Treatment of addictions: what does it consist of?

Addictions are one of the most widespread psychological disorders in any Western society today, and they have the peculiarity of rapidly deteriorating the quality of people. Although there are differences between them in terms of the level of immediate danger, in general in all cases there is a tendency to experience a very important physical exhaustion that shortens the years of life, and an impoverishment of all areas of life (social relationships, ability to find work, etc.).

That is why it is very important to tackle these types of problems as soon as possible and go to accredited and experienced health professionals to intervene in these kinds of disorders. But... What exactly is addiction treatment? We will see it next.

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

How does addictive disorder develop?

Addictions are much more than the tendency to perform the same type of actions over and over again to satisfy an urge that becomes increasingly uncontrollable. It is a phenomenon that affects both the behavior of the individual and the context in which they live and that even

causes changes in the functioning and structure of your brain.

On the one hand, repeatedly consuming the need generated by the addiction leads the brain to reorganize internally to do that this goal becomes the priority objective for the person, so that all other aspects of life happen to a second flat.

It is not a question of a free decision or a moral position: it is about nerve cells being activated always in the same way through the system of rewards of the brain, which "learns" to interpret the source of addiction as that which is capable of generating a moment of satisfaction a reward really significant.

Over time, this need needs to be fulfilled more frequently and with greater urgency, and it is also required to get much more involved in these types of behaviors to obtain the same temporary feeling of satisfaction, compared to previous stages of the addictive process. This is so because the brain gets used to that torrent of chemical elements that take control of its functioning every time that it is satisfied. impulse, and it is the reason why, for example, the same drug ration that months ago gave pleasure, after a while generates frustration for being insufficient.

In addition, as the person goes into addiction, his way of life and the social context of it goes changing to accommodate the fact that your only concern is practically meeting the need addictive. Thus, family relationships tend to deteriorate, lifelong friendships as well, and people you spend your free time with are also often involved in the sale or consumption of drugs, gambling, or whatever the element that drives the disorder.

Therefore, addiction treatment must adapt to this triple reality: addiction is maintained and reproduced because the brain has modified its functioning to prioritize one Single goal, the social and daily context exposes her more to addiction, and the habits of the person make her get used to organizing her day to day so that it is easy to relapse again and again.

• You may be interested: "Types of drugs: know their characteristics and effects"

The treatment of addictions: what is it like?

As we have seen, an addiction is a complex phenomenon that involves several levels of intervention: the biological, the behavioral and the contextual. Therefore, addiction treatment consists of go through a process of regaining control over their own life that takes these elements into account, not leaving any of them unattended.

Next we will see what are the main phases that addiction treatment goes through. All of them are designed to direct the patient to a life in which dependence on what has been addicted passes to reduced so much that it stops conditioning the person's day-to-day life, although at each stage different procedures and sub-objectives are proposed, such as we will see.

1. Detox phase

In the detoxification phase, the person is helped to spend several days away from the influence of addiction and to manage in the best possible way the discomfort generated by withdrawal during those first hours.

It is about letting the body eliminate the accumulation of potential addictive substances, and prevent them from symptoms of the need to consume significantly harm the patient (for example, insomnia problems or strong anxiety). For this, the intervention and supervision by doctors and other professionals is very important. health team with experience to act at this critical moment in which a discomfort is manifested acute.

Once the "monkey" has passed, the next phase of addiction treatment appears.

2. Discontinuation phase

In the cessation phase, physical and psychological health professionals help the patient to take his first steps as a person who must move away from addiction. Although the acute discomfort of the first phase is gone, the need to return to what the addiction is based is still present, and that is why here we have to help "train" the person to manage their emotions, to recognize the thoughts and behaviors that increase the risk of relapse, and to generate healthy habits that remove it from the influence of this form of dependency.

In this way, psychologists and doctors work together so that the patient organizes her life so that little by little it goes granting more independence and control over what happens, while the need to relapse is ceasing to be the only one priority.

3. Reintegration or rehabilitation phase

In this phase, the biopsychological aspect of addiction no longer gives as many problems as in the detoxification stage, although it is still present.

The goal here is allow the patient to re-create lifestyle habits linked to a context and that they do not rely on any of the elements that facilitate relapse, as well as provide situations in which they can re-engage in exciting activities and projects and with the ability to offer you incentives in the medium and long term, and from which you can restructure your life away from drugs, gambling or any other source of addictions.

Here we also work so that the person gets used to being exposed to social contexts far from potentially stimuli. addictive, especially considering that whoever has developed a type of addiction has a much higher risk of developing other. For this reason, the participation in social groups of people who reject the use of drugs and the like is encouraged, as well as the return to family life or with friends who can help not to relapse.

Looking for professional addiction treatment help?

If you live in the metropolitan area of ​​Barcelona and are looking for help to overcome an addiction, we invite you to contact our professionals from Clinicas CITA.

This entity, which has a presence in Barcelona and Dosrius (Mataró), specializes specifically in the treatment of addictions whether they are based on substance use or have to do with addictive behaviors (such as addiction to games by chance).

What's more, we have a detention center surrounded by nature and full of different services medical and therapeutic, monitoring and counseling, as well as leisure spaces to stay away from relapses: gardens, reading room and library, equine assisted psychotherapy area, physiotherapy area, swimming pool, gym, physiotherapy room, etc.

If you are interested in knowing more about CITA Clinics to have our team of experts in the addiction treatment, contact us through this link.

Bibliographic references:

• Kalivas, P.W., Volkow, N.D. (2005). The neural basis of addiction: a pathology of motivation and choice. The American Journal of Psychiatry. 162 (8): pp. 1403 - 1413.
• Kauer, J.A.; R.C. Malenka (2007). Synaptic plasticity and addiction. Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 8 (11): pp. 844 - 58.
• Volkow, N.D.; Fowler J.S.; Wang, G.J.; Swanson J.M.; Telang, F. (2007). Dopamine in drug abuse and addiction: results of imaging studies and treatment implications. Arch. Neurol. 64 (11): pp. 1575 - 1579.