Which is better for drug and alcohol

recovery facilities: traditional methods or new adaptations?

Recent innovations in treatment plans used at drug and alcohol addiction recovery facilities have shed new light on how new levels of complete recoveries can be achieved.

While some of them bypass traditional methods altogether, more of these new plans have shown that alternative methods have validity, and perhaps should be instituted at centers across the country because of their success rates.

Getting through or around detox Traditional detox methods have not

always proven successful for some patients. The intensity of cleansing drugs and alcohol from the body can be difficult to withstand, and some will drop out of programs because they cannot handle the physical symptoms any longer.

In light of this, some centers have developed ways to either speed the patient through the process, or allow them to “check out” during it, so that the process becomes relatively painless for them.

Testing done on a new method recently at New York substance abuse treatment centers focused on speeding up the withdrawal process for patients undergoing rehab through state funded care.

During this method, the patient is given drugs to chemically speed up the withdrawal process, forcing the body to process the addictive drugs quicker, and eliminate them from the body faster.

Unfortunately, detractors likened this process to “super methadone”, which just replaced one addiction for another, as patients reported feeling symptoms of withdrawal even after treatment had ended.

Recent studies done at Hawaii substance abuse treatment centers advocated the use of sleep treatments to bypass the physical trauma of withdrawal for both lifelong alcohol and drug abusers.

A medically induced coma is utilized for patients with critical levels of cocaine, heroin and opiate abuse, allowing them to literally sleep through the worst physical withdrawal symptoms, and be awakened later feeling physically fine.

Critics of this method insist that it is better for the addicts to feel what the drugs had done to their bodies, otherwise they would never learn the error of their ways.

 Holistic methods More acceptable changes that have

come about in programs dealing with the treatment of both alcohol and drug abuse patients is the addition of holistic methods for dealing with both detox and recovery. Practitioners of the holistic method concentrate on the patient’s diet during the detox phase, encouraging changes in food and nutrition to counteract the physical toll that detox can take on the human body.

Meditation sessions, as well as psychological counseling took the place of previously implemented drugs to deal with the emotional toll, and by the end, most patients faced their journey to recovery with a much more positive attitude than in the past.

As the patient transitions into recovery, the holistic method takes a page from programs that had been tried successfully with teenage addictions, implementing customized counseling that targets building self-esteem, positive thinking, and social interactions.

While critics believe that this type of counseling should not work as well with adults as it does with teens, the success rates so far should give credence to the concept as a whole.

http://www.thesubstanceabusetreatmentcenters.com