What to Expect from Drug and Alcohol Treatment

(This content is being used for illustrative purposes only; any person depicted in the content is a model.)

What to Expect from Drug and Alcohol Treatment: How It Works

A drug and alcohol treatment facility or program is a medical and residential program that specializes in helping you get off drugs and alcohol. A medical staff monitors you and administers medicine to alleviate your withdrawal symptoms so that your detox and recovery are safe and comfortable.

What to Expect from Drug and Alcohol Treatment: Alcohol Detox

If you are dependent on alcohol, you will require the help that a drug and alcohol treatment program can offer. It’s not safe to go “cold turkey,” suddenly stopping your drinking. The staff at the drug and alcohol treatment facility is trained to help and administer certain medications in order to ease your withdrawal symptoms.

Alcohol withdrawal syndrome is a medical condition that results when you stop drinking once you are physically dependent on alcohol. The withdrawal symptoms from alcohol dependence can range in severity, from mild such as insomnia and anxiety to severe and life-threatening, such as convulsions, which can lead to death. Alcohol withdrawal syndrome can cause seizures, delirium tremens, also known as “the shakes,” anxiety, panic attacks, and paranoia.

What to Expect from Drug and Alcohol Treatment: Drug Detox

The withdrawal symptoms from alcohol and other drugs can be extremely uncomfortable, even painful, psychologically disturbing and can result in death. So much so that, many people in your situation say that the biggest obstacle to their recovery is their fear of withdrawal symptoms. The staff at the drug and alcohol treatment facility can address your withdrawal symptoms from a number of different drugs, not just alcohol.

If you are using opiates, such as the prescription painkillers oxycodone, hydrocodone, methadone or heroin, the withdrawals aren’t life-threatening however, in some cases, people have experienced seizures when they stopped on their own. Alcohol and drug treatment programs can help alleviate your withdrawal symptoms and you will be able to manage them much more comfortably.

If you are dependent on benzos, such as Xanax or Valium, or barbiturates then a medical drug detox is necessary. Just like with alcohol withdrawal syndrome, benzo withdrawal syndrome is potentially fatal. Severe symptoms are seizure, heart failure, stroke, coma, and death.

If you are addicted to amphetamines, such as cocaine and crack, and methamphetamine, such as crystal meth, the withdrawals include uncomfortable and frightening psychological symptoms such as hallucinations and extreme paranoia. The drug and alcohol treatment programs are equipped for treating these symptoms as well.

What to Expect from Drug and Alcohol Treatment: Rehab

After detox, which may last from 4 to 10 days depending on your progress, you will enter the next level of the program offered at your drug and alcohol treatment. A detox program is not enough, on its own.

Real recovery begins with the residential inpatient rehabilitation level of treatment, called “rehab” for short. This can last up to 30 days, which really is only a drop in the bucket compared to a lifetime. At the rehab level, you will reside in a safe and comfortable environment where all of your needs will be met.

You will be kept comfortable, have case management support, and will have medical services provided. You will attend meetings, called groups, where you will learn about substance abuse and be given the tools to use once you complete the program so that you don’t get caught up in drugs and alcohol again. You will also have group and individual therapy sessions where you can address any dual diagnosis, or co-occurring issues such as depression, anxiety, as well as trauma-related issues.

If you or a loved one is struggling with substance abuse or addiction and don’t know what to expect from a drug and alcohol treatment, please call toll-free 1-800-951-6135 so that you can speak directly with an Addiction Specialist. We are available around the clock to answer your questions and help you decide what’s next.