Many addicts considering medical detox for the first time, focus on the short term: overcoming the physical withdrawal symptoms so they can white-knuckle it from there. The truth is, this has been tried before by countless addicts and alcoholics and doesn’t work.
At GateHouse Treatment, we believe addiction is a complex disease of the mind, body, and soul. While medical detox might handle the physical symptoms of using, the underlying causes and cravings left behind go unaddressed without further treatment.
What is detox?
Medical Detox is usually the first step in beginning the treatment process. Done under supervised medical care, the detoxification process safely allows your body to remove all drugs and alcohol out of your system while a medical staff of nurses and doctors provide you the proper medication to minimize painful and often dangerous withdrawal symptoms.
The detoxification process is a necessary start to your recovery, but once the drugs and alcohol have left your system, you need to learn how to cope with life without mind or mood altering substances and address the factors that made you pick up that drink or drug in the first place. Without this, you will fall into a vicious cycle of short term abstinence followed by relapse.
How Extended Treatment Can Help
Most people dealing with addiction have a co-occurring disorder, which is a mental health diagnosis that plays a significant role in their addiction to drugs and alcohol.
At a medical detox, with the use of group and individual therapy along with a psychiatric doctor, clinicians can medicate properly and then address the underlying mental issues behind the substance abuse.
Once psychiatric issues are under control with the use of different modalities of therapy and medication, drug and alcohol rehabs can begin to recognize and address other emotional causes for your addiction.
Many times, our clients at GateHouse Treatment suffer from past trauma. These traumas can cause repressed memories which display themselves as impulsive or addict-like behaviors. Our clinicians at GateHouse Treatment believe in the importance of addressing these traumas and being able to process them healthily. When a client can accept his past, he is then able to move on and focus on his present recovery and any future challenges he may encounter.
Preparing for Long-Term Sobriety
To maintain long-term sobriety, you must be able to cope with life stressors and any cravings to use drugs and alcohol that are inherently part of an addict. Rehab allows you to learn coping skills, manage cravings either with therapy techniques or medically assisted treatment and move past stressors that might act as a hurdle in your recovery.
While in treatment, you will have the required help to not only clean up the wreckage of your past but build a sustainable future for yourself. Aftercare plans are made when it is time for you to graduate from your treatment center after you have found your initial footing.
At GateHouse Treatment, we have a great Case Management team that works with you and provides you excellent resources, such as meeting lists to continue your 12-step program, and referrals to any outside help you might need when you reintegrate back into society.
Studies have shown that long term treatment has been much more effective in bettering the chances of a client maintaining long-term sobriety. Without getting to the root causes of addiction, getting stuck in a vicious relapse cycle is inevitable. Taking a few months to do your treatment the right way is marginal when weighing the benefits of a lifetime of sobriety.
Call GateHouse Treatment today at (855) 448-3588 and get started today. Our admissions specialists are standing by to answer any questions you may have about beginning your recovery journey!
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