Medical Detox vs Addiction Treatment
If you or a loved one has ever battled addiction and sought out addiction recovery care to get sober, you may have heard the term medical detox before. However, you may not know how it’s different from addiction treatment. If you’re an addiction recovery specialist, you’ve probably encountered your fair share of people who have conflated the terms and at the time didn’t understand the difference between the two. Regardless, whether you’ve been affected by addiction yourself or you’re an addiction recovery care provider, it’s important to know what makes each distinct and be able to effectively articulate it to others. Here, we’ll be going over what makes a medical detox different from addiction treatment, the kind of addiction treatment we provide at Flatirons Recovery, and the addiction recovery process as a whole.
What is a Medical Detox?
Detoxification, or detox, describes a process of removing a substance from the body until no traces remain, in this case, drugs and alcohol. Medical detox also aims to manage withdrawal symptoms when an individual has stopped using drugs or alcohol, making users feel more comfortable as these substances leave their bodies. It can take days, weeks, even months to get through these withdrawal symptoms, and a medical detox may also take an extended period of time. The length of the detox depends on several factors – the specific drugs and alcohol in a person’s system, how long they’ve been addicted to these substances, the method of use, family history, and any underlying medical conditions.
Detox is never something one should do at home because it can be dangerous and even deadly. Quitting “cold turkey” and without medical supervision may lead to seizures, severe dehydration, other serious issues, and even death in some cases. Medical professionals will evaluate patients for physical and mental issues and take a blood sample to determine how much drugs or alcohol are in their system to determine the necessary amount of medication needed and will be there should issues arise.
Medical detoxes aren’t widely regarded as a suitable form of addiction treatment on their own because a user can end up relapsing afterward, starting a whole new cycle to begin. That’s where addiction recovery treatment comes in.
While we do not provide medical detox at Flatiron Recovery, we help our clients coordinate the entire detox process. This includes finding a reputable provider, coordinating door-to-door transportation, and working closely with the medical team to create a seamless process.
What is Addiction Recovery Treatment?
Addiction recovery treatment helps restore health, well-being, and happiness to the lives of individuals struggling with substance dependence and abuse. Because different people need different care to help them get and stay sober, there are a variety of addiction treatment options they can choose from. The more involved a patient is in their treatment, the more successful it will be.
These addiction treatment options include inpatient and outpatient rehab, sober living homes, and detoxification. Often times, addiction recovery treatment will start with a medical detox so a patient does not have any substances left in their body and has already gone through withdrawals. That way, withdrawal symptoms do not distract from the treatment. Treatment often also includes group therapy, family therapy, psychiatry, experimental programming, holistic medicine, and anything else a provider may think will help a patient make a full recovery. The various forms of treatment aim to help the patient focus on what can be done to prevent a relapse, develop coping skills, and address the underlying root cause(s) of their addiction. Treatment can be customized to meet the needs of the individual, but most forms of addiction recovery treatment programs ensure individuals are actively involved every step of the way. You can read more about the addiction recovery treatment we provide here.
Following addiction treatment, many continue to attend support groups and therapy sessions to continue reinforcing the lessons and coping mechanisms they learned in treatment.
Recovering from addiction is not an easy process, but it helps to have friends, family, and medical professionals like the ones at Flatirons Recovery by your side throughout the process. We deliver evidence-based and compassionate programs for addiction and focus on healing the whole individual rather than just focusing on one aspect of a patient’s life. Call to learn more about our addiction treatment services and how we can help your or a loved one get on the path to living a sober, healthy, happy, and more fulfilling life. You can also find more information on addiction treatment here.
