10 Ways Drug Addiction Treatment has Changed in the Last 10 Years

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, addiction treatment is progressive and constantly changing. It improves as scientists study and treat addiction. As with any science, it moves forward as people continue to research it. There are several advances made in drug addiction treatment in the last 10 years.

1. Treating the Person not the Addiction

One advance is to recognize that addiction affects the whole person. It invades:

• physical health
• social interaction
• family relationships
• spiritual health

The way to treat addiction is to treat all of these aspects, not just one.

2. Taking a More Holistic Approach

Counseling is more often used alongside drug therapy in current addiction treatment practices.

Drug addiction treatment now takes a more holistic approach. Utilizing a variety of therapies in order to accomplish recovery, is the best way to resolve addiction and prevent relapse.

3. Treating Drug Addiction as a Disease Rather than a Crime

The idea that criminalizing addiction does not help to treat the addiction is not necessarily new. More and more addiction is treated like the disease that it is rather than a moral or criminal failing.

4. Looking Towards Social Change

Addiction science is moving more towards social change rather than punishing or treating an individual. Some scientists consider that social change is the only way to end addiction completely.

5. Using Honest Drug Education Rather than Slogans

Although slogans seemed to work for years, the age of the internet changed the amount of information that people shared. Many people now have access to information about drugs both good and bad.

6. Using Both Eastern and Western Medicine

Many treatment centers are now combining both eastern and western philosophies in order to fully treat addiction. Doctors are now recognizing that drug treatment is thousands of years old and some of the older treatments should be brought back into play.

7. Giving an Addict More Choices

By giving an addict choices in treatment, they can tailor the treatment to suit their individual needs. It recognizes the individual rather than just the addiction. Most of the time an addict knows what might work and what will not. They know their addiction better than anyone.

Why is Yoga a Popular Treatment for Addiction?

8. Relying More on Counseling and Drug Therapy Rather than Just Drug Therapy

In the past much of the addiction treatment available relied on drug therapy just to treat the withdrawal and sometimes to replace the original drug of addiction. By combining counseling and drug therapy doctors have found a balanced approach that works to end the addiction completely and offer continuing care for the problems that caused the addiction to begin with.

9. Treating Mental Illness with Drug Addiction

Doctors now recognize that drug addiction both causes and is the cause of drug addiction. If you treat them both you have greater chance of success than if you only treat physical addiction and not the cause or repercussions of it.

10. Making Treatment More Available

One of the main things that have happened to drug addiction in the last 10 years is that treatment is more available. You can find the treatment you need by calling 800-256-3490.