It is important for drug addicts to undergo rehab before it is too late. Many people have died of drug overdose and you don’t want this to happen to your loved ones.
Freedom from drugs does not end at the drug rehab center but it is a lifelong process that you need to deal with every day. This is why it is important to develop strategies for handling difficult situations and emotions. This is why drug addiction therapy is very important. With therapy, you will be able to cope without using drugs or getting high. But there are many kinds of therapies that you can use.
If you have unhealthy behavior patterns, then behavioral therapy helps you to get rid of them and change them to healthy ones. When you are faced with situations that encourage drug use, you will be taught how to change your behavior responses. Here you will learn how to deal with difficult situations through learning new behaviors. You might be tempted to go back to drugs but your new behavior can win over this in difficult situations. Your poor behavioral decisions will be removed from you and you will be trained with positive behaviors. You can view this as your brain being re-wired.
Cognitive behavioral therapy emphasizes on thoughts and feelings behind your behavior. The situations that trigger you to use drugs will be analyzed in this therapy. Your feelings will be discussed. Here your feelings about yourself and drug use will be analyzed. Thought distortions will be changed to healthier views of oneself. You should analyze your thought and let harmful thoughts be taken from your mind.
Contingency management is also a behavioral therapy used for drug and alcohol abuse. In order to re-wire the brain, the person is given positive reinforcement to help them abstain from substance abuse. Rewards are given for small achievements like a clean drug test, being present at support groups, and others. Aside from material rewards, you also get interpersonal rewards like improving relationships with family and friends, being able to hold a job and getting complimnts for your health. Sobriety will then be seen as something positive and will encourage perseverance.
In reconciling broken relationships that occurred during drug addiction days, family therapy is important. This gives you an opportunity to show your family that you are trying to recover and that they too might understand your addiction.
Group therapy will give you the support of other addicts on the same path as you. These are the people that addicts can seek support and people who can relate to them in ways that others can’t. You don’t have to speak, listening in therapy is enough. This is the reason why group therapy is a big part of residential treatment centers.