Addictive disorders are currently one of the most common pathologies in the context of Western countries, and in light of this reality, health sciences have been researching and developing forms of therapeutic intervention for patients who suffer from them for decades.
That is why, today, addiction treatment includes a wide variety of therapy strategies, techniques and resources that come from both medicine and psychology.
But… How to treat addictions taking into account the persistence of these alterations and their capacity to generate relapses? Let’s see it in summary in this article.
Addiction is a disorder that, in any of its forms, tends to wear down the physical and mental health of the person who suffers from it. suppress both your will to choose in your daily life and your family and friendship ties. That is why it is essential to intervene therapeutically as soon as possible, before the vicious circle of dependence traps the person in a series of actions aimed at avoiding the withdrawal syndrome at all costs, eliminating the rest of the aspects of their life. .
Addictions can be to chemical substances (synthetic drugs, alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, etc.) or to addictive behaviors (gambling in casinos, online betting…) and both types have the capacity to destroy the health of those who suffer from them. On the other hand, people who suffer from addiction are much more likely to develop other addictions or other psychological disorders something that is always taken into account in the therapy process, which is adapted and expanded in cases of dual pathology.
Most addictions, both chemical and behavioral, work in a similar way in the brain, modifying the structural and functional aspects of a network of neurons that extends throughout much of the brain and is known as the “brain reward system.” As the addiction consolidates, this structure of the nervous system is modified to respond only to the consumption of the drug or the performance of the addictive behavior. This transformation means that if hours go by and that sensation is not experienced again, the strong discomfort caused by the withdrawal syndrome appears, and at the same time, it causes tolerance to appear: the person needs to get more and more involved in the addiction to experience satiety.
However, what causes addictions is not only biological/organic in nature ; There are also very important psychosocial variables. For example, people who suffer from addiction tend to abandon their emotional or friendship ties with their family, good friends, etc. And this means that the sources of satisfaction and motivation in their daily lives become increasingly limited to the area of addiction. Likewise, their self-esteem suffers and their ability to cope with stress and anxiety decreases, something that generates a predisposition to relapse into addiction to escape from the real world.
For all this, the treatment of addictions must always have two fundamental pillars: medical support, on the one hand, and psychotherapeutic support, on the other.
Give yourself one, the most immediate symptoms linked to discomfort and organic effects are mitigated that generates abstinence, using psychotropic drugs with the ability to help cope with this transition towards a new way of living life free of addictive elements.
And from the other, the person is trained to relate in a healthier way with oneself and with the rest of the world, so that addiction stops being the main element to alleviate discomfort and little by little it becomes eclipsed by other sources of motivation. The latter includes abandoning the pessimistic framework of interpretation of reality, being aware of one’s own ability to overcome addiction and reinforce self-esteem, retraining the person in social and communication skills, enhancing self-knowledge and the discovery of exciting activities and projects. , and more.
Phases of addiction treatment in therapy
In most addictions, the same 4 phases of intervention are put into practice with the aim of helping the person overcome their addictive disorder. These are the main stages.
The detoxification phase is one of the most important, since the success of the therapy depends on the successful completion of this initial stage in which the vicious cycle of discomfort-use/relapse is broken.
This phase has an average duration of 21 days and its objective is to break at the root the link established between the addicted person and the substance that he or she consumed in an addictive manner and achieve complete detoxification at a time when he or she is especially prone to giving in to discomfort and returning to the behavior toward which he or she is dependent or returning to drug use.
2. Dishabituation
The dishabituation phase is closely linked to the detoxification phase and consists of stripping the addicted person of all those harmful attitudes or habits that they put into practice during the previous addiction process. In this case, the goal of therapy is not so short-term, and involves helping the person adopt new ways of living life from now on.
All these habits and attitudes that dominated the life of the person with addiction can affect both their professional and social life, their family life and their relationship with their partner or loved ones, which is why it is so necessary to achieve complete cessation. This objective can be achieved through the implementation of scientifically proven therapies in cases of addiction such as Cognitive-behavioral therapy one of the most used in this type of cases.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy seeks to modify behaviors, habits, beliefs or thoughts that may be potentially harmful and harmful by maintaining addictive behavior.
The therapist will help the person with an addictive behavior to develop useful skills, new strategies, and new ideas or thoughts that will allow them to successfully overcome the withdrawal syndrome and achieve complete detoxification from the drug to the given addictive behavior.
The process of this phase lasts between 8 and 12 weeks.
3. Rehabilitation
The rehabilitation process has an average duration of 12 months and consists of recovery and training a series of daily healthy behaviors and habits that the person may have lost during their past addiction process.
To successfully complete this phase, group therapies can be put into practice with people who have had the same addiction, in which experiences can be shared between them and the members of the same group can also function as models with other people.
In addition to that, the help of the patient’s family is also essential to progressively acquire those behavioral habits that affect the person’s daily life and that will contribute decisively to completely getting rid of any hint of addiction.
4. Social reintegration
The last phase or social reintegration aims for the addicted person to recover their social and personal life prior to the addiction and this is also the final objective of any psychotherapeutic intervention in addictions.
To achieve complete social reintegration, permanent monitoring will be necessary for several years of the person’s life, both psychologically and medically if necessary, and also in the social sphere.
This phase is one of the longest, since complete social reintegration will take years to occur, which is why its average duration is about 4 years.
