What you need to know about addiction treatment

It’s scary thinking about entering treatment for the first time. It’s embarrassing — you don’t want people to judge you — you don’t know what to expect — you’re afraid it’ll cost too much — you’re afraid you’ll lose your job. In reality, addiction treatment is much different.

Once a person decides to talk with a professional about treatment and makes the call, the hardest part is already done. Because addiction affects judgement and behavior, and because people under the influence say things and do things that can strain relationships, people usually look at addiction as a moral issue. That’s not the way we treat addiction.

Addiction is treated as a medical issue. It’s always good if a person gains a deeper understanding of what constitutes a good life, but treatment, per se, is not about morality. Addiction treatment is about a person learning what’s happening to their brain and body, how addiction changes their behavior and creates consequences. Treatment is about clearing up and realizing that it’ll only get worse with continued use of the drug. Alcohol, opiates, cocaine, whatever the addictive drug may be, the person realizes he/she has a predisposition that creates an obsession with the drug characterized by continued use in spite of negative consequences.

Once the person clears up and gets into solid, on-going recovery, they usually start thinking about moral issues, and they find a spiritual purpose they either lost or never had — but this is not the purpose of treatment. Treatment is about a person learning what they need to know about addiction and what it takes to create and maintain recovery. In treatment, we educate, support and counsel, so that a person can see what’s happening and what will likely happen if they continue using alcohol/other drugs. Treatment is not about a bad person getting good — it’s about a sick person getting well. We teach people relapse prevention coping skills necessary to maintain recovery. Addiction turns a person into someone they never intended to become, but recovery offers understanding, options, choices, possibilities.