Components of Addiction Treatment Programs

While no two addiction treatment programs will offer an identical array of services, some of the more typical addiction treatment services are listed and briefly explained below:

• Detoxification Services – Some people will require medical assistance for a safe and comfortable detox and stabilization period, particularly people dependent on alcohol, benzodiazepines and opiates.

• Group Counseling – One of the most commonly offered modes of addiction treatment; group counseling helps those in recovery understand the commonality of the addiction experience. Group sessions can vary greatly, but can cover life skills or education based topics, or be more supportive in nature.

• Individual Counseling – Some addiction treatment programs will offer individual counseling as an adjunct to other modalities. An individual counselor can be useful in helping you understand and overcome the life factors that contribute to your use and compulsions to use.

• Motivational Interviewing (MI) – Working with a counselor to crystallize your reasons for wanting to quit or reduce drug or alcohol use. MI is a proven effective way to overcome feelings of ambivalence about the treatment process and a future without drug or alcohol use.

• Contingency Management – Drug addiction can harm the brain, and in early recovery while the brain heals, it can be tough for some people to feel internal rewards (a sense of satisfaction for meeting a goal, for example). Unfortunately, when meeting goals fails to make us feel good, we can lose motivation to work towards these goals. Contingency management is a technique that helps recovering drug users (particularly stimulant users) stay motivated during early recovery by providing external rewards that compensate for a lack of internal reward feelings. Under a program of contingency management, for example, a person who passes a drug test for cocaine might earn an external reward, such as a gift certificate to the movies or to a local restaurant. Contingency management is an evidence based proven technique.

• Relapse Prevention Classes – Most addiction treatment programs will offer at least some form of relapse prevention training. Relapse prevention involves seeking to minimize your exposure to threats to sobriety and preparing for moments of temptation. Relapse prevention classes can also help people learn how to manage small slips so that they don’t turn into full blown relapses. Relapse is an unfortunate part of the disease of addiction that can be minimized through careful preparation.

• Addiction Education – Most addiction treatment programs provide at least some minimal education about the nature of addiction. Understanding what you’re up against and why you feel and act the way you do can be comforting and beneficial.

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) – The way we think and feel influences what we do. Through CBT, we learn to recognize how negative thoughts and behaviors that can lead to unwanted outcomes and we learn how we can correct negative thinking to produce desired outcomes. CBT is one of the most proven techniques of effective addiction treatment.

• Family Counseling – Family counseling can be very useful during the early stages of addiction recovery. Whole family involvement in the addiction treatment process helps family members learn how to support and encourage the recovery process and it also helps family members from every generation recover and heal from the negative influence of substance abuse on the family.

• The 12 Steps – 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and other support groups are frequently used as philosophical framework for treatment programs. If you are introduced to the 12 steps in a recovery program you may be more likely to take support from a continued involvement in the community.

• EMDR – Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is a technique used to help people overcome the legacy of past traumas and traumatic memories. It can work very quickly, and so can be offered in short duration addiction treatment programs (like drug rehabs)