can involve an individual, a couple, children, and anyone else close to the addict. There are different approaches that are based upon therapeutic perspective, professional biases, religious orientation, and drug of choice to name a few. It isn't surprising that there can be confusion and delay in getting a person to drug rehab or to detox alcohol. For some individuals, it may be helpful for them to attend self help groups such as AA, Alcholics Anonymous or perhaps, NA, Narcotics Anonymous. There are self help, self led groups for virtually all types of addictions. The founder of AA once reportedly said that all you need is a coffee pot and grudge to start a group. Self help groups are thought to be a low level (though potentially very therapeutic and helpful) treatment.
More potent and intense, individual psychotherapy and drug counseling with a professional therapist, psychologist, substance abuse counselor, etc. can bring about change on an outpatient basis. The benefit of having a therapist to help you work on your drug issues is that they are available to diagnose any other co-occuring mental disorder as well. They are also trained to monitor your motivation and progress and help you reach sobriety. If you are chronically abusing substances to cope, have a good time, or avoid responsibilities, then there are probably other psychological issues that are driving your behavior. A therapist can help you identify these patterns, help you find insight into why they developed, and help you find an alternate way of living with your past.
Inpatient hospitalization and residential drug treatment offer a more restrictive environment to help you manage your addiction. If you cannot stop using, if after repeated efforts to stop, you may come to the realization that you need the support and structure of a closed setting. Such a facility is necessary if the drug you are abusing has serious withdrawal symptoms. Under the care of a physician, you may find that kicking your drug habit may be easier. These programs offer a full schedule of activities to help return you to a higher level of functioning than when you first entered.
Identify a Drug User
Substance abuse victims can't control their use of alcohol or to the drugs. They become intoxicated on a regular basis (daily, every weekend, or in binges) and often need the drug for normal daily functioning. They repeatedly try to stop using the drug, but fail, even when they know the drug causes or worsens a physical ailment. Use of the drug interferes with their family like, social relationships and work performance.
Self-Medication for Stress
In most of the recent media attention to drug abuse, the emphasis has been on psychoactive substances used, as the expression goes, recreationally, for the pleasurable feelings these substances release. Users claim they feel more creative, witty, charming, and in control, especially when the drug is cocaine. Much less attention has been given to another major reason people abuse drugs; because they work (and perhaps personal lives as well) are extremely stressful, and significant drug use is actually an effort to self-medicate for stress. Often their physicians are in complicity in this procedure, prescribing tranquilizers and other drugs for stress without exploring alternatives. Employers who place high expectations on their employees but give them little support are likely to raise stress levels in workers both on and off the job. Employees who become dependent on prescribed medications to help them through especially stressful periods are likely to continue using the drugs even when the stressing conditions are ameliorated or ended. At that point, drug dependency becomes addiction unless there is some kind of intervention.
Multiple Addiction
In many drug treatment programs today, the person addicted to only one substance has become almost a thing of the past. Abuse of combinations of two, three, even four different substances is becoming more and more common. Multiple addictions are hard to treat, the prospects for overdose or severe physical side effects are great, and recidivism rates are high. Some people don't care what they can get their hands on as long as they can get high. The most dangerous users are indiscriminate and don't care where, who, or what. These are good signs of addiction and need more than just therapy. They usually need an intervention that involves their whole family and friends if they have any left. An inpatient setting will be the most important event that can turn things around. You can listen to the many actors and entertainers that enter programs regularly. Most of the time if you stay with a program you will change. It takes a whole village to care and help the change.
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