Addiction Treatment

Why might I need addiction treatment?

You’ll benefit from addiction treatment if you develop substance use disorder. This condition arises when you can’t control your need for an addictive substance such as alcohol, illegal drugs like heroin, or prescription medications (mainly opioid painkillers). Activities like gambling can also develop into serious addictions.

When you first use an addictive substance, the pleasurable feelings it gives you are intense, and you want to experience them again. You keep using, hoping to achieve the same high, but the intensity decreases as your body adjusts to the drug. You take more or stronger drugs or use them in new ways, then find you can’t go for long without another fix.

As addiction worsens, nothing else seems so important. Your work and home life suffer, you get into debt, and your health deteriorates. Without help, people with substance use disorder often lose their homes, families, and livelihoods. You could die if you overdose or your street drugs are contaminated.

Addiction treatment helps you halt and reverse this decline and regain your health and self-respect.

What does addiction treatment involve?

Addiction treatment typically includes medication and psychotherapy. Medications like buprenorphine help reduce the withdrawal effects you’ll likely experience when you stop taking heroin or prescription opioids, which may include:

• Nausea and vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Trembling
• Sweating
• Pain
• Dizziness
• Dry mouth
• Cravings

These effects are so unpleasant they make quitting hard, but medications reduce them to far more tolerable levels. You must visit your primary care provider or a licensed medical professional to prescribe addiction medications. To qualify for their use, you must also commit to therapy with an experienced provider like Derek Baker.

What role does therapy play in addiction treatment?

Psychotherapy is vital for all addictions and will likely be your primary treatment if you have an addiction like gambling. Derek uses various approaches to help people recover from addiction.

Techniques like cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and mindfulness-based cognitive-behavioral therapy (MBCT) help you deal with daily challenges. Therapy also enables you to explore the issues making you vulnerable to addiction, like abuse or excessive stress, and build your self-confidence.

With Derek’s help, you can move past your addiction and get your life back. Call Logos Mental Health and Wellness, to learn more, or book an appointment online today.