Alcoholism is a chronic disease that creates a physical dependency on alcohol, report doctors at the Mayo Clinic. The obsession to drink overpowers everything else, including the negative consequences of broken relationships, lost jobs, financial ruin and deteriorating health. While medications, counseling and 12-step recovery programs can help an alcoholic quit drinking, the initial steps to abstinence often begin in alcoholism treatment programs.
Options
There are a variety of options available for the treatment of alcoholism, according to AlcoholTreatmentClinics. com. Inpatient treatment facilities provide a residential setting that is useful for alcoholics who have failed in previous attempts to stop drinking and require a secure setting and forced abstinence. Inpatient treatment programs can last anywhere from two weeks to 90 days or longer. Outpatient programs provide intensive counseling for those who do not have the time or the resources for inpatient treatment. People whose addiction is less severe often utilize them. Specialized treatment centers that are religion-based or focused primarily on adolescents are also available.
Environment
Alcohol treatment programs that are effective provide a safe, nurturing environment where patients can honestly appraise their situations and problems. According to counselors at Hazeldon, a reputable program that has been treating the disease of alcoholism since 1949, people who enter alcohol treatment typically experience high levels of fear, anxiety and anger. They often blame others for their predicament. Trained alcohol counselors often are recovering alcoholics who understand the feelings and offer acceptance and a non-judgmental atmosphere in which alcoholics can discover the truth behind their disease and how it developed.
Withdrawal
Recovery from alcoholism initially involves a period of detoxification that may include medications to relieve symptoms. Most treatment programs provide a medically supervised detox that lasts anywhere from four to seven days. Complications from alcohol abuse can include delirium tremens (DTs), convulsions or seizures.
Counseling
Patients in alcohol treatment programs are provided intense therapy that usually includes individual counseling and group therapy sessions. Individual counseling also addresses other needs that could affect a person's continued abstinence, such as eating disorders, co-occurring mental conditions like bipolar disorder, the home conditions to which the alcoholic will be returning and other issues that could affect long-term sobriety. Group counseling helps patients relate to others and find support in their own recovery.
Twelve Steps
Alcohol treatment facilities often rely on the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous as a basis for their programs. Alcohol treatment programs, use the 12 steps as a foundation for integrative treatment modalities that treat the body, mind and spirit. The 12 steps enable patients to examine mental and physical health, relationships, emotional well-being and spiritual beliefs. Patients are introduced to the 12 steps and encouraged to continue attending meetings when they leave the program.
