Addiction Services
An addiction is a recurring compulsion to engage in some specific activity, despite harmful consequences to one’s physical health, mental health, finances, and relationships.
An addict is commonly thought of as someone who has lost the ability to control their use of an illegal substance such as heroin, or cocaine; however, people may develop an addiction to many different substances and behaviors including alcohol, prescription medications, gambling, and sex.
The feature which all addicts have in common regardless of what they are addicted to is that they are unable to discontinue the behavior by their own will power. Without help, most addicts never recover and move inevitably toward self destruction. Fortunately, addiction is a treatable condition and an addict who enters into treatment has the ability to regain their life. Unfortunately, addiction distorts an individual’s perception and the addict often does not have the clarity to enter treatment until they have lost or done irreparable damage to their lives. For this reason, people close to an individual caught in the grips of an addiction often decide to put an intervention in place to allow the addict the opportunity to enter treatment and halt the behavior before it is too late.
 If you would like to learn more about the addiction intervention process, you can visit our “Addiction Intervention” page. You can also contact us directly and either sending us an e-mail, or giving us a call and talking to one of our addiction intervention experts.
The Medical Understanding of addiction developed dramatically in recent years. For most of human history, people have recognized that certain individuals lose the ability to control their use of alcohol or drugs, but medicine had little to offer these individuals and most suffered and eventually died without any form of treatment. Today, the medical field has begun to make significant progress toward understanding why and how the human body and mind becomes addicted and there are now many treatment options for individuals suffering from addiction. Below is a brief description of what has been learned about the process of addiction.
- Physical addiction – The human body tries to remain in a state of equilibrium, and after the prolonged consumption of certain substances, the body undergoes biological changes in order to adapt to the presence of the substance. This aspect of addiction develops over time but may develop quite quickly in some individuals. Once an addict has developed a physical addiction to a substance, trying to quit without medical help becomes nearly impossible because their body now requires the substance in order to function. Physical addiction can be divided into two main components: tolerance and withdrawal.
- Tolerance: When an individual has developed tolerance to a substance it means that they must take more and more in order to achieve the same effect. For example, an alcoholic who became drunk from three drinks when they started drinking might now require twenty drinks to achieve the same effect. The degree of tolerance that develops in some individuals can be astounding; some alcoholics and heroin addicts consume every day an amount several times greater than that which would kill an average person.
- Withdrawal: When an addict has developed tolerance to a substance, they usually will experience withdrawal if they suddenly stop taking it. The symptoms of withdrawal depend on the substance the individual is addicted to but often include shaking, nausea, diarrhea, profuse sweating, hallucinations, achy joints, and vomiting. In the case of alcohol, barbiturates, and drugs like Xanax, Valium, and Klonopin, withdrawal can result in seizures and death. For this reason it is vital that individuals detoxing from these types of drugs do so under medical supervision.
- Psychological addiction – While science has made tremendous gains in the understanding and treatment of addiction, the psychological aspect of the condition has remained difficult to quantify. What is known is that in all addicts the parts of the brain involved in motivation and reward have undergone neurochemical changes that cause the addict to experience often unresistible compulsions to engage in their addictive behavior. These parts of the brain which evolved to regulate our drives for food, water, shelter, and other fundamental needs undergo a transformation in the addict and override the neurological mechanisms in place to regulate them. For this reason, most physicians involved in the treatment of addiction view it as a biological disorder requiring formal treatment and not something that can be overcome simply by willpower. Symptoms of the psychological component of addiction include include cravings, paranoia, depression, anxiety, and insomnia. In addition to drugs and alcohol, people may develop this type of addiction to gambling, sex or pornography, eating, video games, and work.
Treatment for addiction is a 3 step process. The 3 steps are as follows.
- Addiction Intervention - Addiction intervention is an orchestrated attempt by one, or many, (usually family and friends) to persuade an addict to seek professional help with their addiction.
- Addiction Treatment – Once the addict decides to accept help through an intervention, they then enter a treatment facility that specializes in rehabilitating addicts. The treatment center should be one that deals specifically with the addiction the addict is suffering from.
- Recovery – After the addict completes the treatment program, they then move back into the world and continue their recovery. They learn how to live life completely free from the substance or behavior they were addicted to. Once stable in recovery, recovering individuals often go on to lead happy and productive lives..
We of Intervention Treatment know how you feel. Your angry, hurt, and most of all afraid what is yet to come for your loved one. In our experience without help it never gets better only worse. A solution must be found. Please don't delay. Allow us to use our years of experience to find a solution for your family and loved ones.
Regardless of the substance or behavior, an addiction often cannot be overcome unless an intervention takes place. Intervention Treatment is a group of professionals with a vast amount of experience in helping people overcome their addiction and returning to their life as they once were. We are here to help and would love to hear about your situation and create an individualized intervention plan. We encourage you to use our resources as addiction intervention experts to aid in the recovery process of your loved one.
