Relapse Prevention in Granbury, TX

Many mental and psychological disorders lead people to extreme substance abuse, an activity that causes some forms of permanent mental dysfunction. A mental preoccupation with substance abuse is one of the results of these changes. The detoxification process that helps with withdrawal symptoms does not do much for these cravings. If left untreated, such cravings can bring about relapse, or a return to drug abuse. It takes a special kind of treatment after detox to ensure that this doesn't happen. At our center for relapse prevention in Granbury we offer rehab treatment that is primarily focused on these challenges.

What Does Relapse Prevention Therapy Involve?

Once an addict successfully completes detox, he is still technically considered addicted. Post-detox, the cravings are only temporarily in retreat. In nearly every case where addict end rehab at that point, they see a return to substance abuse in a matter of days. This happens for a number of reasons.

Relapse prevention treatment aims to address each one of these reasons with a therapeutic approach specifically designed for the purpose. While our programs for addiction treatment in Granbury with regard to relapse prevention can be delivered on an outpatient basis, it is often best performed in the protective environment of an inpatient rehab where intensive therapy is applied free of distracting influences, over a period of months.

Knowledge

This is one of the most powerful tools at the disposal of the chemically dependent person. A thorough, scientific understanding of the way addiction affects the brain is an important part of finding the will to engage in treatment.

At our center for relapse prevention in Granbury, for example, our education program is thorough, and helps patients visualize every symptom that they experience.

Warning Sign Management

When relapses occur, they follow a well-defined path -- they start with a degradation of emotional control, progresses to a loss of behavioral control, and goes on to active fantasizing about a return to drug use. It is possible to anticipate and recognize the signs, and apply analytical thought to them. The addict can understand each one of these irrational changes, break them down, and attempt to gain control over them.

In many advanced drug relapse prevention courses, patients don't even wait for these signs of relapse to show up. They practice inventory-taking each morning, checking themselves against a list of warning signs, to make sure that none actually in evidence. If signs are there to be seen, they proceed to work on them.

Family members can be brought into warning sign management, as well. When the relapse process begins in an addict, it is usually apparent to those around. It can appear as irritability, and a desire to withdraw. Family members who notice these signs can quickly begin to ask both patient and the rehab to work harder.

Trigger Management

In essence, addictions are no different than common attachment to things like favorite foods. To a person who loves barbecue, for example, associated ideas -- summer, friends and swimming pools, for example -- may trigger thoughts of barbecue, and perhaps even cause salivation.

Addiction is no different. The mind can form an attachment to drugs so deep, it is reminded powerfully of them the moment it is exposed to cues. Trigger management therapy helps patients work out the different ways in which they may be reminded of drugs, and helps them devise ways to avoid them.

In most people, certain friends, places or even smells can all be powerful cues. Stress and emotional ups and downs can be the most powerful cues of all, however. Addicts usually turn to substance abuse when they face challenges. These challenges, then, and up turning into relapse cues triggers. Working on strategies to lead an uneventful and low-stress life be a powerful way to avoid relapse.

Therapy

Poor or flawed psychological development is often a great contributor to a tendency towards substance abuse. Examples may include anger issues, a burdensome guilt problem, or a tendency to excessive self-blame.

Known as cognitive distortions, these tendencies can cause so much pain, they make life hard to tolerate for those who suffer from them. When such emotional pain becomes excessive, drugs can be a very attractive comfort.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy is a powerful therapeutic approach against such psychological challenges. In treatment that can last months, therapists help patients analyze the way their burdensome thought processes work, and gain control over them. It can take considerable practice.

Finding the Right Therapist

Relapse prevention programs are an extremely useful strategy to prevent relapse. How effective such therapeutic work is, however, greatly depends on the kind of fit to the therapist is to the patient. Looking for a therapist with whom a good relationship is possible, can be time well-spent.

Luckily for you, the therapists at our drug and alcohol rehab in Granbury are the most qualified, experienced, and compassionate. If you'd like to speak to one of our therapists, all you need to do is to call on us at our center for relapse prevention in Granbury (877) 804-1531.