Inpatient Drug Rehab

Inpatient drug rehab

What is inpatient treatment

Inpatient, or residential, drug treatment requires that the person receiving treatment for addictions or substance abuse, residing in a facility for a designated length of time.  Inpatient treatment may be either short or long term depending on the needs and situation of the individual. Both frameworks involve similar therapies. Inpatient treatment does not include detoxification, as that usually occurs in a hospital environment, but follows it.

Although inpatient therapy can take place in a hospital environment, for the most part a residential setting is typical, offering 24-hour care and supervision. The most common method of treatment is a therapeutic community, involving the staff and other patients, focusing on helping the individual indentify the sources and conditions that lead to substance abuse. Medical care is also available.

Benefits of inpatient rehab

The main benefit of inpatient therapy is ready access to the therapeutic community. Patients are immersed in a recovery environment in which all are dedicated to breaking the addiction. The most successful programs that do not have a set time for release, and create treatment programs that are customized to the needs of the client.

Types of therapy used

Motivational Enhancement Therapy

Motivational Enhancement Therapy is therapy designed to enhance and understand the motivation that exists in a patient’s interaction with an object of addiction. There are two principal categories:

• Motivational Interviewing
• Resistance Reduction

Motivational Interviewing involves the therapist asking pointed questions in order to help the patient understand the value he or she has placed in the object of addiction, and how dependence and abuse have affected the patient’s life. The expected result is increased understanding of the patient’s uncertainty concerning rehabilitation, an increased motivation to stop using,  and a desire to develop a recovery plan.

Resistance Reduction, instead of focusing on the mixed feelings a patient has towards changing his or her behavior, acknowledges the uncertainty, but does require the client to change. Through this process, the patient increases his or her tolerance for these thoughts and feelings, reducing opposition to therapy and the changes it brings. This is accomplished through intensive exploration of how behavior patterns operate, and the validity that any number of possible outcomes may have. Resistance Reduction does not require patients to want to change in order for therapy to move forward.

Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)

Cognitive Behavior Therapy centers is anchored in the premise that individuals can and will monitor and control their behavior, if they have the proper skill-sets. The therapy involves changing how the patient thinks about conditions and circumstances by teaching and reinforcing rational processes to control the processes that contribute to substance abuse. This therapeutic approach also works to eliminate the patient’s belief that he or she cannot function without the object of addiction.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

Dialectical Behavior Therapy is a specialized form of Cognitive Behavior Therapy focusing on the patients developing skills for tolerating stress and emotional discomfort, helping them to understand and accept difficult situations while at the same time developing ways to change the behaviors that contribute to those situations.

Psychodynamic Therapy

Psychodynamic Therapy is essentially a Freudian approach that seeks to have patients delve into their subconscious and understand how this influences behavior. Therapy involves exploring unresolved conflicts and unsuccessful relationships with the underlying belief that resolving the attendant issues eliminates the need for the substance or behavior on which the patient has become dependent.

12-Step Counseling

Related to the approach developed by Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), 12-step counseling involves working with a therapist, while at the same time attending AA (or appropriately themed groups) meeting. This differs from the traditional AA approach which does not rely on mental health professionals in its process. Like AA, however, 12-Step Counseling does follow three critical beliefs and principles:

1. People who are addicted have lost the ability to control the substance or behavior identified.
2. No effective cure for addiction exists – abstinence most be total and ongoing.
3. Hope for recovery rests in accepting the loss of control and placing faith in a higher power.

Working with the therapist is not a permanent situation, and gradually the patient begins regular and exclusive attendance at 12-step meetings.

Where to find inpatient drug rehab

Most major metropolitan areas have inpatient drug rehab facilities within a short distance, though few are within the urban confines. Many courts, hospitals, and municipalities have access to databases that will provide information. In addition, there are many on-line referral services that will take an individual’s personal data and use it to deliver a list of inpatient sites that best meet his or her requirements.