For the Best Chance of Recovery, Addicts Need Professional Help

By: A Forever Recovery

Jan 28, 2014

Categories:

Home » For the Best Chance of Recovery, Addicts Need Professional Help

For the Best Chance of Recovery, Addicts Need Professional Help

“Why don’t you just stop?” When spoken to an addict, those five words can trigger a wide variety of responses depending on the circumstances surrounding the conversation. No matter the larger conversational picture, though, the outcome is the same. The speaker has demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of the very nature of the situation and has almost certainly lost their target audience for the remainder of the discussion. Drug addicts need professional help; they can’t just stop!

The fact is that addiction is nearly indescribable to someone who hasn’t “been there, done that.” Everyone likes to think they understand what it’s like, but someone who hasn’t experienced real withdrawal and who has never had to cope with physical addiction can ever understand in any meaningful way what it’s like to be an addict.

Until a person has to face the choice of either getting clean or using again, they have no platform from which they can get the whole picture of the problem.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse points out that “Drug addiction is a complex illness characterized by intense and, at times, uncontrollable drug craving, along with compulsive drug seeking and use that persists even in the face of devastating consequences.” The medical recognition of the fact that one aspect of addiction is the compromising of the addict’s ability to stop using the substance in question is a critical part of the intellectual understanding of dependence that is all too often missing from the perspectives of friends and family of addicts.

You Don’t Need to Undertake Quitting Alone

The complexity of drug abuse means that treatment is equally involved. Effective treatments often combine a wide variety of techniques to address the numerous aspects of addiction. Attempting to undertake the herculean task of drug rehabilitation on your own is starting out with the deck stacked against you. The key to successful recovery is to get competent, trusted professionals to manage the process and provide accurate treatment and guidance. Addicts need professional help to gain true recovery from addiction.

Addicts Need Professional Help for Recovery

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA) estimates that only an estimated ten percent of the more than twenty-six million people who suffered from addiction in the year 2013 sought and received treatment. Proper drug rehabilitation and treatment is a process which provides a series of benefits to the patient. Drug rehab programs offer a lot of advantages, but one of the most critical is supervision. Managing withdrawal symptoms, medications, therapy, and the overall treatment plan is something that requires monitoring.

The other foundations of effective inpatient treatment are:

Different patients receive various types of treatment.
Treatment will address the immediate as well as the wider needs of the patient.
Treatment will be given adequate time to work.
Both medication and counseling are used, managed, and tracked appropriately.
Treatment plans are continually reassessed and altered as necessary during the rehab process.

Some other essential factors of effective addiction treatment include the following:

Structure

Overcoming addiction involves a lot of steps, but changing habits is a key part of the process. Changing habits is something that is tough to do in an unstructured environment. A highly controlled rehab environment not only removes an addict from his or her negative habits, but it also provides a “no-fail” environment by keeping the user occupied and reducing or eliminating chances of relapse during the transition.

Support

Addiction is difficult enough to treat even in the right environment. Attempting to recover from addiction without a properly supportive atmosphere is asking for failure or relapse. A drug rehab program will provide the patient with the emotional support they need to conquer their addictions and the problems which contribute to and surround the drug addiction itself.

Security

Part of ensuring the success of treatment is to make sure the treatment environment is secure. The treatment process is delicate, and it is susceptible to any number of influences which can jeopardize success. A safe environment will not only keep prohibited substances away from the patient but can also screen out a wide variety of other negative social or emotional influences to help ensure successful rehabilitation.

Socialization

Addicts need professional help, and the rehabilitation environment allows for numerous patients to be present at the same time. With the group of patients going through the same process together, this provides for positive socialization which will help to replace the all too often negative socialization that surrounds substance abuse.

Rehab isn’t easy. Few things in life that are worth doing are. But it can be done. Freedom from drug addiction is possible if approached with a sound plan for treatment and rehabilitation. Addiction is a serious condition and should be treated as such; no one would suggest that a cancer patient should try to attempt treatment on their own. Help is out there for those who need it. If you need help, don’t go through it alone. Addicts need professional help to recover from addiction. Find an appropriate inpatient rehabilitation program in your area. Get help. Get better.