Addiction Treatment in Fitchburg, MA

While addictions exist to gambling, gaming, the Internet, shopping, sex and to one's relationship to food, addiction to substance abuse is a different class of dependency disorder. While withdrawal from any condition can come with cravings and a desire for the compulsive pursuit of the behavior that one is attached to, substance abuse creates both physical and psychological dependency of far greater depth in the brain. Withdrawal can require intensive medical and psychological treatment. If you are concerned about a substance abuse habit and wonder about how to find addiction treatment in Fitchburg, MA, here is advice that you can use.

How Do You Know If a Rehab Is Competent?

When you set out to look for regular medical treatment, you can go to any established hospital, and you know that they are competent. You know that the government doesn't hand out medical practice certification and hospital permits to just anyone. It isn't as cut-and-dried with addiction treatment, however.

Standards tend to be lax, and there is very little government oversight. You'll find both highly advanced, scientifically valid addiction treatment in Fitchburg, MA, as well as centers that offer outdated or ineffective treatment. Before you begin to look for quality drug rehab treatment, you need to first learn how to tell a good center apart from one that is mediocre.

There are alcohol rehab centers in Fitchburg that require no drugs -- some like twelve-step programs, are entirely based on spiritual belief systems. Yet others, like rapid detox programs, use untested and medically experimental methods that attempt to treat patients under sedation in mere hours. Each one of these methods do work for some people. They can't be trusted as effective for the wider public, however. For dependable results that ensure long-term sobriety, you need to go with science, not conjecture.

Addiction Often Starts Out from Pre-Existing Mental Disorders

Many people drink or do drugs, but do not actually become entrapped in addiction. Only some do. These people are unlucky enough to want to take their habit to extremes. Genetic problems, as well as psychiatric and psychological disorders, are important reasons.

A person who is genetically predisposed to addiction may tend to sink into addictive behavior much more quickly than others. They may also feel a greater need for the pleasure of drugs or alcohol because their brains are genetically set up for lower levels of natural pleasure than normal people. Others tend to feel a higher level of pleasure to these drugs than others.

Pre-existing psychological disorders are common, as well. Many people suffer from psychological thought disturbances that make them prone to self-loathing, guilt, a poor sense of poor self-worth, and poorly developed analytical skills. While these people are as intelligent as anyone else, their intelligence doesn't directly help them in these areas. Poor psychological health often drives these people to drug abuse for the relief from their tortured lives that they offer them.

Serious psychiatric disorders are another possibility. They are found in more than half of all people struggling with addiction. Unfortunately, drugs and alcohol happen to chemically act on the very parts of the brain that these mental conditions affect, meaning, that to these people, drugs often feel like a relief from symptoms. They help them temporarily emerge from the difficulties presented by their condition. Unfortunately, such use leads them to addiction.

Addiction Is a Mental Disorder

Quite apart from the conditions and disorders that may cause excessive substance abuse, the addiction that develops from such behavior is a mental disorder in its own right. It is seen in this way because chronic exposure to drugs causes damage to key brain functions. As an example, exposure to drugs affects the brain's learning and reward center, a region whose responsibility it is to find actions that result in wholesome benefit and to reward it with both pleasure and emotional habit formation. It is intended to create wholesome habits such as loving and loyal human relationships. Once such attachments are created, they cannot be reversed.

When drugs repeatedly stimulate the learning and reward center, they create an artificial and irreversible love of drugs. Such an attachment to drugs is harmful, and yet, the mind is unable to understand it.

It is also a mental disorder because it creates physical dependence. A brain chronically exposed to drugs adapts to them. When an attempt is made to stop such use, the brain reacts adversely and takes the time to adjust. These withdrawal symptoms can be highly dangerous.

When you look for addiction treatment in Fitchburg, MA it's important to look for a drug and alcohol rehab that directly investigates each individual patient for the causes listed above, and prescribes custom treatments that effectively address each one of them.

It's important to start with medical detox in Fitchburg, a treatment plan that gently takes patients off drugs, and offers medical treatment to suppress cravings and physical withdrawal symptoms. Safe and responsive treatment is usually possible with inpatient care.

This should be followed by psychiatric treatment and psychological therapy, both of which can last years.

Find an Excellent Certified Rehab

Excellent certified addiction treatment in Fitchburg, MA, does exist. You do need to look for it, however. When you put in the work and find quality treatment, greatly improve your chances of successful sobriety. Call Fitchburg Drug Rehab Centers now for help (877) 804-1531.