Alcohol Or Drug Addiction Treatment; How Do They Work?

Depending on the specifics of the addiction, alcohol or drug addiction treatment can take many different forms. The exact treatment used depends on the severity of the problem, the length of time that the addiction has had its hold and any family or personal history specifics that may impact the case. A treatment plan is customized with those variables in mind.

If you are addicted to one of the so-called "hard drugs," such as heroin or cocaine, a stay in a residential drug rehab facility is virtually a necessity. Only a residential drug rehab program will provide you with the constant medical surveillance and care to appropriately and safely withdraw physically from your drug of choice. Many residential drug rehab stays are quite short-term, just long enough to ensure your physical well-being. This type of inpatient alcohol or drug rehab treatment is quite often covered by your regular medical insurance. If you do not have insurance or your insurance will not pay, do not let this dissuade you from seeking a medically necessary inpatient drug rehab program. Some programs offer sliding scale rates based on your ability to pay.

If your drug of choice is safe to physically withdraw from without assistance from the medical staff members, you may be able to avoid an inpatient alcohol or drug rehab program altogether.. If your insurance or sliding-scale program covers only a short-term emergency stay, you will be out of residential drug rehab very quickly. Anyway, you will then need to choose from among the available outpatient alcohol or drug addiction treatment choices.

Regardless of whether your drug addiction treatment occurs on an inpatient or outpatient basis, your treatment course will follow a basic pattern. You will meet with a drug addiction counselor, usually a licensed therapist with specialized training in addictions. This person will conduct your intake interview. This interview will be long and complicated, as the counselor attempts to determine the details of your specific addiction, any history of drug addiction in your family, other psychological disorders that may exist and your general medical history.

Based on the data gathered during the intake interview and the policies of the company, you may be scheduled for appointments with other specialists. These experts may include a psychiatrist, a nutritionist, a therapist or a peer counselor, as well as nurses and other support staff. The various experts that assist with your drug addiction treatment are collectively known as your treatment team. Your addiction treatment team will work together to design and implement your plan for recovery, which is also known as your individualized treatment plan.

Under older systems, clients were not as involved in the decision making process. This was because drug addicted people were thought to not be as sound of mind as potential experts. With changes to the system, the plans are more client-involved and offer more assistance to make the client involved in all of the major decisions. The days of strapping an addicted person to a chair and draining drugs from his or her body are, luckily, gone.

The customizable drug treatment plans are becoming more and more popular, as people start to take charge of their healing process. With education and insight, drug addicts are more than capable of making their own treatment decisions. They are living the addiction, so they should be experiencing the drug addiction treatment process with hands-on involvement.