Treatment: Alcohol Treatment and Drug Rehab Treatment Center

Alcohol treatment and drug abuse treatment, also known as rehab, is the educational, therapeutic process of initiating recovery from drug and or alcohol abuse. The first step in the treatment process is detox or detoxification of the body while emotionally stabilizing the individual. Once a person is detoxified, they’re ready to begin treatment and rehab.

Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment Methods

Alcoholism and drug addiction are treatable disorders. Through treatment that is tailored to individual needs, patients can learn to control their condition and live normal, productive lives. Like people with diabetes or heart disease, people in treatment for drug addiction learn behavioral changes and often take medications as part of their treatment regimen.

Types of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment Programs

The ultimate goal of all drug abuse and alcohol treatment is to enable the patient to achieve lasting abstinence, but the immediate goals are to reduce drug use, improve the patient's ability to function, and minimize the medical and social complications of drug abuse. Alcohol and drug abuse treatment is done at various levels of intensity. There are several types of alcohol and drug abuse treatment programs. Short-term methods last less than 6 months and include residential therapy, medication therapy, and drug-free outpatient therapy. Longer term treatment may include, for example, methadone maintenance outpatient treatment for opiate addicts and residential therapeutic community treatment. Outpatient drug-free treatment does not include medications and encompasses a wide variety of programs for patients who visit a clinic at regular intervals. Most of the drug and alcohol treatment programs involve individual or group counseling. Patients entering these drug and alcohol treatment programs are abusers of drugs other than opiates or are opiate abusers for whom maintenance therapy is not recommended, such as those who have stable, well-integrated lives and only brief histories of drug dependence. Short-term residential drug and alcohol treatment programs, often referred to as chemical dependency units, are often based on the "Minnesota Model" of treatment for alcoholism and drug abuse treatment. These programs involve a 3- to 6-week inpatient drug and alcohol treatment phase followed by extended outpatient therapy or participation in 12-step self-help groups, such as Narcotics Anonymous or Cocaine Anonymous. Chemical dependency programs for drug abuse arose in the private sector in the mid-1980s with insured alcohol/cocaine abusers as their primary patients. Today, as private provider benefits decline, more drug and alcohol treatment programs are extending their services to publicly funded patients.

How Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment Work

For most alcoholics and drug dependent individuals, residential alcohol and drug abuse treatment is recommended as the right, first step. Residential alcohol and drug abuse treatment (aka inpatient) is where the individual resides full time in a facility. Alcohol and drug abuse treatment (rehab) is a combination of education and behavioral therapy. A person needs to learn the facts about alcohol and drug abuse dependency and how to work a program of recovery. Therapy generally consists of both group and one on one counseling sessions. These sessions emphasize personal interaction, addressing a variety of personal and developmental issues. The length of stay in residential alcohol and drug abuse treatment will depend on a variety of factors.

Therapy as a part of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse
Treatment Process

Behavioral therapies can include counseling, psychotherapy, support groups, or family therapy. Treatment medications offer help in suppressing the withdrawal syndrome and drug or alcohol craving and in blocking the drug’s effects. In general, the more treatment a person receives, the better the results. Patients who stay in treatment longer than 1 month have better outcomes than those who stay less time. Patients, who go through medically assisted withdrawal (detox) to minimize discomfort but do not receive any further treatment, perform about the same in terms of their drug use as those who were never treated. Over the last 25 years, studies have shown that treatment works to reduce drug intake and crimes committed by drug-dependent people. Researchers also have found that drug abusers who have been through treatment are more likely to have jobs.