Drug addiction treatment
Drug addiction is a disease. It is neither a moral weakness nor a sin. It is a disease which can be treated and arrested like any other disease. If treated at an early stage- recovery is better. The only way to recover from this disease is by leaving the drug totally. Through proper treatment and counselling one is made to understand the ways of maintaining a drug free life.
A long term follow-up, attendance of meetings and rehabilitation is very necessary.
Relapses are part of this disease. When a relapse occurs, accept them as part of the disease. Dont get frustrated. Help the addict to get back to the recovery path. Today the drug abuser or addict is not treated as an outlaw. Like diabetes it is a disease, largely, a physiologically and psychologically based illness.
This needs to be treated in the same modality as other physically and emotional illnesses. The stress and pains of the realities of life have contributed to the increase of this man-made disease. A large variety of treatment modalities have been developed to save man from its clutches.
There are many kinds of treatment programmes. They can be classified into two types. The first is the chemically based treatment of drug abusers and the second is the nonchemical treatments.
Detoxification: A wide range of components are used in the treatment of drug abusers. Sometimes drugs are used to detoxify individuals who are addicted to a particular substance.
Detoxification is the process where a person is made drug free. This is basically a medical mode of treatment, where certain medicines are given to ease certain symptoms which are called withdrawal symptoms.
A person come in for treatment, the drug or alcohol whichever he is dependent on is stopped and the patient undergoes certain physiological or bodily symptoms and also psychological symptoms.
One method used is to use the same component or related component on a smaller dose. Sometimes it is relatively a new component or medicine used to make the process of withdrawal smooth with less amount of discomfort. Detoxification is not in exclusion and sometimes all three are sequential that is counselling detoxification and rehabilitation. These are treatment processes.
In counselling the person is motivate to seek treatment. The second stage is medical which includes detoxification and looking after the complication and then comes the more in depth treatment and after care, which is rehabilitation.
Most hospitals today have patients from all socio-economic strata. There is no class barrier in drug dependence. The majority is from the lower and middle class back-grounds. Majority of them are brought to the hospital by family members. At times the experience of detoxification is very unpleasant and discomforting for them.
It shows that they are not prepared. Basically, what should be done is preparing the person or motivating him that detoxification is a necessary step and that all discomfort could be eased and totally eliminated and smoothened.
Success rate may vary in detoxification, from scientific committees as well as a laymans view success can be no drug use after treatment and can also be improvement in various human sources- social functioning, occupational functioning, improvement in his status.
This may not be a total stoppage but a reduction to a considerable extent. Drug dependence is a chronic illness, like diabetes, sugar consumption is reduced and the blood sugar is brought under control. In between, there is variation. But it does not mean treatment failure. Total abstention is difficult to achieve in a majority.
A significant percentage will go through various stages of using minimal quantity, in moderation, then give up, then back and so on. This type of cycle goes on. But once they stay clean for at least two years, the chances of going back are negligible. So there is hope!
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