New Year, New You In Addiction Recovery
By: Lakeview Health Staff
Published: December 22, 2020

If your reliance on drugs or alcohol is resulting in the need to consider receiving professional treatment, the severity of your addiction may take an extended period to complete because recovery is a process. Addiction rehab has several defined stages, starting with a thorough assessment. Each stage is vital to your journey through addiction recovery.

If overcoming addiction is part of your New Year’s resolutions, the time is right for recovery. At  Lakeview Health, we can help. Contact our team today at [Direct] for more information.

Detox Is the First Step to Addiction Recovery

Once your care team puts together a treatment plan, the active stages of the addiction recovery process begin. In most instances, it will start with detoxification, often referred to as “detox.”

Detox is necessary because it helps begin a reset of your body to address the negative impacts of addiction. It requires you to stop using drugs or alcohol entirely over time, on a gradual basis.

But it’s not as simple as just stopping. Drugs and alcohol trigger changes in your brain chemistry that are long-lasting. Your brain and body have adapted to the presence of drugs or alcohol, and when you stop supplying it, you can start to experience withdrawal.

Withdrawal symptoms are different for everyone but generally include physical reactions such as:

  • Vomiting
  • Diarrhea or other stomach problems
  • Increased heart rate or blood pressure
  • Insomnia
  • Brain fog, headaches

Some of these symptoms can be extreme. During detox, doctors monitor your condition to make sure you remain stable.

Attending Therapy During Treatment

After detox, you will enter the counseling phase. This is a crucial step in the addiction recovery process. You will meet with an experienced addiction therapist, both one-on-one and in group form, to explore the dynamics of your life as well as your family background. The goal is to try to determine the forces that brought you to a battle with addiction and identify coping skills. This step of the addiction recovery process is vital to completing your new year’s resolution.

Group therapy is helpful as a way of sharing your experiences with peers. Addiction can be lonely and isolating; it’s essential to recognize that you are not alone. You can also get support from peers or a mentor.

Counseling could expand into more focused activities, such as creative arts therapy or outdoors therapy. In this stage of addiction rehab, you’re reprogramming your brain to a sober lifestyle.

Going Beyond the Treatment Center

Addiction recovery does not stop at the treatment center door. In fact, it becomes a lifelong activity. Addiction is a condition that can be treated but is never fully cured. It can recur.

During the aftercare stage, you will face additional challenges — stressful situations that may lure you back toward drugs or alcohol. But during this time, you will also receive additional counseling from therapists and, perhaps most importantly, peer support through groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous.

These resources are aimed at helping you further refine your new skills and to build alliances with advocates who will support you at times when things get tough.

The addiction rehab process has been developed and refined over many years and has demonstrated excellent outcomes. Contact Lakeview Health to learn more.

Trust Lakeview Health for Addiction Treatment

The addiction recovery process requires strength and commitment, plus support and love from your family and friends. It also requires experienced and professional treatment, like the kind you will receive at Lakeview Health. Our team focuses on treatment for substance abuse of all types and co-occurring disorders. We look at you as an individual and build a treatment plan around your unique concerns to guide you through the addiction recovery process. Our accredited medical and counseling staff believes strongly in evidence-based care. Seek the relief you deserve today and make the first step towards completing your new year’s resolution. Speak to a counselor today by calling Lakeview Health at 866 704 7692. Tomorrow is a brighter day.