Substance abuse addiction is a complex disease that effects that brain and causes someone to compulsively use drugs or alcohol in an unhealthy way. People who suffer from substance abuse disorder have a strong and continual urge to use drugs or alcohol despite the negative consequences associated with it. Chemical changes in the brain cause someone with addiction to have distorted thinking
Symptoms of Addiction
The symptoms associated with substance abuse addiction may include:
- Building up a tolerance and needing more of the drug for the same effects
- Having intense cravings for the drug
- Needing to use the drug or substance daily
- Ensuring you have a constant supply of the substance or drug
- Spending money on the drug despite financial hardship
- Engaging in risky behavior while under the influence of the drug
- Missing obligations for work, with friends or family due to drug use
- Failed attempts to discontinue using the drug or substance
Treatment and Rehab for Addiction in the U.S.
There are three major issues preventing drug treatment addiction in the United States from becoming more widespread, effective, and affordable. Bad practices within the Addiction Treatment industry, a community-level aversion to addiction treatment, and a failure to comply from insurance companies are all dampening the efforts of serious clinical experts.
Challenges in Addiction Treatment
There’s a plethora of wonderful drug addiction treatment recovery centers dedicated to using well-researched, clinically proven methods to provide optimal care for their clients. Unfortunately, there is also a series of profiteering organizations using substandard facilities and illegal practices such as body brokering. Although these practices are not commonplace within the industry, they are often put into place by powerful organizations with strong financial resources that manage to get away with atrocious practices for extended periods of time. The Los Angeles Times released an article highlighting many of these malpractices:
- Misdiagnosing psychiatric patients to keep them in the hospital for longer than therapeutically necessary to keep collecting insurance payments
- Overbilling or charging for services not rendered
- Kidnapping patients and committing them to mental institutions in order to exhaust their insurance benefits
- Paying “bounties” for patients referred to psychiatric hospitals.
The article from above came out in 1991, yet these issues continue to plague our field today. They have left a black mark over the entire industry, damaging public perception and support for everyone, from small recovery homes to industry leaders. To make matters worse, insurance companies feed on the lack of trust in the addiction recovery industry to avoid recent parity rulings that force them to treat addiction like other medical diagnosis, such as cancer or heart disease. Despite a clear need, many addicted patients are not able to enter long-term treatment because providers are failing to offer coverage at affordable rates, sometimes with fatal consequences.
Types of Treatment for Addiction
Addiction and drug treatment will be different for everyone, based on their individual needs and severity of their substance abuse addiction. The most successful treatment plan will ensure the person is actively involved in every step along the way. Some of the types of treatment includes:
Drug or Alcohol Addiction Detoxification
The phase in drug addiction treatment where a person will “detox” or clear the substance from their body, often resulting in uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms. It is best to detox in a medical facility, with medical professionals there to assist you in your recovery.
Inpatient Rehabilitation
A patient receives drug addiction treatment in a facility with 24-7 care designed to treat all aspects of their substance abuse problem and support them through their recovery.
Intensive Outpatient Rehabilitation
Like inpatient substance abuse treatment but allows the patient to remain living in their home during the recovery process. The person can continue with their employment and personal obligations but still receive therapy to help them with their addiction.
Rehab Treatment for Women with Addiction
If someone is s treatment suffering from substance misuse problems, addiction treatment and recovery center is necessary to help them recover in a safe, comfortable environment with professional staff there to support them. The severity of use and what type of substance is being used will determine the best treatment option for your daughter. Typically, someone going through treatment will need to detox, or clear the substance from their body, before coming to treatment.
More severe situations will require that the individual go to a residential or inpatient treatment program. A more moderate version of care would be partial hospitalization with the lowest level being an outpatient program.
Key Elements of Addiction Treatment Rehab
As a parent, we know you are wondering how to go about finding reputable, accredited, and caring treatment options for your daughter and finding a safe place where she can heal and begin her life-long journey of recovery.
Types of Addiction Treatment
In order to be successful in addiction treatment, a person needs comprehensive care from an addiction recovery center that has all the necessary components to meet the person’s needs. There are different phases included in recovery rehab and once detoxification and withdrawal are completed, the person can move on to more therapeutic measures in their recovery rehab.
The following are different types of addiction rehab treatment:
Detoxification
The phase of treatment where an individual discontinues using a substance in order to clear it out of their body, often causing withdrawal symptoms.
Intensive Outpatient Care
Ideal for someone who does not require 24-7 or day to day care and needs to remain living at home. They still have the opportunity to receive therapy a few days a week for 3-4 hours a day.
Partial Hospitalization
Treatment that offers someone an intensive structure of a day-long program but does not offer around-the-clock care. Most PHP’s take place five days a week for approximately 6 hours per day.
Inpatient or Residential Care
Typically, one of the most successful forms of treatment, where a patient lives on campus and receives 24-7 care from a team of treatment professionals. A patient is able to remove themselves from the temptations and stresses of everyday life and receive the appropriate care to recover from addiction.
Sober Living Facilities
A safe place for someone to leave upon leaving treatment and transitioning into the “real world.” These environments serve as a safe place for someone to work towards being able to resist the temptations of everyday life.
Support Groups
It’s important to continue therapy after treatment is completed with regular counseling and support groups. This allows the person to work through their emotions around becoming sober and get support from people going through the same thing. The most common addiction support groups are AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) and NA (Narcotics Anonymous).
Questions to Ask for the Addiction Recovery Center
Finding a treatment center for your daughter with addiction is a big decision and there are things that need to be asked to determine that It’s the best fit for her. We believe there are a few key elements that you should look for:
Is the program gender specific?
This provides a much more conducive environment to healing. Our three visionary founders intuitively felt and knew that when women healed with other women, it led to longer lasting successful outcomes. In many cases of addiction in females, emotional triggers or traumatic causes lie at the root. By having a women-only environment in which to recover, our patients are not exposed to stimuli that might set off past traumas — like a “friendly” hug from a man that nevertheless triggers memories of abuse. Pregnancy, menopause, and other women’s issues can also be freely discussed here, including in group sessions, without a woman having to also overcome their natural reluctance to talk about these things in the company of men.
Does the program offer holistic services?
We believe in a holistic way of doing drug rehab for women. This means offering services like experiential therapies, yoga, mindfulness meditation, acupuncture, aquatic therapy, gardening, physical exercise, psychodrama, art, and much more besides the traditional programs like individual and group therapies.
Does the program offer services for mothers or pregnant women?
It is imperative for both the mother and child to get well together – when mom heals, her child heals and the future generations of your family heal. There may be treatment centers that try to convince you that having children (your grandchildren) come to treatment with your daughter can be a distraction. While everyone is different, in our forty years of experience of working with women, we have found that not being able to have your children on-site with them is one of the most common reasons that women leave treatment early – to rejoin their kids. Children deserve a chance to heal alongside their mothers, and learn age-appropriate ways to take care of themselves and learn that their mother’s addiction is not their fault – they didn’t cause it and they can’t control it. If your daughter is pregnant, it is vital they go to a treatment center that can accommodate pregnant women during their entire pregnancy as well as newborn children so she does not have to find another place to go upon giving birth.
Does the program offer alumnae and family services?
Addiction is a family disease and it is imperative that everyone in the family is present in their loved ones recovery process. We offer weekly Family Group sessions and conjunct family therapy sessions as well. As a caring parent, you will be participatory in your daughter’s treatment process. In addition, addiction is a chronic, lifelong disease that your loved one will be managing for the rest of their lives. Their lifelong recovery journey starts at their treatment program. It is our belief that sobriety and recovery flourishes when others connect with their fellow sobriety sisters and plant their roots firmly in a strong foundation.
Stigma Around Addiction Treatment and Rehab
There’s a strong [NIMBY (Not in My Backyard)]{.underline} syndrome response from local communities to treatment centers. There is a stigma that treatment centers would harbor criminals to a neighborhood, despite the fact those centers are meant to address problems within a community, not create more addictions. This is causing a scenario where victims of addiction, and those most at-risk for developing one, are completely isolated from local access to care. This only perpetuates addiction within a community and causes immense stress for families that must separate or transport family members to far away clinics just to receive the care they need.
All three of these factors feed into one another. Reduced trust means less funding. For treatment providers, less funding means less regulation and more opportunity for bottom-feeders and corrupt profiteering. More bad practices mean more reasons for insurers to bail out of providing services. Less coverage means more people exposed and vulnerable to addiction. More addicted people exposed to the negative lifestyle changes related to their disorder means a rise in criminality and visible repulsion to addicts, which further enforces the negative stigmas of addiction and encourages NIMBY syndrome response. What a tangled web we weave!
Collaboration During Treatment
I think the best solution is collaboration with other like-minded professionals and organizations by keeping your own side of the street clean, and diligently paying attention to our own behaviors to ensure they are aligned with the missions of our organizations and our own value systems. It’s healthy and practical for businesses to work together like this, especially when they share a similar cause. As one of the 25 CEO Board Members of [National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers]{.underline}, I’ve been exposed to the amazing benefits of working with colleagues towards a unified goal, and together we’ve helped with lobbying efforts to change the future of our entire industry. We’ve seen stronger regulations passed to discourage bad practices, and to encourage a higher level of care for our clients. Together, we’re slowly building trust back among our communities.
Support for Addiction Treatment
We need the help of everyone in our community, however. The epidemic only grows each year, with estimated costs of $740 billion annually, affecting an estimated 23.5 million people in the U.S. Through a little networking and a passion to help your community treat addiction, we can overcome the negative stigmas of addiction and help those most in need. We call for your help and collaboration. Together, you can be a local community leader and petition to your city council, your congressmen, and your neighbors to call to action. Together, we can improve regulations of unsavory care facilities, create measurable criteria for successful recovery standards, and implement them in every neighborhood that needs it.
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