Drug Rehab Program

According to the National Institute on Drugs Abuse (NIDA), 22.5 million people aged 12 or older used illicit drugs or abused psychotherapeutic medications in the United States. The overall annual cost of lost work productivity, crime, and healthcare in America due to illicit drug use is $193 billion.

Addiction to drugs is a serious mental health issue plaguing individuals from all walks of life. Researchers in the field of psychology found out that a person's genetic predisposition to be addicted to something and the environmental triggers such as chaotic upbringing make an individual susceptible to drug addiction. The most common addictive drugs are marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, LSD, and club drugs.

How Addictive Drugs Work

Addictive drugs generally target the pleasure centers of the brain by flooding them with dopamine, a neurotransmitter that plays a vital role in controlling a person's behavior by affecting the movement, motivation, emotion, and feeling of euphoria. Addictive drugs artificially elevate the brain's dopamine levels to a high degree.

Over time, chronic drug users will no longer produce enough dopamine to achieve the usual high they experienced during the early use of drugs. The decrease in the brain's dopamine levels can cause a person to feel less pleasure from things in everyday life. This causes drug abusers to take larger doses of drugs to achieve their desired feeling of euphoria.

Crucial Need for a Drug Rehab Program

Medical and psychological experts are not exaggerating when they say that the decision of a chronic drug dependent to get into a drug rehab program is a matter of life and death. Consistent abuse of drugs can damage a person's brain, liver, heart, and other vital body organs. Drug addiction also damages the relationships of the drug abusers, and even puts the safety of their loves ones and the society at risk due to their tendency to commit crimes whether to support their drug dependency or due the effects of drugs to their brain.

Elements of a Drug Rehab Program

Drug rehabilitation refers to all types of psychological and medical treatments for individuals dependent on any psychoactive substance. The main purpose of a drug rehab program is to ensure that drug dependents stop abusing and using addictive substances in order to prevent the physical, social, legal, financial, and psychological consequences of drug abuse. Generally, a drug rehab program runs from detoxification, medication if necessary, behavioral therapy, cognitive therapy, and relapse prevention. Rehabilitation usually focuses on the patient's medical needs and mental health care with support systems such as family-based support or community-based support to ensure recovery.

Addressing Psychological Dependency

There are different types of drug rehabilitation programs available in a variety of care institutions such as outpatient care centers, mental health centers, local support groups, sober houses, addiction counseling centers, and residential treatment centers. Some programs are age or gender-specific. Regardless of the type of program, it can be highly effective if the treatment or rehabilitation focuses on the drug dependent's variety of needs rather than focusing on drug addiction alone.

Addressing Behavioral Issues

The behavioral therapy approaches used in a drug rehab program vary depending of the behavioral issues exhibited by a person addicted to drugs. In behavioral therapy, program therapists help the patients to identify, avoid, and cope with certain situations that may cause them to relapse. Therapists also conduct motivational interviews on patients to motivate them to undergo treatment, behavioral change, and to adhere to the therapeutic approaches used in a drug rehab program. The program typically uses motivational incentives to reinforce the patients' commitment to willful abstinence from abused substances.

Addressing Cognitive Issues

In cognitive therapy, the treatment is based upon the principle that the individuals addicted to drugs have certain feelings, beliefs, and fears that have made them susceptible to drug abuse. Some people seriously thought of themselves as losers or failures in the society and needed to take drugs to relax their minds. The first time they took drugs, they believed that they would be able to manage their situations. They ceaselessly took drugs until the addiction worsened. Professional cognitive therapists make a persistent effort to uncover the drug abusers' beliefs, critically analyze them, and demonstrate to the patients the uselessness of their beliefs. In a drug rehab program, therapists alter the patients' beliefs that caused them to be addicted to drugs in order to help patients strengthen their ability to overcome relapse and to completely recover.