Addiction is a complex illness that affects everyone differently. The reasons leading to addiction also vary from one individual to another. While some start taking drugs to experiment or to feel good and have fun, others do so to numb some kind of pain they’re experiencing. Those in the latter group often have a harder time beating addiction unless they get to the root cause of their pain.
Using addiction to escape human suffering is often counterproductive. While it works in the short term, giving the addict respite from the painful parts of their daily life, it often leads to more problems in the long run. This is because of how addiction works.
When you first start taking alcohol or a drug, it gives you a high – a euphoric feeling of well-being. However, this often wears off, leaving you with unpleasant withdrawal symptoms. You have to take the substance again to get high. With time, your body develops tolerance, requiring you to take an ever-increasing amount of alcohol or the drug to attain the same high. Eventually, you end up addicted.
Addiction often has adverse effects on an individual, contributing to physical, mental, and emotional problems. You started out looking for an escape from trauma or pain and ended up creating more problems for yourself.
Can Rehab Help?
To beat addiction and get your life back on a healthy track, you have to be willing to admit that you have a problem. You also have to be willing to put in work to get and remain sober or clean. It is nearly impossible to take these steps on your own. That’s where rehab comes in.
Starting from detox to outpatient treatment and aftercare, the addiction treatment process is designed to give those battling addiction a chance at rebuilding their lives. At the Findlay Recovery Center in Ohio, we use the following to help clients find better ways to handle their pain:
- Psychotherapy. This is a key part of our drug and alcohol treatment programs. We use individual or group therapy to help clients uncover the root causes of their addiction –helping them uncover what pain they’re escaping and why. Over the course of several sessions, we help them gain skills to help manage their pain in healthy ways.
- Healthier ways of self-expression. While not as exciting as getting high, there are other ways people can use to cope with the stress of their daily lives. We help clients discover creative ways of expressing and managing their emotions including journaling, meditating, immersing themselves in nature, or picking up hobbies such as painting or music.
- Developing healthy, supportive relationships. We also guide and encourage those in recovery to make and maintain healthy relationships with friends and family. This way they can receive the emotional support they need to not only beat addiction but also rebuild sober lives.
Reach out to us today to see how we can help.
