Substance Abuse

Substance abuse is a powerful and overwhelming force. Often times, overcoming substance abuse is a journey that needs the support of loved ones and family. Being surrounded by people who care is one of the most comforting environments, and it’s important to remind an addict what their life was before they became addicted.  With the support of a trusted addiction facility and your loved ones, overcoming substance abuse addiction is a straight forward process.

What is Substance Abuse?

The habitual use of a substance that is not normally required by the human body is called substance abuse. It is generally considered to be the misuse of alcohol, tobacco, or illegal drugs, but prescription medications can also be misused. In fact, any substance that alters the way the mind and body functions can be deemed to be substance abuse.

Addiction can happen to individuals from all walks of life. It is a is a unique kind of dependence that results in an obsessive need to use the substance, regardless of the consequences. The kind of dependence relies on the particular substance. When dealing with an addiction like alcohol, it’s important to maintain an emotional support system outside of the rehab facility. These types of addictions can be emotionally traumatizing.

Symptoms of Substance Abuse

Substance abuse can manifest itself physically in a user of drugs. Many times substance abuse can mean reliance on a substance, which will begin having detrimental effects on the body and mind. Here are some of the typical signs of substance abuse reliance:

• Loss of memory
• Social deterrence
• Mood swings
• Increased use of legal substances (Alcohol, Nicotine)
• Migraines
• Anxiety
• Insomnia
• Physical Changes (Needle marks, yellowing teeth)
• Solitary drinking

An individual can be either psychologically and/or physically addicted. Physical addiction may result in illness when the substance is withdrawn. Psychological addiction can result in moodiness, aggression and a sense of discomfort or deprivation once the substance is out of reach. At this point in addiction, it’s easy for a user

How to Treat Substance Abuse

There are many options that have been successful in treating drug addiction. Many of these methods are invasive and require help from the outside to thoroughly remove the addiction. Many times addiction manifests itself into a life in the form of habits and reliance. Because of this, methods for treating substance abuse must restore the patient to their former life by completely rooting the addiction from the ground up. 2nd Chance Treatment in Phoenix uses medication and therapy to begin patients on the path to a healthy life.

Maintenance Medication

Medications are utilized to minimize the pangs of withdrawal by slowly taking the user off of harder substances. Many times when dealing with addictions to heroin, users are physically incapable of stopping the drugs cold turkey and could face going into a harsh relapse. The physical toll that overcoming addiction comes with is a hard one to fight. Using medications such as suboxone, can relieve significant pain and make the recovery process smoother.

Behavioral Therapy

The behavioral therapy methods focus on increasing a person’s knowledge of the problems and consequences confronted by substance abuse by the use of counseling, medication, and long-term follow-up to prevent relapse

Behavioral therapies help patients:

• Change habitual behaviors

• Learn life skills

• Adapt to healthy social tendencies

Often times an addiction medicine specialist with recommend this route for enabling the patient to fight addiction, but it goes deeper than that! It’s important to work side by side with the patients so they can understand the fulfilling and natural atmosphere of a healthy life. 2nd Chance Treatment prides itself on offering some of the best Behavioural therapy methods in Phoenix and the surrounding areas. By working closely with patients in a direct and immediate manner, overcoming addiction becomes a straight forward process.

Patient Education

Patient education plays a crucial role in the recovery of a drug user. Awareness therapy helps patients recognize and avoid circumstances in which they are likely to use drugs and enables them to fight against their normal tendencies. By understanding the substances and how they interact with your body, patients are able to understand the diminishing and harmful effects of the drugs and why they should naturally stay away from them. In this process, the family is also equipped with information so they can quickly deal with a relapse and being to understand the damaging psychological effects substance abuse can have.

Finding Help in Arizona

Many times asking for help can be a hard step to approach. Sometimes help seems far away or your problem seems too big. By talking to an addiction specialist, you can begin your path to understanding your addiction, and then overcoming it with their help and the help of your loved ones.