The choice to enter drug treatment is always incredibly personal. No matter what drug you’re trying to get out of your system and out of your life, the right treatment can make the whole process much more beneficial. Your current addiction and the status of your mental health will have a big impact on your success.
What drug treatment option best fits you? The one that will support you from the first hours of detox through the completion of your rehab program. The first step you must take when choosing a drug treatment program is to have an honest conversation about what you use most often. The drugs currently in your system will have a huge impact on your detox process. Opioids do different damage to the nervous system than alcohol. Your physical symptoms in detox may mean that you need IV fluids or non-opioid pain medications. Your care team needs to know what drugs you’ll be detoxing from to support you fully through the process.
Additional Therapies
As you move from detox into rehab, your support needs will change. You will be able to eat and drink without needing an IV, and you will probably not need 24 hour monitoring. However, your healing brain and body will need additional support. For example, you may have issues with self-esteem and a negative view of yourself. Many people in this situation benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT.
The questions you can face during CBT can be quite intrusive at the beginning; they can leave you feeling as though you’re under a great deal of pressure in each session. Pairing these sessions with other people in recovery during group meetings can lower your sensitivity. If you have a history of depression or have ever participated in self-harming practices, you may be a good candidate for dialectical behavior therapy, or DBT. One of the great benefits of DBT is that focuses on where you are emotionally early in the therapy. If you have always been a person who experiences strong emotions and turned to drugs or alcohol at some point to numb this pain, you may gain a tremendous benefit from learning to regulate your emotions in a group session.
You and your therapist can work on private ways to lower your stress and agitation. You can pick up skills on disconnecting from the pressure of an exchange that is too intense. DBT therapies also help people learn to be present as a way to manage anxious thoughts or a state of excessive agitation.
As you work through your mindfulness therapy practice, you may also be encouraged to engage in physical activities that make mindfulness practice easier. Classes on Tai Chi and yoga may be incredibly helpful to you as you work through rehab. You may also benefit from family therapies or couple’s counseling.
Many recovering addicts struggle to reconnect with family and friends who turned away from them when they were using. Inviting these people into group therapy as a way to support you through rehab can help you begin to make amends (if that is part of your rehab program) and rebuild connections.
One of the big challenges when choosing a rehab program is deciding whether to stay in an inpatient facility or to attend as an outpatient. While detox always needs to be inpatient, it is possible to keep your job and care for your family in an outpatient setting. The drugs that are in your system will have an impact; depending on the time that you will need for a full detox, it may make more sense to plan for at least a week of inpatient care to get past the roughest days and move toward a healthier life.
When choosing inpatient or outpatient rehab, your work stress level will also have a big impact on that choice. If your job offers very little flexibility, you may need to take a leave of absence for a more successful rehab. Outpatient rehab may not help you if you’re headed back into a very stressful job each day. Every addict faces their own set of challenges. However, with the right drug treatment option, you can benefit from a safe detox and an effective rehab. Our counselors are available 24 hours a day. Call 855-334-6120.