Drug Treatment in a Drug Treatment Center

Drug 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 drug treatment and rehab. Drug addiction is a treatable disorder. Through treatment that is tailored to individual needs, patients can learn to control their condition and live normal, productive lives. Like people with other diseases, people in treatment for drug addictions learn behavioral changes and may take medications as part of their treatment regimen.

Drug Addiction Treatment

The main goal of drug addiction treatment centers 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. Drug addiction treatment is done at various levels of intensity. There are several types of alcohol and drug addiction treatment centers. Short-term methods last 1 month and include residential therapy, medication therapy, and drug-free outpatient therapy. Longer term treatment may include, for example, outpatient treatment, residential therapeutic community or sober living treatment houses.
Residential drug addiction treatment is recommended as the right, first step. Residential drug 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 center will depend on a variety of factors.

Outpatient drug addiction treatment may include medications and encompasses a wide variety of programs for patients who visit a clinic at regular intervals. Most of the drug addiction treatment programs involve individual or group counseling. Patients entering these drug addiction treatment centers are abusers of any drug, including opiates. Residential drug addiction treatment is often based on the Minnesota Model of 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.