Relapse Prevention in Cuyahoga Falls, OH
In the minds of many people struggling with addiction, drug detox is the only "real" part of rehab. When an addict emerges from our center for drug detox in Cuyahoga Falls, the feeling, often, is one of victory in the fight against addiction. Most people who successfully complete detoxification, however, turn around and relapse within months — in other words, they return to active drug use. Addicts and their families tend to be baffled. At our center for relapse prevention in Cuyahoga Falls, we often get questions about why this should happen.
It's an important question. For an answer, you need to gain an understanding of how addictions and relapses work.
Addiction and Relapse
Drugs primarily act on parts of the brain that deal with learning and reward. With prolonged exposure, these brain regions learn to permanently and indelibly connect drugs and pleasure. This leads to a lifelong psychological dependence on drugs.
Drugs also create physical dependence in the brain. When faced with powerful drugs interfering with various functions do with the brain's reward center, the brain begins to depend on the presence of drugs for these functions.
The detoxification process in rehab helps to take the brain off physical dependence. It doesn't address psychological dependence, however. It is this dependence that rekindles addictive behavior and triggers relapses.
How Does Psychological Addiction Work?
A psychological addiction to drugs is far more than a simple craving for drug use. If it were that, users wouldn't risk life and limb for a hit as they do. The cravings caused by psychological addiction, instead, are a state of mind. When a craving for a hit begins, it changes the way the mind functions. The mind forgets how pursuing a hit can lead to great deal of trouble. It can be very hard for someone to battle a craving when their mind plays tricks on them.
Addicts often suffer from poor psychological health, well. They may battle issues to do with anger, guilt or self-loathing, or a tendency toward instant gratification. Resisting temptation can be hard when an addict struggles with these issues.
The best medical advancements available today point to relapse prevention therapy, a form of psychotherapy, as the most effective way to counter psychological addiction and prevent relapses. Relapse prevention is the most challenging part of rehab, and takes the greatest amount of time and effort.
How Does Relapse Prevention Therapy Help?
At our center for relapse prevention in Cuyahoga Falls, we offer our clients a wide variety of scientifically backed therapeutic approaches to help with their relapse prevention needs.
A strong scientific understanding of addictions and relapses is the first and most important defense against them. We make sure that our clients receive grounding in these areas. Understanding how certain actions weaken the resolve, gaining insight into the way relapses quietly corrode the willpower and learning how a tendency towards relapse forms in the brain, can all be powerful tools against relapse.
As an example, participants learn how relapses start as emotional instability, and progress into fantasies about drug use over time. A recovering addict who has thoroughly learned to recognize these signs is well-equipped to take therapeutic action.
Various Addiction Therapy Programs in Cuyahoga Falls
The 12-step program: The 12-step program is a group therapeutic approach that is meant for participants who are religiously inclined. The therapist guides participants in the program through multiple steps where they acknowledge their mistakes, learn to forgive themselves, make amends for mistakes made, and place their trust in God. Participants going through these steps are able to gain a feeling of control over their lives, and are free to begin rebuilding.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy: This therapeutic approach has the therapist working with participants to help them analyze their minds to recognize where their triggers lie. Participants think of specific feelings, places, or other cues that may lead to a desire for drugs, and then learn to avoid them.
Moral reconation therapy: This helps recovering addicts build a stronger moral and ethical framework to base their recovery on, and motivational interviewing helps them build stronger motivation to get better. Art therapy can help participants who struggle with self-expression, and yoga therapy can help those who struggle with mental agitation.
Finding the Right Relapse Prevention Programs
It can take a certain amount of research to locate the best kinds of relapse prevention treatment center. Not only is it important to find a center that offers the relapse prevention programs you need, it's important to find therapists who happen to be a good fit, as well. Interviewing therapists at several rehab centers is important.
If you would like to speak to one of the therapists at our center for relapse prevention in Cuyahoga Falls, all you need to do is to call us (877) 804-1531.