Recovering from substance abuse is always a long and arduous journey. However, once someone overcomes their addictions, they can be proud. As a result, they have conquered one of the biggest challenges they’ll ever face.

Undergoing such radical change is empowering, but it does require a robust strategy to get the person through it. This article will walk you through three common approaches to treating the problem. First, you might be the one seeking help. Alternatively, you might be looking for advice for a loved one.

Therapy And Counseling? What Does It Involve?

Usually, therapy and counseling are used as a foundation for treating substance abuse. For example, counselors and psychologists work together during these sorts of interventions. They try to get to the root cause of an individual’s addiction. This mostly comprises talking therapies. For instance, this is some form of CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy). It seeks to restructure the person’s thinking patterns by directly tackling negative behaviors and computations, like the abuse of substances.

Counseling is used with psychotherapy. Moreover, it provides benefit simply through someone impartial to talk to. Furthermore, this person can often offer a novel take on the situation.

According to SAMHSA, between 85% and 95% of people who complete a drug and alcohol treatment program report still being drug-free nine months later.

There are several different types of therapy and counseling, and the best approach is one tailored carefully to the individual.

What Is The Medical Detox Process Like?

Treatment for substance abuse doesn’t only involve purely mental intervention, of course. When someone stops using drugs and alcohol, their bodies go through an intense stage of withdrawal. It can even be the case that withdrawal is so intense that it leads to heart problems and seizures.

During a medical detox, the healthcare team works to mitigate the risks associated with withdrawal through careful medication, enabling them to transition smoothly into the next phase of recovery.

In this way, the medical detox often represents the start of treatment; Centers like Serenity at Summit, for example, offer this sort of service as part of a holistic approach that tackles addiction from all angles.

How Do Peer Support Networks Help Recovery?

Aside from traditional therapies and medication, a key pillar of recovery is talking to family, friends, and other like-minded individuals who have been through or are going through the same journey.

According to an NIH-affiliated study, participants in a peer-support recovery program saw their risk of relapse drop from 24% to just 7% over a six-month period.

Peer support networks form the latter part of that equation: groups of individuals going through the recovery process sit down and talk together about their struggles, helping to combat one of the major roadblocks of substance abuse – feelings of loneliness and isolation. The sorts of bonds formed within these groups hold a lot of weight, and many times, when adhesion to the core therapies falters, it’s the support provided through these means that get the person back on track.

Wrapping Up.

Substance abuse is a multifactorial issue, requiring many different disciplines to combine to provide the most effective, long-lasting treatment for the individual. If you’re going through such a problem yourself or have a family member or close friend who is, know that help is always available; very few people can recover via one method alone, but with a strategic approach and consistency on all fronts, anyone can overcome it.