How is addiction treated?
From the book – Chapter 25: Addiction and Substance Use
Treatment
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Detoxification: medically supervised withdrawal when stopping is itself dangerous (alcohol, benzodiazepines, some opioids).
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Rehabilitation programmes — residential or day — for structure, not as a prison of shame.
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Medication-assisted treatment for opioids and for alcohol, when a licensed clinician chooses it.
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Therapy: CBT, motivational interviewing.
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Support groups: AA, NA, SMART Recovery — company that knows the loop.
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Relapse prevention: a lapse is data, not a verdict that the person is finished.
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Treat co-occurring mental health conditions. The drink is often holding a door shut on anxiety, trauma, or depression.
Do not stop a dependent alcohol or benzodiazepine pattern at home without medical advice. Withdrawal can seize. This is a medical emergency. Never try to stop alone at home over a weekend; get medical help.
Read the full chapter – Chapter 25: Addiction and Substance Use
Stories from real life
- The Glass After Dinner – Raghav, fifty-one, runs a hardware shop in Nashik. He never drank in the mornings, he told himself, and he never missed a delivery. But the one…
- The Cigarette Behind the Hostel – Aisha, nineteen, started vaping at a friend's party in her first year of college in Pune. It looked harmless and tasted of mango. Within months she…
- Night Games, Empty Mornings – Karan, fifteen, from Jaipur, once loved cricket and drawing. Over a year, an online game took over. He played until three in the morning, hid the…
- Pills for Sleep, Pills for Nerves – Mrs Dorothy Pereira, sixty-eight, widowed in Goa, was given a sleeping tablet after her husband died. It helped at first. Over two years she kept asking…
More on this topic: Addiction to alcohol, tobacco, drugs and gambling – signs and recovery
More questions
- Understanding family — support without enabling – addiction
- Understanding harm reduction – addiction
- What is true: the loop named is best captured as…?
- What is true: A substance use disorder includes…?
- What is true: alcohol or benzodiazepine withdrawal can be…?
- What is true: medication-assisted treatment is…?
- What is true: support without enabling means…?
- The Glass After Dinner – what this story teaches, the signs and what to do
- The Cigarette Behind the Hostel – what this story teaches, the signs and what to do
- Night Games, Empty Mornings – what this story teaches, the signs and what to do