Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation – Helping You To Help Yourself.
Joey
The modern world is facing a large and alarming problem.
Alcohol and drug abuse problem is at all time high in our society.
The demand for the treatment to come out of this problem is also at its all time high. The treatment for alcohol problem and the treatment for drug problem are common in many ways.
There are two organizations called, Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous respectively who have helped lots of people to come out of these two deadly addictions.
There are a number of treatments available to bring the people out of these addictions. These treatments are tested and established over a period of time.
Alcohol and drug treatment generally involves individual counseling, self help groups or group therapy. Also, there are domestic rehabilitation centers, inpatient and outpatient care. Some treatment programs involve Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Psychotherapy.
The first step to start with the treatment is to stop the consumption of the alcohol or drug. The second step is to deal with any physical side effects and the last step is to undergo an after care program.
The most widely used method in relation to alcoholism is detoxification of body of the addict. This in short means making the addict’s body habitual to not having alcohol in the system.
Recommended drugs can be of help but they have certain side effects which include the anxiety experienced by many sufferers of the addiction as they go through both physical and emotional trauma.
Some programs advocate the use of a replacement drug such as Methadone. The problem is that, Methadone itself is a controversial drug because it is an addictive drug. But use of Methadone drug is quite easy for lot of people in comparison with all other recreational drugs. Some one has said it righteously, “for some people, cold turkey is the only way?"
Drugs like Diazepam or Phenobarbital can help in developing withdrawal symptoms in the system. These withdrawal symptoms may last for few weeks but may slowly become less effective over the period of time.
To avoid this risk of reduced withdrawal symptoms, the detoxification process must be followed by some sort of therapy, preferably one which ascertains the psychological causes of consuming the alcohol.
The alcohol addiction program can be a success provided the participant remains in the program and co-operates until it is concluded. For the addicts who don’t like the treatment which involves medication, the technique of Acupuncture can be used as treatment to come out the addiction.
The methods for treating drug addicts is determined by factors such as the type of drug and how often and how much the drug has been taken. The most used program is the 12 Step Recovery Program. At the end of it, to make the rehabilitation program a success it is very important to find out the right treatment for the individual
The success of the Alcohol and drug treatment program lies not only in breaking the cycle of addiction but also in preventing the chances of deterioration of the improvement
The Problem Of Relapse
The purpose of rehabilitation programs for substance abuse is to withdraw the client from the chemical substance, whether it is alcohol or drugs and then to teach the individual new coping skills to help him live without substance abuse.
In most cases, the substance abuser became dependent on alcohol and/or drugs because he or she couldn’t cope with everyday living. The substance abuser is taught new coping methods in the context of a rehab program that can consist of counseling, inpatient care, outpatient care or residential care. The thinking is that the longer the client remains in the program, the greater the chance of success.
A 1990 study called the Baldwin Research Project investigated drug abuse counseling, alcohol abuse counseling, in-patient and outpatient rehabilitation programs, therapeutic communities, halfway houses and self-help programs.
The conclusion of the Baldwin Report was that none of these programs work. None of them are effective in preventing relapses. The conventional treatment centers and the treatment they were providing was not doing the job of keeping the clients from returning to their substance abusive ways when they were released from the program.
The report stated that 97% of drug addicts relapse into addiction within five years of treatment and 82% of alcoholics return to drinking in less than six months. These figures are not very comforting when you consider that these types of programs are the only hope the substance abuser has. Ten years later in a follow-up study, the highest success rate they could find was 30%. The relapse for adolescents was about 50%. Much of this is attributed to peer pressure in school. One subject successfully stayed free of substance abuse by dropping out of high school.
The Baldwin Academy developed its own program for substance abuse which they claim proved much more effective than the methods of conventional treatments.
They have their own schools, the Jude Thaddeus Academy that is a boarding school for students with substance abuse problems. The cost of a six-week program is more than $9,000 and the cost of a three month program is $15,000.
The approach taken by the Jude Thaddeus Academy is different. Instead of viewing and treating substance abuse as a medical-psychological program, they regard it as a social-educational program and they treat it accordingly. Their success rate has been much high than conventional treatment approaches. They claim a success rate of 70%. This means that only 30% of the participants suffer a relapse.
However, with the right detoxification program and the right after-care, patients can have a real shot at beating their addiction for good.