Detoxification Treatment in the COVID-19 Crisis

The coronavirus pandemic has very quickly placed us in a scenario of uncertainty and vulnerability that we did not expect.

One night we went to sleep with a strange mixture of relative normalcy and concern, and woke up at the next morning that many of the rules that governed our world and our known reality had already changed.

Faced with this puzzling new paradigm, we all (addicts and not) we block, we misfit. If we want to adaptively overcome it, we are going to have to do good personal work and rely on the appropriate professionals for this.

Since the state of alarm was decreed, and with it the beginning of the confinement, there are many people with different diseases and pathologies having a very bad time. People with addiction problems are no exception. This being so, it is also true that people with addiction should make an effort to rationalize and relativize the discomfort derived from their confinement situation.

• Related article: "The 14 most important types of addictions"

How to face detoxification treatment in the face of the coronavirus health crisis

The low tolerance for frustration, impulsivity and anxiety that characterize addictive behaviors are fatal companions in this context of a global pandemic. Even so, we must be aware that as uncomfortable and annoying as it may be for everyone, we cannot grant this situation the category of catastrophe just because of being overwhelmed in a confinement for security reasons sanitary.

Looking a little around us and empathizing with other people's lives, we can find many very personal situations. precarious diseases and diseases to which this new reality does suppose something really catastrophic in terms of their treatment and evolution. If we stop to observe the reality of people who have sadly been infected, ill, are in an ICU and have even died, our burden becomes ridiculous, almost bordering on disrespect for our similar.

People with addiction problems, in these days of confinement, they may or may not be actively consuming (I cannot say that it may be worse), but what What is clear is that your personal and especially family situation at home will be even more complex than habitual. In this context, discussions, crises and conflicts of a much higher intensity and repercussion may arise due to the confinement situation (stress, consumer anxiety,).

If you are reading this, you have an addiction problem and you find yourself having a hard time, I invite you to make a couple of reflections with a constructive spirit.

How do you think you would be living this situation if you had already undergone a rehabilitation treatment?

You would probably be prepared to handle it in a more mature, consistent, and adaptive way. You would have more self-control over your thoughts, emotions, attitudes, and abilities to manage anxiety.

Now you probably have multiple problems related to consumer anxiety, withdrawal syndrome, abuse and substitution of other substances, problems with your family, with neighbors, with authorities due to non-compliance with regulations, etc.

Don't you think that how bad you're going is indicating the need to make a change in your life?

Learning can (and should) always be extracted from all experiences, especially those that clearly show us our shortcomings and limitations.

It may be an excellent time to consider making a change and getting ready for a treatment to help you break out of the bondage and bondage of addiction. Perhaps this global crisis, even with all its bad things, can be the starting point to break with the past and make a good decision.

The need for therapeutic support

During these days, in Llaurant La Llum we are having a lot of contact with former patients who, today, are fully rehabilitated. We are happy to see how they are being able to manage this situation from abstinence and personal stability, a way of facing problems very different from the one they had unfortunately before carrying out their program, full of anxiety to consume and / or all kinds of alterations for having consumed.

In these turbulent times we can access a wide range of advice and recommendations on the web (very appropriate) on how to stay active, busy, maintain a good attitude, importance of controlling our thoughts and knowing how to direct them in order to have a better emotional state... All this is very useful as guidance for people without major pathologies, but for people with a disease as complex as addiction, immediate treatment is required to help them redirect their situation, and now more than ever.

• You may be interested: "4 psychological effects of the Coronavirus (on a social and individual level)"

Fighting addictions in times of pandemic is possible

At Llaurant La Llum (Therapeutic Community and Outpatient Cabinet) we respond by adapting to current circumstances promoting preventive protocols to stop the effects of the coronavirus crisis and to guarantee the health safety of our patients. We continue to work through an intensive program that our Therapeutic Team has adapted to current circumstances.

We have always done this, but now more than ever we ask patients and their families to make sure they go to treatment at centers duly registered and accredited by the competent health authorities.

This guarantees, on the one hand, quality standards in the treatment to be received, quality of the facilities, methodologies, professionals... On the other hand, there is a very important question at the moment when looking for a center for detoxification: make sure that in the center in question there are preventive and safety health protocols regarding the coronavirus pandemic.

In Llaurant La Llum we have all the measures and protocols established by the reference public health services. In addition, we have established a series of objective measures that ensure the tranquility of our current and future patients.

For this, we make available (as a mandatory requirement) to anyone who wants to enter our center, tests to verify that he has not been infected by the virus. Specifically, two tests are carried out, one laboratory, and if this first is negative, a rapid validation test is carried out as the second one immediately prior to admission.

From the moment of admission, ensures that the person is in a safe environment at the sanitary level and intensive treatment is considered of about 12 weeks in which the cessation, detoxification and prevention of relapses are addressed. We are in a privileged environment surrounded by nature where we can perform multiple sports activities, in addition to having all the telematic means to maintain a fluid and effective relationship with the family, carry out personal procedures, access training ...

All socio-health professionals have a role to play in this coronavirus crisis and those of us who are dedicated to the field of addictions at Llaurant La Llum will continue to provide the necessary service to patients and families who require it in these difficult times.

"We stop this virus together"…. And addiction too.

Author: José Miguel Camacho Fernández-Medina, Coordinator of the Llaurant La Llum Therapeutic Community