Choosing the Right Drug Addiction Treatment Center

Finding the right drug addiction treatment center or drug rehabilitation facility can be quite a challenge. Many drug addicts are scared to go to drug and alcohol treatment. They've heard the horror stories of withdrawals and are afraid of what they will be forced to deal with once they have gotten into a drug rehab and begun to get sober. Make no mistake, getting sober is not an easy thing to do. So how do you choose the right drug addiction treatment center?

For some, choosing a drug addiction treatment center depends on finding a place that will work well for their current situations. People with strong family and work obligations are more likely to opt for out-patient drug addiction rehabilitation program. Someone who is trying to overcome a drug addiction to a drug with dangerous withdrawal symptoms like heroin will be better served with an in-patient drug addiction treatment center. For others, finding an acceptable drug addiction treatment center will depend on the scientific approach taken by the drug rehab themselves.

Relapse Prevention

Relapse prevention is a drug and alcohol rehabilitation approach that was originally developed for alcoholics but has proven successful for cocaine addicts as well. In this type of drug rehabilitation program the substance abuse treatment emphasizes the learning of new and better behaviors instead of simply learning to ignore older worse habits. This approach utilizes cognitive behavioral therapy alongside a drug-abstinence only approach to help the drug addict learn how to tap into his self control and resist the temptations he might find in the regular world.

Matrix Model

The Matrix Model works best with drug addicts who abuse stimulants more than any other type of drug. The drug addict will learn how to deal with addiction symptoms and learn what the signs of an impending relapse feel like. An addictions therapist will work with the drug addict and introduce the addict to a variety of self help type programs and will test the addict's blood and/or urine on a regular basis to make sure that he or she is staying drug free. The emphasis of this model is on raising the drug addict's self esteem and rebuilding his sense of self worth. There are a number of drug addiction treatment centers that use this model with great expertise.

Supportive-Expressive Therapy

This type of drug addiction treatment therapy works best with drug addicts who abuse cocaine and heroin. A therapist will work with the drug addict to create an environment in which the addict will feel comfortable talking about the experiences he had before entering drug rehab and before getting addicted to drugs-the behaviors and circumstances that helped create and feed his addiction. The addictions therapist will also work with the drug addict to develop techniques to help them deal with the situations that make them want to use the most.

It is important that you choose a drug addiction treatment center that works well with both who you are and what you are trying to recover from. Each of these techniques can be employed in in-patient and out-patient drug treatment centers. Make sure that you consider all of your drug addiction rehabilitation options. The better a match your program is for you the more likely you will be to stay sober.

Why Is Teenage Drug Addiction Spiraling Out of Control?

Have you ever stopped to think about why teenage drug addiction in recent years has started spiraling out of control? Could it be that the youth are becoming more unruly and disrespectful? Could it be that drugs have become more freely available? Or could it be that the moral fiber of our society is gradually being eroded without us even realizing it?

I personally think that there are a million different excuses which we can use in order to explain the increase in teenage drug addiction, but that is all they will be, excuses! We are very often to afraid to open our eyes and see that this ever increasing epidemic is due to our unwillingness to take responsibility.

How often are we taking our children at a young age to therapists and doctors and having them put on scheduled medication because we are 'too busy' to actually look for the cause of the depression or frustration which they are feeling? Are we allowing our fast paced lives make us sacrifice the sanity, security and health of our children?

Now you might be asking, "but what does this have to do with teenage drug addiction?" and my answer to you is quite simple, but in essence not what most of you want to hear. Any person, child, adult or other who turns to drugs does so because somewhere in their basic human needs there is something lacking.

No level minded, well balanced person would intentionally begin to poison themselves unless they need to fill one of their basic human needs, whether that is the need for acceptance, love, stability, a sense of belonging or even more on a spiritual side. The fact of the matter is that everybody knows the dangers of drugs so what is making our children turn to teenage drug addiction?

I personally believe it is due to the fact that addiction is becoming more and more acceptable in modern day society as it is all to common to see teenagers being put onto antidepressants and calmatives in order to account for a basic human need of theirs which is not being met and mommy and daddy just don't have time to deal with it and it is easier to treat the symptom rather than the cause, it does not cut into their schedule.

I also believe that this lays the foundation and makes it so much easier for our children to fall prey to teenage drug addiction as most of these medications are in essence addictive.

So before you simply get your child put onto scheduled medication for depression, anger, hyperactivity or what ever other reason, why not first take the time to firstly check the side effects of the medication and secondly have a look at what the underlying cause for your child's condition might be before possibly lining them up to be another statistic of teenage drug addiction.