Addiction can lead to wide-reaching consequences in your life. It can affect every aspect of your life, including your health, finances, relationships, and even your legal standing in society.
Effective addiction treatment is necessary to treat all the problems that addiction brings into your life. Addiction treatment follows a hierarchy of needs. The treatment starts with your physical condition and then aims for your well-being.
When you first enter into the treatment, you will go through an intake process. Physicians assess your physical and mental needs and offer relevant care.
The evaluation is based on the ASAM criteria. It is a six-dimensional assessment outlined by the American Society Of Addiction Medicine. The first two factors in the criteria involve the medical detox process and withdrawal potentials.
Most of you reading the articles might be aware of the withdrawal symptoms. So we are not getting details about that. However, only a few will know about the medical detox process.
In that context, today, we are here to discuss everything about the medical detox.
The thing that you will find in this article:
- What Is Medical Detox?
- Stages Of Medical Detox
- FAQs
- Commitment To Recovery
What Is Medical Detox?
The medical detox process is all about cleaning all the toxic substances inside your body. Unfortunately, during this process, your body craves the substances and shows several physical and mental effects. These effects are called withdrawal symptoms.
Every time you use any drug or alcohol, your body and brain get accustomed to the presence of that substance inside your body. Your body’s chemistry with the substances creates a repeated influx of chemicals to which your body gets addicted.
Addiction treatment starts with the medical detox as its first step. Before an individual can think of getting rid of their addiction, they first need to ensure that they clean the body from substances.
When the body is deprived of those substances, patients start showing withdrawal symptoms in the form of:
- Vomiting.
- Shaking.
- Shivering.
- Sweating.
- Anxiety.
- Depression.
Because drug and alcohol withdrawal symptoms can be painful, it is important that it is being done in the presence of professional detox centers. Learn more about these detox centers here.
Stages Of Medical Detox
Medical detox is the highest level of care a patient can get. It involves 24 hours medical managed care. This level of care is reserved for patients who are in need of immediate addiction treatment.
In the medical detox process, the detox center will help you avoid the dangerous complication that comes in the form of withdrawal symptoms.
Medical detox involves these stages.
Stage 1: Medical Evaluation
Different drugs affect the patient differently. In addition, the kind of lifestyle the patients have been enjoying also plays a major role in triggering the addiction.
When a patient arrives in a medical detox facility, the first thing they go through is the complicated examination process to better understand the patient’s mental and physical state. Based on this evaluation, treatment will be tailored to suit your needs.
Stage 2: Medically Supervised Detox
Once your medical and physical reports are handed down to the physicians, they will start planning a roadmap for your treatment. You will receive medically managed treatment through your stay in the medical detox center.
You will be monitored 24X7. There will always be staff members available by your side to monitor your behaviors and change the treatment plan if needed. In addition, medical staff will always be on standby in case of any medical complications.
Stage 3: Clinical Care
According to NIDA, detox is an important treatment for recovery. However, it is not an effective way to treat any addiction behavior in the long term. This is because the patients always hold the potential of going back to their old habits once they are out of the treatment program.
To ensure such a thing never happens, staff members of the medical detox center ensure that they remain connected to the patients and offer addiction treatment if needed.
If the addiction is severe, the patients might be recommended to remain outpatients, after the inpatient treatment is over.
FAQs
Q1. Do I Need Medical Detox Treatment?
You can believe that willpower is the only thing you need to come out of any addiction. However, it might be more challenging than you think.
If you are on substance use and wondering whether you need medical detox or not, here are a few things to consider.
- Type of the drug.
- How long you have been addicted to it.
- How dependent you are.
You can start the detox process by yourself at home. But after trying so many times, the end result has only been – Relapse. This shows that you need professional help.
Q2. Can I Complete The Medical Detox Process & Go Home?
Addiction treatment is an ongoing process. Even if your addiction treatment is over, it requires constant monitoring. According to NIDA, the relapse rate is as high as 60%, which is similar to other chronic diseases like asthma and diabetes.
However, long-term treatment can ensure that the end result is what you expected. Although addiction is a curable disease, you can ensure that it never happens again by continuing to care.
Q3. How Long Does The Treatment Last?
The length of the medical detox treatment will be based on two factors: the type and the severity of their addiction. Some people complete their treatment process in three months, while some take years to complete.
However, most people spend an average time of 10 days in the detox center before moving into the next level of care.
Commitment To Recovery
Remember, addiction might be a complicated and chronic disease, but it can be cured with the right treatment services.
If you or someone you know is suffering from substance abuse, medical detox may be the level of care you need to start.
We have already discussed everything about medical detox in this article and answered some of the most asked questions.