Addiction is a complex disease that can have devastating impacts on different aspects of your life. Drug addiction treatment programs have come a long way and include many different therapies and modalities to address the symptoms and underlying causes of the disease. However, they’re not ideally suited to everyone.
One of the most critical aspects of successful addiction recovery is having an individualized treatment program with therapies tailored to your unique needs and challenges. Read on to learn more about the different drug addiction treatment modalities.
Continued after video:
Inpatient Addiction Treatment
Inpatient treatment occurs in a residential environment and involves 24/7 care, supervision, and support. These highly structured treatment programs are a good choice for people who need intensive treatment or lack a supportive home environment.
The treatment sessions in inpatient care are individualized but generally include a combination of traditional and behavioral therapies. The therapies include group therapy, individual therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and mutual-support groups.
Though inpatient is a good choice for some people, transitioning from round-the-clock care to everyday life can be jarring. It’s also challenging to balance your recovery in an inpatient with day-to-day responsibilities.
Outpatient Addiction Treatment Services
Outpatient treatment services at Desert Cove Recovery are ideal if you want to get help for your drug addiction without putting your life on hold. It’s easy to say, “It’s not the right time,” and put off your treatment. Often, it’s because of work pressures, family obligations, or other responsibilities you can’t abandon for a long time. However, outpatient rehab allows you to attend treatment sessions on your schedule.
Though it’s less structured than inpatient care, outpatient treatment still provides a lot of routine and accountability to help you stay on track. Depending on your care plan, you may attend group therapy, psychotherapy, 12-step programs, and family therapy. You may attend these sessions throughout the day and on specific days of the week before returning home.
Behavioral Therapies for Addiction Treatment
Behavioral therapies are on the leading edge of addiction treatment. Instead of delving into the past, these therapies focus on the present and identifying how thoughts and behaviors contribute to substance use.
Some of the common evidence-based models used in addiction treatment include:
- Cognitive behavioral therapy: CBT effectively treats various substance use and co-occurring disorders. It teaches people to identify problem behaviors and triggers and develop coping strategies to address them.
- Contingency management interventions: Contingency management interventions encourage behavioral modification using tangible rewards for target behaviors. This could be abstaining from substance use or adhering to a treatment program.
- Motivational interviewing: Motivational interviewing is a counseling style that’s especially beneficial in addressing ambivalence toward unhealthy behaviors. It builds an individual’s confidence in their ability to change and explore their drug use and motivation for change.
- Twelve-step facilitation: Twelve-step facilitation therapy is a brief program based on the principles of 12-step peer support programs. Unlike Alcoholics Anonymous, it involves a counselor.
Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT)
MAT is a type of treatment that uses medications with counseling and behavioral therapies to treat opioid use disorders and other substance use disorders. The goal of providing medication is to relieve withdrawal symptoms and psychological cravings. All too often, these symptoms and cravings act as a barrier to recovery.
The two most common MAT programs are:
- Alcohol use disorder: MAT is used to provide medications like acamprosate, a drug that reduces cravings; disulfiram, a drug that causes uncomfortable side effects after consuming alcohol; and naltrexone, a drug that blocks the euphoric effects of alcohol.
- Opioid use disorder: MAT provides opioid partial agonist drugs like buprenorphine, which minimizes or prevents withdrawal symptoms, and naltrexone, which blocks the euphoric and sedative effects of opioids.
- While MAT is not enough on its own, it’s combined with other therapies in a treatment program to reduce the risk of relapse by relieving withdrawal symptoms and curbing intense cravings.
Holistic Approaches to Addiction Treatment
Holistic treatment refers to treating the mind, body, and spirit. In the context of addiction treatment, this means addressing physiological, emotional, and spiritual needs with alternative therapies. Alternative therapies can look like yoga, acupuncture, and meditation.
As part of a comprehensive treatment plan, holistic therapy offers personalized, non-medical methods of addressing specific struggles that go along with addiction. This could be things such as racing thoughts, emotional disturbances, and high stress. For example, yoga and mindfulness enhance clarity and focus, while acupuncture can restore balance to the body and relieve discomfort.
Support Groups and 12-Step Programs
12-Step programs were developed by Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) to help people understand the recovery journey and maintain abstinence. These programs rely on mutual support from a peer community to share, show acceptance, and learn coping skills to foster long-term recovery.
Though AA developed it, the 12-Step program has been included in other programs like Narcotics Anonymous and Gamblers Anonymous. The basic premise of this model is that people can help one another achieve and maintain abstinence from substances of abuse. However, healing cannot come about unless they surrender to a higher power. This could be a traditional God or something as simple as the 12-Step community.
Though the 12-Step model can be effective, it’s not for everyone. Plenty of secular alternatives to the AA model rely on similar principles, such as SMART Recovery and Secular Organizations for Sobriety (S.O.S.).
Dual Diagnosis Treatment
Dual diagnosis is when a person has a mental disorder and a co-occurring substance use disorder. While this doesn’t mean that one caused the other, the presence of both disorders can influence and exacerbate one another. The symptoms can sometimes overlap as well.
In the past, dual-diagnosis disorders were treated individually, often with the person seeking help for their substance use disorder before addressing the mental health condition. Now, we realize that dual diagnosis requires simultaneous treatment to be effective.
Dual diagnosis involves an integrated approach with tailored treatments, behavioral therapies, and medications that address the substance use disorder and the mental health disorder as needed.
Personalized Treatment Plans
Many factors contribute to addiction, so no standard treatment plan can truly address each individual’s challenges and circumstances. An individualized treatment plan is important for addressing all aspects of a person’s physical, mental, and emotional needs. It can also be adjusted as needed and treat any co-occurring disorders.
The individualized treatment plan is developed using a thorough assessment and multidisciplinary teams, including doctors, therapists, and other mental health professionals. This ensures that every factor is considered.
Aftercare and Relapse Prevention Strategies
The transition from addiction treatment programs to everyday life can be jarring. Aftercare programs are designed to support a gentle shift from the rehab environment to the responsibilities of day-to-day life, including the stress and challenges accompanying it.
This may occur in a sober living house, an alumni program, or with ongoing mutual-support groups and individual therapy with outpatient counseling. With aftercare, you can develop coping strategies and relapse prevention strategies to support long-term sobriety. To many, this can be the most challenging aspect of everyday life in recovery.
Finding Different Modalities of Drug Addiction Treatment
Addiction treatment isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. Just because something works for one person doesn’t mean it will work for the next. This might mean exploring different drug addiction treatment modalities. Treatment programs must be personalized and adjusted throughout the process to achieve a positive outcome.
If you or a loved one are seeking drug addiction treatment, contact us at Desert Cove Recovery to learn more about our treatment modalities.
