Addiction counseling — first things first

Science is learning more and more each day about addiction and treatment of addiction. Medical developments in addiction treatment are encouraging. A major problem in addiction treatment in the past has been integrating medical treatment, addiction education and talking therapy. Addiction counseling and treatment have a lot to do with timing.

It’s difficult for a person to get much out of addiction counseling if they’re in a state of withdrawal, either physical withdrawal or mental craving. Addiction is a specialty treatment that requires specialized knowledge. Traditional counseling doesn’t work well with addiction until the addiction has first been addressed. I’ve talked with many clients who’ve told me of numerous visits to counselors who never addressed their addiction – these clients, although they benefited short term from counseling, returned quickly to addiction or never stopped drinking or doing drugs to begin with.

Although there are several theories regarding addiction, addiction counseling and medical treatment of addiction, I’ve never seen any success except when there’s abstinence. Drug substitution, like Methadone for opiate addiction, is better than shooting up heroin with a dirty needle or going from doctor to doctor trying to feed an opiate addiction, but substitution is only a partial solution. Abstinence allows the individual to truly recover from addiction.

First things first in addiction treatment and recovery entails addressing the addiction first. A physician who understands addiction can use the newest scientific discoveries to help the addict detox and stabilize. The whole process of addiction treatment is an educational process, but in the beginning the addict can only comprehend so much, so there’s a gradual process of education and of dealing with the consequences of addiction. A few examples are the addict who is more concerned about saving a marriage than with seeking treatment for addiction, or a person who insists that her problem is only depression when she’s drinking large amounts of alcohol (a depressant drug) daily and goes into withdrawal when she tries to stop.

An experienced addiction counselor will know when to push and when to back off. In the beginning it’s mostly about the addict becoming comfortable with abstinence and gaining trust in the process, understanding that there are no quick, magical cures – there are no simple solutions. There are no short cuts in addiction treatment, and this is why simply going to a doctor and getting medication is never a long term solution, and it’s why most addicts don’t recover simply by dealing with emotional problems. Addiction requires a combination of medical treatment, education, and counseling to deal with the consequences of addiction and the underlying emotional/mental issues — issues that either preceded the addiction and became worse during addiction or were caused by the addiction. It’s impossible to know what’s what as long as the drinking or drug taking continues. In other words, there’s no recovery until first there’s detoxification, stabilization and a basic understanding of addiction. After treatment, it’s a matter of recovery management by using various resources such as family support, 12 step group support, church support, ongoing counseling/psycho-therapy, nutritional therapy, exercise, etc.