When it comes to effectively treating drug and alcohol addiction, the treatment professionals at Enterhealth agree that the various components of a successful recovery plan all need to work together to treat not just the addiction, but also the underlying psychological issues, physical ailments and real-life stressors which may have shaped the addiction in the first place.
Addiction treatment involves people from all walks of life and all stages of addiction. It’s not strange to see adults with powerful corporate jobs who have been maintaining habits for decades working on their recovery alongside high school and college-aged kids whose addictions rapidly spiraled out of control within a few months or years.
For these reasons and more, Enterhealth believes that the best approach to addiction treatment is a holistic one which pairs each individual patient with the best components of treatment to suit their needs. This means that the individual components of a successful recovery for one person aren’t necessarily be the same for everyone and that all patients need to have a customized plan.
Continuum of Care: Elements of Multidimensional Treatment
If you’ve done any research on addiction treatment or been in the addiction-treatment field, you’ve probably heard the term “continuum of care,” which refers to the various components of the addiction treatment process. For those who aren’t familiar with the concept, it generally goes like this: Patients are usually admitted and interviewed at an inpatient treatment facility, where they begin to detox (also known as medically assisted withdrawal stabilization). Following drug and alcohol detox, they can begin inpatient treatment. After their stay at inpatient, they transition either back to their home or to a sober-living house, and they continue with their treatment through an outpatient facility. That’s a broad overview, and there are always exceptions, so let’s go a little more in-depth.
Whether a patient needs to start at the inpatient level or outpatient level, the first step is getting to know the patient. This allows psychologists and physicians to obtain the information they need to create a roadmap for the treatment regimen. Next, most patients need to detox to remove all of the unwanted substances from their systems. This is where medication-assisted treatment (MAT) comes into play. Utilizing the latest FDA-approved anti-addiction medications allows patients to detox with fewer of the uncomfortable side effects, cravings and other issues which come along with drug or alcohol withdrawal. If not done correctly, drug and alcohol detox can be detrimental to the patient’s health and ability to continue with the program.
The drug and alcohol detox process is an important step for obvious reasons, but for not-so-obvious reasons as well. Patients frequently enter treatment with psychological and physical issues. Common psychological issues include depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder and various psychoses, and typical physical issues range from cognition challenges to reduced organ function, injuries and more. These issues may be the cause of a patient’s addiction, such as a person using drugs or alcohol to numb pain from an old injury or calm their mind when feeling stressed. These issues can also be a result of the addiction itself, such as psychosis, cognition problems due to brain shrinking/damage and a host of other injuries. Sometimes the addiction simply exacerbates a pre-existing condition, as is commonly the case with people who are bipolar or depressed and have a problem with substance abuse.
This is why detox is such an important step: Once the patient’s system is clean, clinicians get their first glimpse of the actual person rather than the disease of addiction.
The next point in the continuum of care is inpatient treatment, where much of the education and therapy comes into play; where families are highly encouraged to participate and where many of the discoveries are made about and (hopefully) by the patient. Many patients who finish detoxing and begin therapy can finally view their lives and their addiction from a broader perspective – a much easier thing to do when your brain is no longer clouded by drugs or alcohol.
Each person comes into treatment with a host of issues unique to him or her, and the remedies need to reflect this. Some patients will have their family get heavily involved, others may not have family and may need to establish safe support systems to help them after their stay. Different patients may also require different modalities of treatment. For example, a person who uses because they suffered a traumatic event would be an ideal candidate for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), which is used to lessen the negative impact of traumatic memories and work to associate them with empowering thoughts.
No matter what the unique issues of patients, the goal is to provide a safe, comfortable and drug-free environment where patients can come to terms with why they use alcohol or drugs and learn what they can do to prevent it from happening again.
The final point on the continuum of care we will discuss is outpatient treatment. This is another crucial part of the continuum, as it helps to further instill the lessons patients may have learned at inpatient, and it also helps them to readjust to life outside of treatment while still having the support network of professional caregivers to turn to if they get overwhelmed.
Not everyone is going to need to go through every level in the continuum of care. Some may only need to detox and then move to outpatient; some may only need outpatient therapy. Obviously this is decided on a case-by-case basis and depends upon the severity of the addiction and the physical and mental health of the patient.
It’s important to keep in mind that just as addiction is a progressive brain disease, recovery is a progressive remedy. This means that the components of a successful recovery and the kinds of things patients need to work on will change over time.
This is the crux of treatment for most people: Through education and therapy during treatment, the hope is that patients will come to terms with the underlying issues which led them down the road to addiction and move from being motivated by external consequences such as threats or ultimatums from family members, legal issues, loss of a job or school expulsion to being internally motivated to take responsibility for their recovery. Whether their addiction was the result of trauma, depression, loss, shame or a litany of other issues, the patient needs to recognize the cause or causes and really want to change before he or she can reestablish a positive sense of self and purpose, both of which foster sustainability in recovery.
Addiction Treatment with Enterhealth
Enterhealth offers premier drug and alcohol addiction treatment across the continuum of care at our multiple locations. Enterhealth Ranch, our inpatient treatment facility just north of DFW, employs a variety of methods and behavioral therapies, along with Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), psychological feedback therapy and more.
Our Enterhealth Outpatient Center of Excellence in the Park Cities area of North Dallas offers a broad range of therapeutic services for ongoing addiction management, including our Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) and Supportive Outpatient Program (SOP). Additionally, Enterhealth now offers outpatient care via our HIPAA-compliant telehealth portal. This allows patients access to private and group therapy sessions over a secure connection using their laptop, smartphone or other mobile device.
To learn more about drug and alcohol addiction treatment or to inquire about using Enterhealth’s services for you or a loved one, call 1.800.388.4601 or contact us today.
