The term “drug” includes three dimensions: medical, legal, and social (but this definition is not common in every country).
According to the medical criterion, drugs are substances that, due to their chemical composition, affect the central nervous system (stimulating, euphoric, hallucinogenic, sedative action), which is the cause of their non-medical use.
The social dimension means that non-medical use has recently increased making a particular impact on social networks. There are massive negative consequences of the spread of narcotic substances in the various social groups, including family, colleagues, local community, and the whole nation. It is worthwhile to mention that the concept of “social dimension” also includes the formation of the specific shadow subcultures which play an independent role in the mass distribution of drugs being a mechanism for “infecting” the youth with drug addiction.
The legal dimension means that, based on the two above-mentioned perspectives, the legislator has recognized a number of psychoactive drugs illegal, prohibited to produce, distribute, and use for non-medical purposes.
Alcohol and tobacco do not fall under the understanding of drugs in the medical and legal aspects. However, their abuse leads to the development of addiction and concomitant diseases – chronic alcoholism (in the case of alcohol abuse) and nicotine inhalation toxicity (or nicotinism) in the hard smokers.
The first and necessary condition for the positive outcomes of treatment is the desire of the person to quit drugs. However, one wish, in most cases, is insufficient. Often, relatives at the first attempts to stop the narcotization of their beloved fall into the trap of empty promises. Primarily, it comes from ignorance of the essence of drug addiction as a real disease.
Treatment and Relapse
The vast majority of people believe that it is enough to threaten the addict to make him quit, especially when it is the teens. However, the reality is different and just a friendly or threatening talk does not work in this case at all. Even more, counseling, support groups, and treatment are also not enough. The statistics shows that 8 out of 10 return to substance abuse within the first month after rehab. That is why the substance abuse relapse prevention plan is critical for such addicts to stay sober.
The treatment of physical dependence is a removal of drugs from an addict’s body, commonly known as detoxification, with the simultaneous removal of withdrawal syndrome. There are several methods of treatment of physical dependence: traditional (lasting from 3 to 10 days) and so-called “ultra-fast detoxification” (from several hours to 2-3 days). These methods are well-known to specialists having their peculiarities and differences that should be considered when choosing a treatment. However, the main point is that any detoxification does not end with the treatment of drug addiction, as the effectiveness of further withdrawal does NOT depend on the detoxification method.
Relapse Prevention Program
Relapse prevention program is a type of psychotherapy or psycho-education that tries to teach drug or alcohol addicted people coping skills to help them avoid returning back to drugs or alcohol use. It has few goals. First one is to teach useful skills, which will help to speed up recover and avoid high-risk situations. The second one is to assist in learning how to prevent the multiple relapses for a long time. The last one is to help an addict believe in oneself to control one’s behavior.
In the relapse prevention classes, you can learn:
- how to determinate terms “lapse” and “relapse;”
- how to classify nerve-racking situations and things, which can provoke relapse;
- how to plan a day to fill up the time devoted to using drugs or alcohol, or fill up empty places in an addict’s schedule.
Relapse prevention programs also teach the skills of time management, help recovering persons to fill their free time, and recognize good changes in their life. A relapse prevention plan can consist of 2-3 pages long or more detailed plan for making changes to all the fields of an addict’s life that have been damaged by drug use.
To understand better what is relapse prevention, the one needs to know the stages of relapse process. There are three stages of relapse:
- Emotional relapse – recovering person is thinking about drugs.
- Mental relapse – hesitation in one’s mind what is better: to use drugs or not.
- Physical relapse – it is directly the action that leads to the use.
The addicts frequently cannot identify drug relapse symptoms by themselves, so the help of the other people is needed. The most common signs of drug relapse are:
– A person remembers only the good times while using drugs (like the parties and cool time spend with friends).
– A belief that a person can use drugs again without falling back into addiction.
– A person begins to communicate with old friends who continue to use drugs.
– Rapid changes in a person’s behavior are clear signals that something is wrong.
– Breaking social contact, arguing with friends or family, lying.
– An addict’s favorite activities are becoming not fascinating anymore.
The Bottom Line
Drug addiction is a disease hard to cope with, even if an addict undergoes all necessary treatment clearly following the doctors’ recommendations. The end of rehabilitation for many addicts indicates a full recovery, but they are wrong. The addicts need to be aware of the fact that the more efforts to put into the recovery process, the more likely positive changes will appear in their lives. Every addict experiences craving or is triggered by different things from time-to-time. After rehabilitation program, it is essential to join the relapse prevention plan to break the relapse cycle of addiction and increase chances for full recovery.
About the Author
Thanush Poulsen is a Danish blogger who is focused on the healthy lifestyle. Most of his works investigate the problem of addiction in modern society and discuss the ways of effective treatment and prevention.
