Addiction comes in many forms, and though someone can get addicted to just about anything, alcohol and drugs are two of the most common and the most harmful. Addiction plays by its own rules. It is the only disease that tells the user that they don’t have a disease, and that everything is just fine, when in reality, it is in chaos.
Unfortunately, with drugs and alcohol abuse, the pit gets deeper as the addiction goes on. Often, the first signs are in the body, but as the abuse continues, it affects emotional and mental issues that can’t be seen.
Whatever addiction an individual is struggling with, whether it’s methamphetamines, prescription drugs, hallucinogenic, ecstasy, alcohol or marijuana, there is hope and they can get clean. To be successful in breaking the addictive cycle one day at a time means only committing to yourself and not giving up. No one became an addict overnight, and no one can recover overnight either.
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Everything Changes
Being addicted is defined as being abnormally dependent to some substance or habit. This compulsion affects every part of the user, both physically and psychologically to varying degrees. The dependence changes everything about thought patterns and habits in life, as well as the addict’s behaviors and perspective on life. As the addict stays clean and sober, it takes longer for the emotional and mental issues to recover, than it does the body.
In order to get clean and stay clean, the individual has to make changes. Change is not easy, but for the addict, their success depends on it. As an addict recovers, they bring honesty, responsibility and accountability back into their lives, and for that to occur, it means change.
Substance Abuse Treatment
The first step is to go to a young adult recovery program so that the body to be cleansed of the chemicals. The stay at detox typically lasts three to eight days in a supervised environment. There should be a physician on duty 24 hours in case there are any problems. When the addict leaves, the drugs have had a chance to get out of the body, but the individual is not sober. To get into recovery and learn to manage their behavior and addiction, substance abuse treatment is needed.
Recovery
Recovery begins after detox, when they enter a treatment center. Up until this point, the addict has still been making decisions based on their “old behavior.” Nothing has changed except that most of the substance has left their body. This is a huge step for an alcoholic or addict, and they have to make the decision themselves.
But the solution to recovering from substance abuse lies in changing the habits that kept them addicted. Physically, improvement is noticed in a month, but the addict became accustomed to their addictive habits, and these poor behaviors take longer to change.
In a treatment center, all the basics are provided. Nutritious food, comfortable living arrangements, fitness and exercise, and information on their disease of addiction, and how it has affected them. Education on how to change their lifestyle by unlearning the dependent characteristics that were learned will offer them a new start. The treatment center will allow the addict to succeed.
There will be bumps along the road of recovery, but with an excellent inpatient treatment program, staffed with experienced counselors and doctors who care, the newly sober addict will succeed in a new way of life.
