Millions of people all over the world are addicted to various drugs, substances and even harmful habits. When addiction occurs certain physical and psychological changes occur within the body of the addict that can make simply quitting very difficult and almost impossible without a great deal of support and assistance. Thankfully, there are outpatient and inpatient addiction treatment programs for nearly any type of addiction that can improve anyone’s odds for success in overcoming addiction. The first step of nearly any addiction treatment program is detox. During detox the addict will quit using the drug, substance or other habit and will probably experience some withdrawal symptoms during this phase. The severity of withdrawal symptoms depends on the substance that was used and how intensely and long it was used. Some withdrawal symptoms are quite mild, and can range from annoying to painful while others are quite severe and can even be life-threatening at times. This is certainly true of alcohol detox and others such as morphine withdrawal. For this reason it is often advisable to go through the detox portion of addiction treatment with some sort of supervision. It is best if detox can occur in a specialized treatment facility with those who are trained to deal with any medical emergencies that can come up during the detox phase. Also those that are specially trained in addiction so that they can begin providing the counseling and support that the addict needs to become free from addiction. Some detox is assisted with medication to ease withdrawal symptoms and detox at other treatment centers does not include medication, but can include non-traditional sources for relief such as vitamin and mineral supplementation to help heal the damage caused by certain addictions. Some provide acupuncture and massage to help deal with painful withdrawal symptoms. After detox it is very important for the addict to receive education about addiction and to learn why they began to use the addiction as a way to cope with their life circumstances. This is an important part of learning how to identify triggers to reuse drugs or other substances, and can help the addict learn how to avoid those people, situations and stresses that might lead to returning to the addiction. At this stage many addiction treatment programs will provide individual and group counseling and will also help train the addict in learning new coping mechanisms and activities to participate in so that they do not resume the addiction. This is all in an effort to combat the psychological aspects of addiction which can be more difficult to overcome than just the physical addiction. Research shows that without this sort of specialized treatment and therapy to deal with the psychological addiction, almost all addicts will relapse. After an addict leaves an addiction treatment program, after care is very important in helping them to remain addiction free as they transition back into society. It can be important for the addict to continue to receive support in their efforts to remain addiction free by attending support group meetings and also additional individual and group counseling. Whether addiction treatment occurs within an inpatient or outpatient facility or whether or not the addict has tried to quit and failed at the efforts in the past, there are treatment programs available that can help anyone who truly wishes to give up their addiction to become successful in overcoming addiction and relearning how to live addiction-free.
