Alcohol & Drug Addiction Treatment

The ten most important things to remember before going to rehab are these:
1) Make sure you keep an open mind regarding the treatment and philosophy of the drug rehab program that you have selected and are enrolling into.
2) Traveling out of state into a residential facility far away from home is a good thing. You will make new friends and it will be a fresh start for your new drug free life.
3) Listen to your counselors and if something doesn’t make sense or maybe you don’t agree with something than voice your opinion. If you are going to a private drug rehab remember that you are paying for treatment and you want to get the most out of it.
4) Not all residential drug rehabs are the same. Every program will offer a different living condition and environment.
5) Don’t just pick a program because the rooms look nice or the food is good. Remember that you are there to get your life back; you are not there for a vacation. Find the right type of treatment that is going to help you with your problems and addiction.
6) If the drug rehab facility is requiring a medical detox than do the medical detox and don’t cause any problems.
7) Not all programs take insurance and don’t settle on a program that will work with your insurance. You need to find a workable program with a high success rate.
Keeping family involved is important. The more your family and loved ones are all communicating the better it will be when you return home.
9) Take advantage of every opportunity and look at your past as a learning experience that will make you stronger.
10) Be grateful for this opportunity of help and getting your life back.

These are the top ten things a person should do and be aware of before going into a drug and alcohol treatment center

Trying to find a Michigan drug rehab can be tough especially a longer termed program. Though Michigan has many drug rehab programs most of them are outpatient or 30 day facilities. There are only a handful of long term drug rehabs that provide a health program, intensive counseling, and life skills therapy. Another aspect of rehabilitation is a proper medical detox. Not all addicted individuals will require a detox but those that do need it, it is a vital step to the recovery process.

Once a family has the realization that the drug or alcohol problem is so bad that they are not able to help the situation internally then it is time to find an effective drug rehabilitation program. The most effective type of drug rehab in Michigan is one that not only offers great treatment but also provides a living situation that is clean, comfortable, and promotes a healthy lifestyle. There is a certain type of specialized program offered in Michigan which is a biophysical program.

The biophysical drug rehab of course provides counseling, training, and life skills but takes it a step higher and addresses the phsycial cravings of alcohol and drugs. The way these Michigan drug rehabs eliminate the cravings is by using dry-heat saunas, and a specialized vitamin and mineral regimen. The science behind this approach is that the drugs and alcohol store in the adipose tissue for a long time after every use. These drug or alcohol metabolites can return back into the bloodstream and find its way to the brain causing a craving. This cleansing process removes the drug and alcohol metabolites through the sweat and urine by drinking lots of water, exercising, and using the sauna treatment.

Not to often do you find an addicted person ask for help in finding a drug rehab center. That is the reason for a drug intervention. Whether a family is ready to confront their loved one with a solution to their addiction or not, just by researching this on the internet shows you are ready to make this move. A drug addiction treatment center is the most important thing for people who have a loved one addicted to drugs or alcohol.

Drug and alcohol interventions are very effective if done the proper way. Having the family willing to do this is the most important and always the first step. Once the family is 100 percent willing than calling the intervention company is the next step. The intervention specialist will then go over what steps need to be taken to have the most successful intervention as possible. Once everyone the family and the intervention specialist are all on the same page the interventionist will fly out to meet with the family. The meeting before the actual intervention is usually called “family day.” Usually the day before the actual intervention, family day, is vital to having a successful intervention.

During family day, the intervention specialist will educate everyone involved about enabling, tough love, addiction, drug rehab programs, and most important getting the family strong enough to sit down and with so much intention and love, get the addicted individual to finally accept help. I understand how bleak the outlook is but 90 percent of the time the person struggling with alcohol or drugs will accept the help and chooses to go into a residential drug rehab. The best situation of course is a person to enter into long term drug rehab but the first step is just getting him or her to go.

Business professionals have had a hard time finding drug and alcohol treatment in an environment that is conducive to their normal living environment. Many of the residential drug rehabs sometimes do not offer a setting for a person who can potentially still work and keep their job or business running. Certainly they need to focus on their current problem which is the addiction problem but at the same time we don’t want the addicted individual to leave a drug rehab center with no job or in a financial crisis which could cause relapse or unnecessary stress.

Executive drug rehabs are an important process to ending addiction for thousands of people suffering from alcohol and drugs. Many white collar employees have not only important well paying jobs but families to provide for. The stress of work and making enough money to support a family is stressful enough, especially in this type of economy. So it is very common for a business person to start drinking or dabble with various prescription drugs like painkillers, anti-anxiety medications, muscle relaxers, and anti-depressants.

Unfortunately many of these prescription drugs are very addicting. Especially when mixed with a cocktail, beer or wine, these drugs can really make a person numb and provide an escape to not face reality. This is how this type of addiction works. Many executive clients of private drug rehabs were fully functional alcoholics or addict. They would work, pay the bills, and take care of the family. This is why its so hard to get this person to agree to enter in a long term drug rehab.

A drug rehab program is something that is not always easy to find. How long should the treatment be, should they have medical staff, should it be inpatient or outpatient, does it need a detox or maybe a good program requires all of these. Drug and alcohol treatment should fit the needs of the addicted individual. Whether they have a lack of life skills, self-esteem issues, education problems and maybe unhealthy both emotionally and physically finding the right drug rehab facility is crucial.

Alcohol and drug treatment has researched thousands of programs throughout the US and found all different types of treatment modalities. Generally we would recommend a program that is longer termed that provides life skills therapy, and individualized counseling. Sometimes a medical detox is necessary for certain prescription drugs, alcohol and some opiates like heroin and methadone.

Many families who have a loved one addicted to drugs and alcohol find themselves exhausted in trying to convince the addicted individual to accept help. Most drug addicts and alcoholics are scared or are so addicted the thought of quitting is to hard to swallow. Drug and alcohol interventions are necessary in this type of situation. Interventions are very effective and once they are finished usually the loved one is being escorted to a drug rehab center.

Heroin addiction is one of the hardest addictions to overcome. Heroin is so physically addicting that the reason they don’t enter a residential drug rehab is that they are scared of the painful withdraw symptoms. Fever, dehydration, diarrhea, insomnia, depression, anxiety, cramping, and body aches are what an addicted individual experiences when coming off of heroin. I know that some of you have experienced these forms of uncomfort before but you have to understand how extreme these are for a heroin addict. Unfortunately people are profiting off of peoples weaknesses. What I mean by that is various medical practices and pharmaceutical companies are making millions of dollars to replace heroin for another drug which is just as addicting.

What I am talking about is something called Methadone. Methadone is a drug produced by a pharmaceutical company that was created to replace heroin. The unfortunate thing for Methadone victims is they first do not offer effective heroin treatment and were told that Methadone was not addicting. Once again we were lied to by the producer of methadone and now thousands of people find themselves severely addicted. The worst thing about methadone is it is actually more addicting than heroin. Most drug rehabs won’t even touch a person on methadone until they have been detoxed first.

A person who is on methadone will find it hard to locate a medical detox which can service him. Most hospitals will turn a person away who is on a high dosage of methadone because of the risk of seizure. Fortunately some private medical detox’s are equip both medically and nutritionally to effectively detox a person off of methadone.

Why are so many drug rehabs promoting that they are a dual diagnosis program. Dual Diagnosis is a form of marketing that has been established to generate money and income by prescribing more drugs to people. Addiction to drugs and alcohol is certainly a problem that causes people to feel worse. Most addicted individuals will feel depressed, manic, sad, angry, excited, frustrated, lonely, guilt, emptiness, and apathetic. These are just a few emotions people experience when either high or coming down off of drugs or alcohol. So it is very easy for a doctor or counselor diagnose a person with a mental issue while a person is abusing drugs and alcohol, but that does not mean that this is true.

A drug rehab program that wants to load a person up on psychotropic medications should bring doubt within a family searching for a successful recovery. Substituting one drug for the other is only giving a person a drug who already has an addiction problem. A drug rehab center that focuses more on the underlying issues and is interested in real rehabilitation like coping skills, life skills, therapeutic training, job training, and re-teaching positive social sills. In searching for effective treatment a long term program with aftercare is also something you want.

Every program is going to promote something different. They will go on and on about how their rehab program is the best. At Alcohol Drug Treatment we recommend you speak with several facilities and figure out what treatment facility will fit the needs of the addicted individual. Definitely an inpatient drug rehab is more effective than an outpatient facility. The reason is most people never get away from the everyday restimulators that can cause a person to relapse in an outpatient program.

I rode on a public transit bus recently, and during my 30 minute commute I was saddened to overhear the story of an addict sitting beside me. His story was like many I had heard before—an opiate user who couldn’t live without his next fix and who the state-run programs had given up on. No longer using illegal drugs, he was now addicted to the very thing his doctor gave to him to become free of his addiction.

Prescription drug abuse has caught up to us in terms of its lethality. Drug rehab facilities holding fast to the theory that addiction is an incurable disease treatable only by highly addictive prescriptions are not only masking the real problem, but they are trading one addiction for another.

This is not only the case for drug users who trade their illicit drugs for those prescribed by doctors. The average American who cannot sleep well at night or feels the ups and downs that life throws at him is prescribed Ambien or Abilify. A perfectly normal individual who has an unfortunate accident is prescribed addictive pain medications. And for many of these people, their lives are never the same.

When looking for a solution to these situations, look for a long term drug rehab that provides a drug-free treatment program that will help you to get to the root of the real situation and help an addict to live life again without the crutch of a prescription.

People who are addicted to drugs and alcohol have this problem for a reason. It’s not like one day they woke up and decided to be an alcoholic or drug addict. Individuals who are addicted generally used the artificial substance to “numb” some sort of unwanted pain or emotion. The secret to effective treatment is finding a long term drug rehab that helps get to the core issues. An effective long term treatment facility teaches life skill therapies which will include stress management techniques, relaxation procedures, and assertiveness training. The purpose of this type of therapy is to help re-educate a person so they can handle problems easier and learn to manage life without drugs or alcohol.

An effective long term inpatient facility will develop a new purpose in a patient’s life. By reestablishing his goals and objectives a patient is able to take responsibility for his condition in life. Another component of long term addiction treatment is giving a person more productive and positive activities to do. For instance, working out, nutrition, art, music, poetry, basketball, and volleyball are all productive activities that keeps an individual struggling with drug or alcohol addiction doing something to keep their mind off of problems.

You can easily see why some drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers are more effective than others. These practical but life saving training procedures and cognitive counseling is only offered in some forms of alcohol and drug treatment facilities. A drug rehab facility that offers long term treatment, individualized counseling, life skills therapy, and extensive aftercare is by far the most effective in ending drug or alcohol addiction.

There are several different types of drug rehab programs. What makes them different is the form of treatment they use. We will cover several of the most common forms for residential drug rehabs.

The most common type of drug rehab is the 12 step program. The 12 step program believes addiction is an incurable disease and that a person is powerless to their addiction. Below are the steps that are followed when entering one of these types of programs.

Step 1- We admitted we were powerless over our addiction - that our lives had become unmanageable.
Step 2- Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Step 3 - Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God.
Step 4 - Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Step 5- Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Step 6- Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. Step 7 Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.
Step 8 Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
Step 9- Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
Step 10 - Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
Step 11- Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry that out.
Step 12- Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs

Though this form of rehabilitation is effective for some, statistically it is not the most effective.
At Alcohol Drug Treatment we have found that many people that enter into a 12 step program usually have a 2-13 % success rate.

A Bio-Physical drug rehab program is a new form of treatment but has been found to be very effective. In this type of treatment the physical and mental cravings are addressed by cleansing the body of drug metabolites, toxins, and poisons. When the body metabolizes drugs and alcohol tiny particles lodge to fatty tissues and stay there for some time. These drug and alcohol metabolites can be released back into the blood stream traveling up to the brain and causing a person to crave the drug or alcohol. The sauna detoxification removes the drug and alcohol metabolites by using vitamins and minerals, light exercise, and dry-heat sauna therapy. Once this process is done the person no longer craves drugs or alcohol.

Once the person has cleansed the body of the harmful drugs and alcohol they then address the underlying issues. Most drug rehab facilities that offer this type of treatment provide cognitive counseling and life skills therapy. Teaching a person how to live life drug-free is a vital step to recovery.