Addiction therapy aims to help patients deal with alcoholism, drug addiction and shopaholism. In fact, all addictions can be treated, but the question remains: what is addiction therapy? What to do when we would like to benefit from addiction therapy and do patients have to bear the costs of treating their addiction on their own?

Addiction therapyis a very important form of therapy, especially nowadays. The modern world and the wide availability of various psychoactive substances pose a risk for people to develop various addictions. If you asked someone what the term addiction is associated with, the words alcoholism or drug addiction would probably be the answer. In reality, however, people can actually get addicted to… anything. After all, the problem of drug addiction is known, but also shopaholism or pathological gambling.

Addictions are a problem both for the person who experiences them and for their entire environment. As an example, one can mention alcoholism, which negatively affects both human somatic he alth (according to statistics, in untreated alcoholics, the average life expectancy is shorter by as much as 10-15 years compared to the general population), but alcohol consumption in excess can have a negative impact. on the patient's psyche (it is possible to develop at least various alcoholic psychoses). Alcoholism, however, has a negative impact on the functioning of the whole family - here you can mention the ACoA syndrome (adult children of alcoholics).

Certainly, addictions can be treated as problems that simply need to be treated in the world. Addiction therapy, however, can be a topic that raises a lot of controversy: some people criticize it because they doubt its effectiveness. Some addicts, in turn, are afraid of treating their addiction because of the fear of staying in a closed facility for several weeks, away from their surroundings. Addiction therapy, however, is actually many different interactions, around which - completely unnecessarily - many myths have arisen, through which methods of fighting addiction completely unnecessarily arouse fear in those who need them.patients.

Addiction therapy: what is it?

Addiction treatment basically has one goal: to free the patient from the factor that made him addicted. After undergoing therapy, the patient is expected to stop using a given psychoactive substance or practice a given behavior (or that the frequency of these phenomena will at least decrease significantly), but there are various other goals of addiction therapy. This process is supposed to reduce the harmful effects of the patient's addiction and enable him to return to the proper functioning in society.

Addiction therapy is based on various psychotherapeutic interactions. Sometimes patients are actually given some kind of pharmacological treatment, but in the treatment of addiction it plays an auxiliary role and is used, for example, when the patient is diagnosed with a clear mood disorder (antidepressants may then be prescribed). Numerous medical interactions can also be implemented in patients in the initial stage of addiction therapy - the so-called detox aims to eliminate the symptoms of physical addiction to psychoactive substances in the patient (detoxification is mainly used in the case of drug addiction and alcoholism).

Proper addiction therapy is based on such interactions as:

  • reprogramming (teaching the patient new, he alth-promoting behaviors and attitudes);
  • individual psychotherapy;
  • group psychotherapy;
  • psychoeducation;
  • skill training;
  • solution focused therapy.

Although it may seem that hypnosis can only be found in various films at present, in fact, this method is still used - including in the treatment of addictions. Hypnosis sessions make it possible to reach the deeper parts of the patient's consciousness and thus strengthen the patient's motivation to quit the addiction (e.g. by conveying to the patient an affirmation that the psychoactive substance he or she uses is bad and dangerous to he alth - developing such a belief in the patient increases the chance of that he will actually win against addiction).

Worth knowing

Does addiction therapy always require staying in a closed facility?

Addiction therapy is commonly associated with an exceptionally long stay outside the home, in a closed facility, where you cannot even contact your loved ones. Indeed, the treatment of addiction can take place in closed conditions, however, then limiting contacts with loved ones results from the fact that patients are subjected to a lot ofintensive therapeutic interactions.

Addiction treatment in a closed facility (consisting of a several-week stay in such a facility) is not the only method used in the fight against addiction. It is also possible to undergo therapy in a day ward (where patients simply show up for a few hours a day in a given center), as well as visit addiction treatment clinics (i.e. addiction therapy on an outpatient basis).

Addiction therapy: what addictions can be treated?

Basically, the answer to the above question is simple: you can treat any addiction that leads to patients, for example, problems in family life (e.g. resulting from allocating all funds to buy alcohol or manifesting violence towards relatives ) or in professional life (related, for example, to the neglect of employee duties through addiction). Generally, it can be said that any addiction can be treated - most often alcohol and drug addicts go to therapy, although addiction therapy can also be used by people who develop:

  • drug addiction (drug addiction - the most often addictive drugs are opioids, benzodiazepines, codeine and tramadol);
  • pathological gambling;
  • shopaholism;
  • workaholism;
  • of sex addiction;
  • Internet addiction.

There are also many other addictions that can (and often should be) treated. The course of treatment (including the duration of therapy) in the case of various addictions is different - it is hard to imagine, for example, that a patient addicted to shopping would be directed to detoxify the body. any type of addiction - for this reason, a person who decides to fight their addiction should carefully look for a facility where they can actually be treated.

What do you need to do to start addiction therapy?

As in the case of many he alth services, the problem (at least for some patients) is to obtain a referral, the same is true in the case of addiction therapy - basically, you do not need to have a referral to start the whole process of recovering from addiction. A patient who would like to start treating their addiction can simply go to an addiction clinic and book an appointment there.

The situation is different, however, in the case ofwhen addiction therapy would be conducted in stationary conditions. Then the referral is already required, and this document may be issued, for example, by a family medicine doctor or a psychiatrist. Addiction therapy is included in the group of services paid by the National He alth Fund and, which is an exceptionally favorable situation, free addiction treatment can be used by both people with he alth insurance and patients without he alth insurance.

Addiction treatment in Poland is indeed free, although there are situations where you have to wait for a place in a stationary center for several months. For this reason, some addicts decide to take advantage of the offer of private addiction treatment centers - this is often associated with significant costs, although it enables faster start of addiction treatment.

The total duration of addiction therapy may seem relatively long to some, although it is certainly worthwhile to undergo it if we experience some kind of addiction. Treatment methods used in the case of various addictions finally allow for breaking out of the trap of addiction, which can simply start to control the patient's life - regaining control over one's own behaviors and decisions definitely improves the quality of life of the patient himself, as well as his entire environment.

About the authorBow. Tomasz NęckiA graduate of medicine at the Medical University of Poznań. An admirer of the Polish sea (most willingly strolling along its shores with headphones in his ears), cats and books. In working with patients, he focuses on always listening to them and spending as much time as they need.

Category:

Psychology