Finding the support you need outside of treatment may be tough, but you’ll find your way!
Many challenges are faced in addiction treatment by both families, loved ones, user’s and treatment professionals. While healing from addiction is up to the addict, many take comfort in knowing that healing is possible with the right means of commitment, support and treatment. If you’re in treatment, know someone in treatment or thinking about treatment, consider the challenges that you are likely to face merely a stepping stone along the path to recovery.
Relapse
Probably the greatest challenge faced in addiction treatment is relapse. According to SAMHSA’s Treatment Improvement Protocols guide, “Lapses may occur. Frequently, clients are unable or unwilling to adhere to program requirements. [and] Repeated admissions and dropouts can occur.” Yet, these challenges should not prevent you from seeking help nor should they stop you from trying again.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, “drug addiction should be treated like any other chronic illness, with relapse serving as a trigger for renewed intervention.” Relapse rates for those addicted to drugs are generally comparable to the relapse rates for other common diseases and chronic conditions such as asthma, diabetes or high blood pressure. While facing relapse poses a significant challenge, the best thing you can do if you relapse is to pick up the pieces and get back on the path to recovery as quickly as possible.
Support
Often times, family members or friends are also users which can make the support that you receive while in treatment or outside of treatment negligible at best. Treatment will provide you with support from your peers in treatment as well as from the treatment staff, but if your family members or friends are also addicts you may not be receiving adequate support from them when you need it the most. According to the NIDA, “active substance use by someone living in the same place as the patient or who is part of the patient’s social support network clearly threatens [their] recovery.” Fortunately, many treatment programs are able to actively help patients identify methods of ensuring proper and adequate support from friends and family—but you must talk with your counselor or therapist about this challenge in order to receive proper help.
Mental Stability
While in treatment for addiction, you are likely to face a number of challenges associated with your ability to feel at ease with yourself emotionally. Mental stability can make recovery a very long, difficult process. You may feel stable and committed one day, depressed, angry or miserable the next. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, “Drug addiction, also known as substance dependence, is a chronically relapsing disorder characterized by (1) compulsion to seek and take the drug, (2) loss of control in limiting intake, and (3) emergence of a negative emotional state (e.g., dysphoria, anxiety, irritability) when access to the drug is prevented (defined here as dependence).”
An important goal of treatment is to restore the positive emotional balance and mental health of the patient following addiction. It may take time to feel at ease, happy or otherwise comfortable without drugs but you will.
Walton, New York alcohol treatment center, The New Direction, provides an intensive inpatient alcohol treatment program that helps addicts recover from alcoholism and regain control of their lives. The New Direction has been providing patients with intensive inpatient alcohol treatment in Walton, New York since 1977. Founded on the philosophy that recovering addicts who are….
The decision to seek the help of a rehabilitation program has probably already been a difficult one to make—the next step is to decide where you want to get help. Will you choose a program that’s local and can provide you with quality addiction treatment and rehabilitation services or will you choose to head as….
Relapse is a difficult subject to tackle because many people use it to invalidate all of the progress made during rehabilitation. If an addict has a slip or backslides, it is as if their previous hard work and abstinence goes out the window. But, the reality is that most people don’t seek treatment and immediately….
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Xanax belongs to a family of drugs known as benzodiazepines. Benzodiazepines do a good job at relieving symptoms of anxiety and stress in general. Drugs in this class also carry a risk of addiction when not taken as prescribed or used for recreational purposes. According to American Family Physician, one to two percent of the….
According to The National Institute on Drug Abuse, drug addiction is a chronic illness that cannot be cured in a few days. Research has proven that drug addiction treatment is the most effective way for a person to learn to manage their addiction, and helps them to stop using drugs, prevents them from relapsing, and….
As disparate as cocaine and alcohol may be in effect, cocaine and alcohol seemingly balance each other out, with one substance smoothing out the effects of the other. While the combined “high” produced by these two substances may feel pleasant, this combination can be deadly when ingested on a frequent basis. The holidays offer a….
