Addiction causes changes in the brain and it’s these brain changes that so often doom us to failure, despite our best intentions, when we try to overcome addiction on our own. Thankfully, addiction treatment works and with it we can learn how to stay clean and sober for the long run. Read on to learn about addiction treatment and find out more about the stages of treatment, different types of addiction treatment programs, medications used in the treatment of addiction and about what common elements are shared by all effective addiction treatment programs.
When you’ve tried and failed to stop using or drinking on your own, it’s time to start thinking about getting addiction treatment.
Why Do We Need Addiction Treatment?
It can be hard to explain to someone who has never experienced an addiction, but once we get addicted, it’s very tough to quit using. We feel intense cravings and we fight temptation constantly. Unfortunately, addiction creates structural changes in the brain (why it’s called a brain disease) that reduce our ability to concentrate, maintain focus and fight temptation.
Not surprisingly, this combination of constant cravings with an impaired ability to resist temptation is rarely a recipe for lasting abstinence!
Although the brain will heal in time, the first period of abstinence or reduced substance use is a difficult period and this period can last for months or even years. To make it out of this first period - most people need some help.
Addiction treatment teaches you how to break free from compulsive and harmful substance use.
Addiction treatment can teach us:
- How to avoid temptation
- How to deal with cravings
- How to restructure our thinking, behaviors and environment to reduce the risks of relapse
- How to develop better relationships with family and friends, which can protect against relapse
- How to take better care of our physical and mental well being
- How to deal with stress or past trauma, so that it doesn’t provoke relapse
In some, ideal cases, behavioral interventions are combined with medications which reduce cravings or withdrawal symptoms.
page last update Aug 05, 2010
