Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a type of mental health treatment founded in the 1960s, and it has shown great success in treating substance misuse disorders. In addition to substance misuse, CBT has been used to address co-occurring disorders like anxiety, bipolar disorder, OCD, eating disorders, and PTSD. If you or a loved one suffers from a substance misuse disorder, CBT might be helpful.
In short, the goal of CBT is to get at the root cause of why someone with a substance misuse problem feels the urge to keep misusing the substance. There are obvious biological factors behind any addiction, but there are psychological factors as well.
People with addictions often keep using based on impulse or habit, sometimes triggered by an emotionally charged memory or an environmental factor. But those reactions aren’t necessarily rational, and CBT can help dissociate the trigger from the reaction.
Cognitive behavioral therapists help those recovering from addiction to recognize their “automatic” thoughts — the thoughts that come up without prompting, set off by bad memories, past trauma, self-doubt, fear, and other negative inputs.
Often, the reaction of someone with a substance misuse problem is to self-medicate, using substances to drown out painful thoughts and feelings. With CBT, people recovering from addiction can learn to create new associations, replacing drug and alcohol use with more positive behaviors.
Destructive, negative thoughts are a common issue for individuals with substance misuse disorders, so changing these thought patterns is essential. For that reason, CBT is an effective treatment for substance misuse, eating disorders, and other mental health issues. CBT is focused on the present, sets clear goals, and focuses on specific problems, which helps patients to stay on track with their treatments.
Pharmaceutical treatments for substance misuse can be extremely helpful in treating the biological symptoms of addiction and withdrawal, but they fall short of exploring the underlying causes of continued substance misuse. CBT explores behavior and beliefs to identify and resolve patterns of self-destructive behavior.
CBT allows patients and therapists to work together in a therapeutic relationship, helping to identify harmful thoughts and seek out alternate ways of thinking, which allows patients to reshape the way they interact with their environments in the long term. CBT sessions are also usually augmented with homework outside of sessions to keep patients in the right frame of mind even when they encounter their old triggers.
Best of all, CBT skills are useful, practical strategies that can be incorporated into everyday life. One of the most difficult aspects of recovery for many who struggle with substance misuse disorders is seeing the same environmental cues over and over — locations where they used to obtain or use drugs, people who used the same substances, and so on. CBT can help remove the negative associations from those environmental factors, making it easier to recover without changing every aspect of your life.
If you or a loved one struggles with an addiction, and you think CBT might be able to help, contact TreatmentGuru today. We can help you find a treatment facility or program that’s right for you.
If you or a loved one is trying to recover from a substance misuse problem, whether drugs or alcohol, a sober living facility might be a good option for you. Sober living facilities are a helpful transition for many who struggle with substance misuse, enabling them to live independently again after treatment.
A sober living home, also sometimes known as a “halfway house,” is a group home facility for those recovering from substance misuse disorders. Most of these facilities are privately owned, though some are owned by businesses or charity organizations as well. Sober living homes are usually located in quiet areas, where a calming environment free of external stressors can help promote a quicker recovery.
Sober living homes are different from rehab facilities in that rehab facilities are generally much more intensive and offer residents less personal freedom. By contrast, sober living home residents are generally free to enter and leave as they please. Most sober living homes have some house rules, including curfews at night and periodic drug testing, but in general, residents are expected to be relatively self-sufficient.
The idea of a sober living facility is to ease residents back into a normal life, free from addiction. Residents pay rent, buy and cook their own food, clean up after themselves, and have regular jobs and hobbies just as they would if they lived in a regular home. The only difference is that sober living homes come with slightly more oversight to help residents stay sober until they can manage their triggers and cravings on their own.
Rules for sober living facilities are different from facility to facility, but there are some rules that most homes have in common. Residents agree to the rules when they move in, and violations of the rules come with consequences like paying a fine, making amends to other residents, or writing an apologetic essay about what they did wrong.
The main rule shared by all sober living houses is that residents must remain sober during their entire tenure there. This means no drugs or alcohol, regardless of which substance the resident is trying to recover from. In some cases, homes restrict the use of substances like mouthwash or vanilla extract, which contain alcohol and can be abused or produce false positives on drug tests.
Residents are also encouraged to keep themselves busy. Some houses require that residents have a job or attend classes during the day, and most require that residents do chores to contribute to the house. Some houses also enforce curfews to help residents learn responsibility for themselves and their behavior.
Although most sober living homes don’t restrict the people who can live there, the most common resident is someone who’s already completed a substance misuse rehabilitation program before moving in. The goal is to help recovering substance users transition back to a normal life free of substance misuse, so the house will be more useful for those who have already learned some tools to help them stay sober.
For a lot of people, substance misuse arises simply out of having nothing else to do — boredom leads to experimentation, which leads to overuse. Sober living homes help residents find healthy, productive ways to occupy their time, from household chores like cooking and cleaning to exercise to outdoor activities.
If you or a loved one is going through a substance misuse disorder and you think that a sober living home might be helpful, contact TreatmentGuru today. We’ll help you find a facility that fits your needs and gets you back on the right track toward health.
The drug crisis in the United States is getting worse — more than 20 million adults have some form of substance use disorder. Unfortunately, it’s made worse by pervasive myths and misconceptions around addiction and the people who suffer from it. If people with substance misuse disorder hope to recover, they need understanding and compassion. With that in mind, there are a few myths about addiction that we want to dispel.
While it’s true that men are more likely to become addicts, women are the fastest-growing segment for substance abuse in the country. According to the Federal Center For Substance Abuse Prevention, roughly 2.7 million women in the United States struggle with substance misuse disorder.
Women are especially susceptible to opioid misuse. Opioid misuse usually starts with prescription painkillers like oxycodone, hydrocodone, and morphine, and women are much more likely to be prescribed opioids for chronic pain. They’re also generally prescribed these medications in higher doses and for longer periods — women make up 65% of total opioid prescriptions and are 40% more likely to become persistent opioid users after surgery.
One of the most stubborn myths in the world of substance misuse is that addiction is easy to see from the outside. Depictions of addiction in movies and TV shows give people the impression that drug and alcohol misuse sufferers are disheveled, desperate, and unable to keep their lives together.
Why is this myth so damaging? Because it perpetuates the idea that unless someone is visibly struggling, they don’t need help. In fact, many people who suffer from addiction have full-time jobs, happy family lives, and display no outward signs. Nonetheless, these people need help and support.
In 2007, a study by the National Institute of Alcohol and Alcoholism (NIAAA) categorized approximately 19.5 percent of all alcoholics as “functional” — by their definition, these people are “middle-aged, well-educated, with stable jobs and families.”
Other studies have indicated that 8 percent of full-time workers and 10 percent of part-time workers use illicit drugs, with prevalence in some industries reaching as high as 19.2 percent.
Many people deny that they have a problem because they’re successful in their work lives or because they only drink at home, but the fact is that anyone can be susceptible to addiction. People in these situations often hide their addiction due to negative stigma, shame, or the misconception that they’re not “bad enough” to warrant seeking help, but this simply isn’t true. Anyone experiencing any kind of conflict between drugs or alcohol and their personal and professional life should seek help.
While it’s true that the initial choice to try alcohol or an illicit drug is often voluntary, many people are able to use alcohol and drugs responsibly. Many people are prescribed opioid painkillers and never develop a misuse problem, while some do — if willpower was all it took, addiction would be much easier to solve.
The truth is that the factors that lead people to misuse and become addicted to drugs or alcohol are incredibly complicated — even today, scientists and psychologists are still trying to understand how addictive behavior develops in some people and not others.
The fact is that addiction and addictive substances “re-wire” the brain on a very fundamental, unconscious level. People struggling with substance misuse aren’t deciding to keep using any more than they decide to be hungry or tired — the addiction becomes a biological urge that they can’t ignore any more than they can ignore the urge to breathe. Changing those urges and associations in someone’s brain is difficult and complicated, and blaming people with substance misuse disorders for causing their own problems isn’t helping.
While it’s true that dosages are more controlled when it comes to prescription drugs, prescription pills can be just as addictive and just as dangerous to misuse as “street” drugs. People are also more likely to take pills with alcohol or other drugs, which can cause adverse reactions that make the chances of overdosing much higher.
According to the CDC, almost 218,000 people have died of prescription drug overdoses between 1999 and 2017, with the rate of overdose death involving prescription opioids increasing by a factor of five in that time. Prescription drugs may carry the illusion of legitimacy, but they should be taken just as seriously.
The truth is that substance misuse disorders can affect anyone, no matter their current situation, history with substance use, upbringing, or environment. You can’t rely on your intuition to tell you whether someone you love is struggling or not — many people with substance misuse disorders hide it well. If you or someone you love is having trouble with substance misuse, there’s no sense in waiting until it gets worse. Contact us today.
According to the CDC, more than 130 people in the United States die from an opioid overdose every single day. It’s not just street drugs like heroin — prescription painkillers and synthetic opioids like fentanyl are just as responsible, if not moreso.
Opioid addiction and misuse has become a serious national health crisis with far-reaching effects that have an influence on not just public health, but also on the social and economic welfare of the communities affected.
In fact, the CDC estimates that the “economic burden” of prescription medication misuse alone is $78.5 billion per year, including healthcare, lost productivity, addiction treatment, and criminal justice expenditures. The opioid epidemic is a very real, very serious crisis — here’s what you need to know.
Opiates are substances derived from the opium plant, while the term opioids encompasses synthetic opioids like fentanyl. The body naturally creates opioids to help regulate stress, pain, and how your body processes them, so the receptors in the brain already exist.
Drugs like heroin and fentanyl mimic the body’s natural pain-killing processes but on a much higher level, masking pain signals with much greater strength and efficiency than the natural ability of the body to do so and creating intense feelings of pain relief and relaxation. That’s the reason that opioids like OxyContin and Vicodin are so commonly prescribed for major surgical pain and similar conditions.
The other feature of opioids is to prompt the brain to release dopamine. Dopamine is a naturally occurring chemical associated with the brain’s reward system — the brain releases dopamine in response to survival actions like eating and sleeping in order to create the urge to do those actions again.
The problem is that opioids raise the dopamine levels in the brain to much higher levels than any naturally occurring activity — sleep, eating, exercise, meditation, listening to music, sex, and many others — so natural activities no longer satisfy the brain’s cravings. Instead, the brain has been trained to seek out the sensation of opioids usage above all other priorities because the dopamine spike has convinced it that that behavior is the most rewarding.
As the body and brain become more tolerant of opioid use, the dosage required to create the same sensation continues to rise. Some users start to use higher amounts at a higher frequency, eventually becoming addicted when they can no longer control their need for opioid consumption.
The first thing to realize is that heroin is actually a relatively small piece of the puzzle. Of the 20.5 million Americans with a substance misuse disorder in 2015, only 590,000 — less than 3% — were heroin users.
By contrast, more than two million people had a substance use disorder involving some form of prescription pain reliever, and more than 11 million people misused prescription opioids. While it’s true that heroin still accounts for almost 60% of opioid overdose deaths, deaths from overdoses of prescription opioids are rising rapidly. More than 17,000 people died of an overdose from a prescription opioid in 2017 — more than five times as many as in 1999.
One of the most-blamed culprits in this crisis is the medical community. In 2016, health care providers issued more than 214 million prescriptions for opioids for the purpose of pain management — nearly 70 prescriptions per 100 people.
This trend has had an especially high impact on women. Women are more likely to report suffering from chronic pain, more likely to be prescribed pain medication, given higher doses, and more likely to use them for a longer time than men. There’s also some evidence that women can become dependent on prescription opioids more readily than men. As a result, while men are still more likely to die of prescription painkiller overdoses than women, the rate at which women overdose is rising much faster — between 1999 and 2016, the percentage increase in deaths among men was 265%, while in women it was 400%.
Unfortunately, this trend only appears to be accelerating. Between July 2016 and September 2017, opioid overdoses increased by 30% in 52 areas of 45 different states. The Midwest in particular saw an increase of 70% in opioid overdoses in that time, and large cities saw an increase of 54% across 16 states.
Fentanyl is the newest opioid to enter the US drug scene, and it’s rapidly becoming the most dangerous. Fentanyl is between 20 and 50 times stronger than heroin and is often cut with heroin to keep potency up. The result is that heroin users, unaware of how strong their drug supply is, overdose much more easily. Fentanyl overdose deaths have risen 540 percent in just three years, from 3,000 to almost 20,000 between 2013 and 2016.
In 2017, the president declared the opioid crisis as a public health emergency. As a result, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and NIDA have combined their resources and announced that their strategy for combating the crisis would focus on five major priorities:
Wider access to addiction treatment and recovery programs
Alternatives to opioids for treating and managing pain
Support for research into pain management and addiction
Improved public health and addiction education
Wider access to overdose-reversing drugs
The first three goals fall under the purview of a program called the Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Initiative. HEAL works with the pharmaceutical industry to find alternatives to opioids for pain management and better understand the most effective forms of treatment.
Overdose-reversing drugs are becoming much more widely available, and have already been able to save thousands of lives. The most common version is Narcan, which can completely reverse the effects of an overdose and is now carried by law enforcement, first responders, and other emergency services. It’s important to remember that Narcan is not a treatment for addiction, only for the short-term effects of an overdose. It will have no effect on the chemical desire to use opioids again in the future.
If you or someone you care about is struggling with a misuse disorder associated with opioids, whether prescription or illicit, you need to take action now. Keeping Narcan on hand is a good start, but it isn’t a substitute for proper care and treatment.
Treatment Guru can help you find the treatment program or facility you need to break free from substance misuse for good. Every patient is different, and our MatchMe program will take into account your personal history and needs to ensure that you have the best possible chances of fighting your substance misuse disorder. Don’t let yourself or your loved ones become another statistic in this growing crisis — contact us today.
Addiction is a chronic disease, like heart disease or asthma. As such, it’s not really accurate to think about a “cure” for addiction any more than it would be appropriate to talk about a cure for those diseases. Addiction is something that people can struggle with the rest of their lives.
The good news is that addiction can be effectively treated and managed so that it doesn’t disrupt your health, happiness, or ability to live a productive and fulfilling life. Decades of research on the biology and psychology of substance misuse disorders have led to well-tested, research-based methods to help people recover.
Many people think that a relapse in the course of recovery means they have failed — but that’s not the case. Since addiction is a chronic disease, relapse is a part of the process. Relapse rates for addiction are similar to rates for other chronic medical illnesses, but newer treatments are specially designed to help prevent relapses.
It’s important to keep in mind, though, that when it comes to drugs, relapse can be very dangerous — it’s definitely better to avoid it if at all possible. As recovery progresses, a person’s tolerance to previous levels of drug exposure begins to fall. When a person relapses, they often take the dose they’re used to from before they started recovery, which can lead to hospitalization or even death.
In general, medication is the most effective line of treatment for opioid misuse problems. Medication can block neurotransmitters that foster cravings and might encourage relapse, and it’s especially effective when combined with behavioral therapy or counseling.
For people with problems misusing substances like stimulants or cannabis, there are currently no clinically tested medication to help with treatment, so recovery programs will focus on behavioral and psychological solutions. Treatment should be focused on each individual patient’s drug use patterns, as well as their medical, social, and mental histories.
Medication is also used in many cases to detoxify people from drugs. Detoxification can be an important step in recovery, as it purges the chemical hooks from a person’s system that cause withdrawal and cravings. Detox is not a substitute for treatment, though, and isn’t sufficient to help a person recover on their own. Detox without additional treatment usually leads to relapse.
Medication plays an important role in various stages of substance misuse treatment, helping patients stop using drugs, stay in treatment, and avoid relapse.
Some medications are designed specifically to help patients avoid withdrawal. When patients first stop using a substance they’re addicted to, they can experience severe psychological physiological symptoms, from insomnia to depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues. These symptoms provide a powerful impulse to start using substances again, but reducing the symptoms with medication can help mitigate those urges.
In addition to medicinal treatment, behavioral therapy helps people with substance misuse problems to change their attitudes and behaviors. They’re better able to cope with stressful situations and triggers that might push them to relapse.
Whether it’s cognitive behavioral therapy, which helps patients avoid situations that might push them back into drug use, or family therapy, which helps create a more supportive and functional environment for recovering patients.
No matter what the final process looks like, stopping drug use is only the first step of a long, complicated recovery process. Addiction can cause major disruptions in a person’s life, not just in their own bodies but in their families, careers, and communities.
Because the effects of addiction can be so broad, treatment needs to address the entire problem. And while the long-term effects of addiction may never go away entirely, anyone can find the help they need, with the appropriate support.
Alcohol consumption is very common — over half of Americans say they’ve had an alcoholic beverage in the last month. Unfortunately, alcohol use disorder (AUD) is also common. As of 2015, there were 15.1 million American adults suffering from alcohol use disorder — more than one in 20.
If you’re dealing with AUD yourself, or if you have a family member or friend who struggles with AUD, you’re not alone. AUD can cause significant health problems, social distress, and danger to the person suffering and to others — an estimated 88,000 people a year die of alcohol-related causes.
The care that you’ll need to recover from AUD will vary depending on your history, usage, and the individual symptoms you develop, but it’s common for people experiencing AUD to have withdrawal symptoms when they stop drinking suddenly. That’s where detox comes in.
Detox is the first step of treatment, but it doesn’t replace treatment entirely. When someone who’s developed a chemical dependence on alcohol stops drinking completely and all at once — “cold turkey,” as it’s often called — they can start to develop withdrawal symptoms. These symptoms can come on quickly — within 24 hours in most cases — and often occur while the person still has alcohol in their system.
For some, withdrawal symptoms are relatively mild, much like a bad hangover. Nausea, headache, dehydration, and aversion to bright light and loud noises are common.
Others, especially those who have been dealing with AUD for a long time, will experience much more serious symptoms. These include:
Anxiety
Delirium tremens (DTs), a life-threatening issue that can make you restless, upset, and confused and cause fever, hallucinations, and seizures
Depression
Hallucinations, when you see or hear things that aren’t there
Problems sleeping
Shakiness, especially in your hands
Unstable changes in blood pressure and heart rate
It depends. If you need alcohol on a daily basis just to make your body and brain feel normal, then you most likely have developed a chemical dependence and need help. Don’t try to detox alone, though. Going “cold turkey” without medical supervision isn’t recommended, and can be fatal if not handled properly. If you realize that you need help with AUD, seek out a medical professional.
A detox program will include support to guide you through the withdrawal symptoms, which might last a week or more and hit their peak around 24-72 hours in. Detox programs will often include medication to help ease symptoms, but there’s no beating around the bush — it’s going to be a miserable experience. That’s why support is so important. You’re much more likely to stay on track with a detox program if you have lots of help.
If you’re trying to plan a detox program for yourself or someone else, it helps to think a step further to a rehabilitation program. Detox is just the first step to get the alcohol out of your system — rehab is how you learn to stop misusing it entirely.
An inpatient program takes place at a hospital, rehab center, or detox clinic. You’ll live in the facility full time during the process, and you’ll have help and support available 24/7 to get you through the difficult process.
For patients with less severe AUD, an outpatient program might be a better fit. Outpatient means you still live at home, but get some treatment during the day. This could run a gamut of treatment levels, from full days in therapy and counseling to simply picking up medications.
Once you’ve been detoxed and gotten through your unpleasant withdrawal symptoms, it’s time to start thinking about rehabilitation. Without help, you’re likely to relapse and fall right back into a habit of harmful alcohol use, so it’s important to change your mindset going forward.
Talk to a professional who can assess your history with alcohol, physical and mental health, history of rehabilitation or attempted rehabilitation, and a number of other factors to find the facility or program that’s right for you.
Admitting that you have a problem is the hardest part of any rehabilitation program, but it’s an important first step. Alcohol doesn’t have to control your life, and you don’t have to fight it alone. If you’re concerned about your alcohol use or that of a loved one, don’t hesitate to look for help.
