Questions and Answers
Questions and Answers
Do I have a problem with drugs or alcohol?
If the subject has come up the answer is often yes, or there would not be a question at all. Normally functioning people do not ask the question because the matter has not become an issue in their lives. Use of legal drugs and alcohol can be socially responsible. But if the use has lead to undesirable consequences, such as strained or broken relationships, poor job performance, loss of job, or difficulty functioning without the aid of the substance (in the case of legitimate prescriptions, using more and more often then recommended).
If you think there is a problem you should get an assessment or evaluation form a trained profession. It is designed to determine if there is a problem and the best approach to helping with it. Treatment always looks for the least disruptive level of care to help deal with the problem. For many that truly have addiction the first level is outpatient care. This is usually something on the order of 6 hours per week in both group and individual treatment. Next would be intensive outpatient which is more of the same but with additional hours of contact, something around 12 hours per week. The next step is usually residential treatment where the client is living in a controlled environment so that the complex of issues surrounding the continued use can be focused on and given the attention necessary.
What do I do if the person who needs treatment is denying that there is a problem at all?
This is a difficult one. Most people do not change until the find something in their life that they perceive as wrong and they get tied of dealing with it and make the effort to change. Addiction takes the unwillingness to change to a whole new level. The person who is actively using needs to see that the the things in their life they still value are now at risk. That may be access to their children, the marriage or relationship, the relationship with family, job, and even their freedom. If they start to understand what is at risk they start to come to see what is at stake. The trick is that all involved need to be committed to the effort to show them. If persons in their life have and continue to ‘put up’ with the behavior even helping to provide money and other elements of their comfort, from the affected person’s perspective, “things are still working out”. Very often the agreement to ‘go to treatment’ is a reaction to the pressure of others pushing them in that direction. While motives may be more about appeasing the persons insisting than a true commitment to change, many do enter treatment very ambivalent about entering true abstinence.
Why go to Residential Treatment:
The reasons are all about the severity of the addiction and the degree to which the intensity at the ‘front’ end needs to be high enough to get some of the changes in place. Many do well in outpatient and should be in that setting. It is much less disruptive for the Clint and their families. While in treatment in outpatient the client is still in the midst of the life that they will have to deal with going forward no matter where they start. For some however the need to separate the client from virtually all of the ‘real’ and concentrate on the issues of addiction is a must in order to get recovery started. It is imperative that the client and those involved with the client understand that if a person needs residential care at the start of the process they will need to continue to receive professional help in the form of outpatient care for some time after they complete residential care. There is not magic amount of treatment, but the statistics show that longer is always more effective. Certainly for the typical client we see they need to think in terms of two years of concerted effort involving some kind of contact with ongoing support and or treatment. Form many a key component can be regular and dedicated participation in recovery support groups like AA nor NA (Alcoholic’s Anonymous and Narcotic’s Anonymous).