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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Prescription drug overdoses kill more people than heroin and cocaine combined. According to a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in September, it’s the number one killer of young people in the U.S. Auto accidents rank second. Prescription addiction is a serious issue and all too often, begins close to home. Today, many addiction treatment centers provide a “quick-fix” clean up, and normally discharge patients after twenty-eight days. Over 90% of the patients that make it to rehab, relapse. Is there a solution to this deadly pill popping epidemic that’s sweeping the nation and killing our youth?
Addiction needs resources to survive; whether it’s turning a blind-eye, complete denial, or assisting with financial and emotional support, enablers rarely realize when they are doing an addict more harm than good. When dealing with a treatment-resistant addict, a professional intervention is the only course of action to prompt them to abandon their death-march and move towards treatment and recovery. A professionally performed intervention will help accomplish a host of tasks simultaneously. By meeting with the family, financial supporters and other stake-holders, the interventionist will help establish a consensus and identify the cast of enablers. Then, they will help move the group from enabling to establishing the boundaries that must be enforced should the addict not be willing to accept help at the intervention.
Finding an addiction treatment facility, like Origins Recovery Centers, that cares for the entire spectrum: Mind, Body and Spirit with a strategy in place upon discharge, is crucial. You don’t treat cancer with a quick shot and a pat on the back, yet people believe addiction can be treated with that approach. This is a disease and must be treated as such. To get to the real causes, we must analyze and determine the underlying root triggers. With that data, we can formulate a personalized treatment regimen that addresses the individual’s disease. Another area that perpetuates the problem is the length of care. The only way to offer hope and lasting sobriety is through a prolonged program and the creation of a post-treatment foundation designed to sustain success.
Top Ten Reasons Why Addicts Relapse Post Rehab:
10) Loved ones are not involved or educated about the addict’s treatment process. People of relevance in an addict’s life must be willing to understand the chronic disease model of addiction and be intolerant of anything other than a recovery-based lifestyle for an addict. Relapse is fostered via well-intentioned enablers unaware to the true nature of what it means to be recovered.
9) An individual who might be the perfect inpatient is often left to fend for themselves upon discharge. Comprehensive and professionally managed relapse prevention and accountability programs must be automatically included in a treatment center’s offerings. Monitoring substantially reduces the chance of relapse; coupled with prolonged step-down continued care, the newly recovered can apply the principles of treatment into their lives and not be consumed by the same environment that fostered their addiction.
8) Recovering addicts are routinely dispensed problematic, controlled substances prone to abuse. Better education is required throughout society, and not just within the medical community, regarding what medications are appropriate for a person in recovery.
7) Co-occurring pathology is not addressed specifically in the treatment center. As is the case with the majority of female addicts, there is an underlying issue of trauma and mental illness fueling their addiction. These issues must be properly diagnosed and treated.
6) Patients are forced to follow a treatment center’s course of action, instead of receiving a regimen designed specifically for their individual needs. Treatment centers must provide customized care for each individual patient.
5) Pharmaceutical-based programs mask the addict’s underlying problems, the school of thought being, an addiction can be treated solely with drugs. While some pharmaceuticals can be utilized, the key to long-term success is a complete and multidisciplinary approach that heals the mind, body and spirit in tandem.
4) Co-ed treatment fosters a dependence on inappropriate behavior between similarly-affected individuals. There should never be commingling of the sexes at treatment centers since patients need to focus on their recovery and not trading one dependency for another.
3) The revolving door system is directly related to an absence of financial incentives for treatment centers to help a person achieve permanent sobriety. Outcome-based reimbursement must be incorporated into a system that seeks to properly align the incentives of a treatment center with the best interests of the patient.
2) Diluted 12-Step programs have abandoned core messages and lost their overall impact. The fundamental 12-Step principles and plan of action must be reverted to their original practice and purpose.
1) The standard 30 day treatment program is nowhere near enough time for an addict to transition from Detox to In-Recovery, let alone to a Recovered state. Addicts have spent years in a state of substance dependence. At the very minimum, a patient needs 90 days of care, followed by 24 months of continued aftercare services, if they really want their neuro-chemistry, behaviors and coping skills to be retrained to achieve long-term sobriety.
Benjamin A. Levenson – Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder of Origins Recovery Centers®
Ben Levenson brings the defining vision and executive leadership to the Origins organization. His passion for recovery and empathy for helping those chemically dependent stems from his own harrowing battle with chronic drug and alcohol addiction, along with his in & out experience with treatment centers. After witnessing firsthand what works and what doesn’t, coupled with his extraordinary recovery experience, Ben launched Origins Recovery Center as an enduring beacon of hope to those afflicted and their families. Ben has charged Origins with a legacy to continually develop, provide and improve upon highly-effective systems of multidisciplinary drug and alcohol addiction treatment. Ben’s passion keeps him on the ‘front lines,’ where he speaks publicly on addictions treatment issues and lobbies for greater availability of quality treatment. He enjoys frequent interaction with Origins’ clients and their families through various workshops and discussions he conducts at the campus.
For further information: www.originsrecovery.com
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