What is an Outpatient Drug Treatment?

Inpatient treatment, also referred to as residential treatment, provides the highest level of services for patients diagnosed with alcohol or other drug addiction. Typically, inpatient drug programs include medical detox services.Many who struggle with alcoholism find the most success with inpatient rehab treatment. Clients in this program typically begin with inpatient alcohol detox to rid their bodies of any harmful toxins from the drugs or alcohol. If necessary, they may also be prescribed medications to help reduce alcohol cravings or reduce withdrawal symptoms.

Benefits of Outpatient Treatment

Outpatient substance abuse treatment provides those recovering from addiction with much-needed support as they transition back into their everyday lives. It’s important to remember that relapse is most common right after an individual exits residential treatment. The extra encouragement and treatment provided by outpatient care plays an essential role in helping individuals achieve long-term sobriety and addiction recovery. Some key benefits of outpatient substance abuse treatment include:

• Life Skill Development
• Direct Access to Friends and Family
• Flexibility to Work or Attend School

Is an Outpatient Substance Abuse Treatment Program the Right Option for You?

Outpatient rehab is ideal for those who are familiar with the strategies and tools necessary to live life free of addiction but would still like extra support in staying sober. Additionally, outpatient treatment allows those in recovery to return to, or keep up with, work or school obligations while they receive ongoing care.

Why Outpatient Addiction Treatment May Not Be Right at This Time?

For many patients, especially those in need of medically guided detox, outpatient treatment is not an appropriate first step. That’s why it is helpful for those struggling with addiction and their families to work with addiction treatment specialists when searching for care.

The 12 steps to recovery is an effective approach to drug or alcohol addiction treatment we fully embrace.

The 12 Steps were created by the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous to establish guidelines for the best way to overcome an addiction to alcohol. The program gained enough success in its early years for other addiction support groups to adapt the steps to their own needs.

Applying the steps

The 12-step approach to rehabilitation treatment is embraced throughout the world, so it’s always easy to find support where you are or wherever you go. Accordingly, we advise patients to keep in contact with ‘sober supports’ they make during treatment at one of our locations. We also encourage them to continue attending 12-step groups on a regular basis after discharge. Being able to discuss mistakes or relapses, as needed, in a supportive environment helps to keep patients accountable for their actions.

The 12-Step Fellowship

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings
8. Made a list of persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics [addicts] and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Do Psychiatrists Provide Addiction Treatment?

When it comes to addiction treatment, it’s not just psychologists, therapists, and drug and alcohol counselors who work to help you in recovery. Psychiatrists, who are physicians that specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disorders, are just as likely to be part of your addiction treatment.

Understanding Mental Illness

Mental illnesses can take many forms, just as physical illnesses do. Major mental illnesses such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder rarely appear “out of the blue.” Most often family, friends, teachers, or individuals themselves recognize that “something is not quite right” about their thinking, feelings, or behavior before one of these illnesses appears in its full-blown form. Being informed about developing symptoms, or early warning signs, can lead to intervention that can help reduce the severity of an illness. It may even be possible to delay or prevent a major mental illness altogether.

Modern Understanding of Co-occurring Disorders

Most modern psychiatrists view addiction not as a temporary or one-time occurrence, but instead as a chronic disease that must be acknowledged and managed throughout a person’s entire life. Additionally, the field of psychiatry have recently begun exploring the relationships between this disease and other mental health issues that people struggle with. When a person is dealing with both an addiction and one or more mental health concerns simultaneously, he is said to have co-occurring disorders. SAMHSA lists the following most common types of mental health conditions that occur alongside addictions:

• Anxiety
• Attention deficit disorder
• Bipolar disorder
• Borderline personality disorder
• Eating disorders
• Major depression
• Mood disorders
• Post-traumatic stress disorder

Violence

In today’s media reports about mental illness, there is a tendency to emphasize a supposed link between violence and mental illness. News stories regularly suggest that there is a strong connection between mental illness and crime. But the majority of people who are violent do not suffer from mental illnesses. In fact, people with a mental illness are more likely to be the victims, rather than the perpetrators of violence.