How Drug Addiction and Alcohol Addiction Works

Drug addiction creates changes in the way the brain transmits information. Drugs appear to deplete the brain’s dopamine receptors, negatively affecting the addict’s ability to experience pleasure and reward without progressively increasing quantities of the drug. Abstinence from the drug of dependency creates symptoms of detoxification and craving. Drug treatment or addiction treatment must address these physical needs.

Addiction Treatment

Drug addiction results in an avoidance of sensation, emotion, and the perception of reality. Avoiding the consequences of personal choices and behavior — including the relief from pain and discomfort — would be counterproductive during the course of drug treatment. Ultimately, change must occur in how the addict thinks, perceives sensation and emotions, and behaves.

There will never be a successful approach to addiction treatment that does not address all of the core components of the disease: Medical, Emotional, and Spiritual (Body, Mind, and Spirit).

We find that providing education and counseling in an intensive outpatient rehab helps clients integrate and generalize their therapeutic gains in all aspects of their lives. New sobriety stressors can be brought directly from home or work into the outpatient rehab process. New behavioral skills and insights can be applied to work and home situations directly from the outpatient rehab setting.

The overwhelming majority of our outpatient rehab counselors are in recovery themselves. Our challenge is not to “re” sensitize our counselors to the client’s experience. It is instead to establish and maintain appropriate therapeutic distance and objectivity in the outpatient rehab group.