Types of Treatment

There are different types of treatment depending upon the severity and nature of the individual's drug addiction. In all cases though, detoxification is only the initial step towards recovery, and by itself does little to change long-term drug use. Detoxification safely manages the acute physical symptoms of withdrawal associated with stopping drug use. While detoxification alone is rarely sufficient to help addicts achieve long-term abstinence, for some individuals it is a strongly indicated precursor to effective drug addiction treatment.

The appropriate duration for an individual in drug addiction treatment depends on his or her problems and needs. Research indicates that for most patients, the threshold of significant improvement is reached at about 3 months in treatment. After this threshold is reached, additional drug addiction treatment can produce further progress toward recovery. There are no quick fixes for drug addiction and alcoholism. Recovery is an ongoing process. The skills one learns during intensive drug addiction treatment must be integrated into everyday life and this takes time. Though there are a variety of different types of treatment available, all must include strategies for keeping the person in treatment, skills to help the individual handle everyday situations that may cause trouble once they have completed the program, and guidance and counseling towards understanding the individuals initial reasons for drug addiction.

Several types of treatment options involve substituting one drug for another, such as methadone treatment. Other drug treatment methods lead individuals to believe that they are powerless over their addiction and resign themselves to a life of continual recovery. These methods not only do not work, they are not healthy. Continuing to take medication puts stress on the individual not only physically, but mentally as well. Believing that you are powerless over your addictions leaves the individual feeling out of control and without a firm grasp of complete recovery.

Methadone Maintenance Treatment
Methadone Maintenance is the dispensing of methadone in the treatment of an individual for dependence on heroin or other morphine like drugs. Methadone acts in the brain to decrease the feeling of pain and to reduce emotional response to pain. In adequate doses Methadone, can usually suppress a heroin addict's craving and withdrawal for 24 hours. Patients are as physically dependent on methadone as they were to heroin or other opiates, such as OxyContin or Vicodin. Individuals who choose to use Methadone Maintenance as a form of drug treatment may find that they are using Methadone for many years after they start their "treatment" process. Additionally, Methadone is known to be more difficult to withdrawal from than heroin. Methadone maintenance involves more time, pain, and expense than heroin withdrawal.

12 Step Treatment

1. We admit we are powerless over our dependencies and that our lives have become unmanageable.
2. We come to believe that God can restore us to sanity.
3. We make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God.
4. We make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. We admit to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. We are entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. We humbly ask God to remove our shortcomings.
8. We make a list of all persons we have harmed and become willing to make amends to them all.
9. We make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. We continue to take personal inventory and when we are wrong promptly admit it.
11. We seek through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as revealed through the person of Jesus Christ, praying only for knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, which is the revelation of Jesus Christ, we try to carry this message to others and to practice these Biblical principles in all our affairs.

Using the 12 Step drug treatment method individuals continue to attend meetings after leaving drug treatment and believe that they will never "recover" from their drug addiction. This drug treatment program may leave many feeling powerless and hopeless of ever ending their battle with drug addiction. Although the 12 step programs may work for some, its success rate leaves many individuals still struggling with drug addiction.

Outpatient Care
This form of care uses a broad verity of techniques such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, problem-solving groups, and 12-step programs. Similar to long-term residential programs, individuals possibly will stay for several months. Outpatient programs have a low success rate with heavily addicted individuals. Those who moderately abuse drugs or alcohol may find that this form of care is enough to end their drug abuse problems.

Inpatient Short-Term Rehabilitation
This type of treatment program is different from other types of programs. Individuals who attend an inpatient short-term rehab center are provided with substance abuse treatment for approximately 30 days. Typically this form of recovery is run by medical professionals and trained counselors. The primary focus of inpatient short-tem rehabilitation is on medical stabilization, abstinence, and lifestyle changes. Care at an inpatient short-term rehab provides the individual with concentrated but short (hence the name) help that is primarily founded in a modified 12-step approach.

Inpatient Long-Term Rehabilitation
Care at an inpatient long-term residential program is provided 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Drug addiction recovery in a residential community consists of counselors and others who are attending the same program. This type of rehabilitation program typically runs anywhere from several months to a year or more.

Residential care is conducted in non-clinical settings which are also known as therapeutic communities. These types of programs may also include additional aspects to their treatment strategies such as social education.