Aspects of Successful Drug Rehabilitation

Weaning a person off drugs or other substances is not always an easy task. The notion that rehabilitation only requires the person to stop using the drug they are hooked on is an erroneous one. Properly done rehabilitation is a complex process which entails many aspects among them the ones discussed below. Without these aspects, it would be almost impossible to carry out successful rehabilitation.

Detoxification

Plainly speaking, detoxification is the process by which the body gets rid of a drug. The process of detoxification is the primary one when it comes to rehabilitation. Without the body being rid of the drugs, the rehabilitation process would not be termed to be effective. The way the detoxification is carried out also determines the effectiveness of the rehabilitation in general. If it is hurried, it will not be done well even when the level of addiction was not a serious one.

Behavioral counseling

Behavioral counselling is carried out together with other rehabilitation procedures to ensure that one is fully weaned from the drugs. Research into drug addiction has revealed that addictions are never just about the drug alone. Often, there is an underlying issue which induced the person to seek comfort in drugs. If these underlying issues are not dealt with by the behavioral counseling sessions, the rehabilitation process will not be a successful one.

Medication

Besides detoxification and behavioral counseling, some forms of addiction require the use of drugs to rid the body of them. Those hooked on alcohol, tobacco and opioids may require medication to help accelerate the process of detoxification. It does not, however, mean that one will skip any other parts of the rehabilitation process. For example, these medications will be accompanied by behavioral counseling and other exercises which ensure that one fully recovers from the addiction. Keep in mind that drug addictions may take a while and a combination of intervention procedures to get rid of them.

Evaluation and treatment of any mental issues

Drug and substance abuse is often accompanied with other issues of the mind such as anxiety and depression. There can never be any successful rehabilitation without dealing with these issues. The relationship between the addiction and the mental problems is two-way in nature. Either the addiction caused the mental issues, or the mental issues caused the addictions. Proper rehabilitation ought to establish this aspect.

Long-term follow-up

After one leaves a given rehabilitation program, there is always the need to have a follow-up done for the long term. To begin with, the aim of this follow-up process is to prevent a relapse into the use of the drug. Cases of relapse into drug use have always been there especially when the will of the former addict is too weak to resist the urge to use the drugs again. Even the most successful of rehabilitation programs always have the issue of relapses. It has thus led to the need to have a proper method of following up the rehabilitation process for the best results.

It can be seen that the rehabilitation process has these five main aspects. However, it should be known that it is never a black and white aspect as a lot goes into the rehabilitation. It all depends on how deep one had gone into the addiction and the substance they are addicted to.

Author Bio: Rana Tarakji is an entrepreneur and a contributing writer at Stylerail, a lifestyle blog, as well as Sataco, an electro mechanical company in Beirut.

Carl

Carl Clay is a health blog author who has been writing about nutrition, fitness and healthy living for over 10 years. He also loves to run, hike and bike with her wife.