Thursday, December 6, 2012

The First Few Hours of Rehab


Drug counseling programs and drug rehabs are programs designed to help individuals with chemical dependencies to detox from drugs and/or alcohol, and then to teach them skills and ways to keep from using these substance anymore. It sounds like a simple enough task, but there are many complexities to detox and sobriety.

First off, when an individuals stops using these substances, withdrawal symptoms can start as early as within a few hours. Depending on the type of substance involved with the addiction, these symptoms can range anywhere from mild to severe enough to cause cardiac arrest and death. Heroin rehabs deal with some of the most severe withdrawal symptoms, and usually have a full medical staff observing over the initial detox to ensure that the detox procedure is performed safely. Alcohol rehabs also staff a medical team to observe patients in the initial detox, as alcohol withdrawal can be just as severe.

While other drugs may not cause the extreme side effects of withdrawal that heroin and alcohol often produce, the best drug rehabs will still have medical staff on stand-by at all times, as cessation from any type of drug can cause a variety of physical and mental side effects. Also within the first hours of entering rehab, patients will begin participating in drug counseling programs to help fight any cravings or symptoms they might be having.

Social gathering, communications, and activities are commonplace in inpatient rehabs, as fellow program participants will all be living together in a residential treatment environment. This is opposed to outpatient drug rehab programs, where attendees are allowed to leave the facility and return at will.

All of these things make up the first few hours, and much of the time spent in a rehab; but when separating from a drug addiction, nothing is set in stone, and incidents can come up that may not have been expected.

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