Drug Rehabs in Chesapeake, VA

Recovering from addiction often turns out to be harder than it has to be. It's for the simple reason that addiction tends to be a subject of considerable secrecy and stigma. There is a little reliable, scientific knowledge that people have access to about the nature of this condition; it is common to believe that addiction is a result of the addict's own weakness. If you're addicted, aren't sure what addiction is, you often have no choice but to believe people when they tell you that your addiction is your own fault -- that if you really tried hard, you would get out of it. All of this, however, is completely false. It is well-established that addiction is a mental disorder; mental disorders are treated, not overcome by willpower. If you suffer from addiction, you do not want to believe in the common misinformation available to you; instead, you want to look to medically sound drug rehabs in Chesapeake that know what they are talking about, and that can help you.

Denial Is Tempting

Just as it isn't common to see people deny that they need treatment for an infection, it should be uncommon that anyone should deny that they need treatment for a mental disorder such as addiction. With conditions of the mind, there tends to be a belief in the ability of the mind to meet every challenge through the application of willpower. A little reading about the nature of mental disorders in general, and addiction, in particular, can go a long way towards helping denial.

Why Is Addiction a Mental Disorder?

A person of normal mental health would respond to harmful influences by recognizing their ability to do harm and working to move away from them. In addition, however, the brain is subject to certain kinds of damage that remove its ability to recognize the harm of stimuli related to the use of addictive substances. A brain that sustains damage serious enough to be unable to perform a basic self-preservation role is considered abnormal and dysfunctional.

Such damage does occur through repeated exposure to drugs or alcohol. Addictive substances act on the brain's reward and learning center; stimulation of this region of the brain causes intense pleasure, but also creates a strong, emotional bond to the source of the stimulation. The bond can be deep enough to render the mind unable to grasp the harmful nature of drugs.

It is this bond that is behind the cravings of addiction -- the mind experiences deep pangs of yearning that cannot be overcome. This psychological side to addiction is permanent and has no cure. Cravings can be so powerful that the regular, untrained mind can be helpless against it. Cravings can last through life, decades after one quits drugs. The only way to overcome cravings is to train intensively through relapse prevention therapy at drug rehabs in Chesapeake and alcohol rehabs in Chesapeake, to develop psychological health and psychological avoidance techniques.

The term detoxification is a holdover from a distant past, a time when it was thought that quitting drugs required cleansing the body and brain of all the toxins of past drug use. Today, it is evident that such cleansing is not what goes on when one stops taking drugs. Instead, the difficult, painful and even dangerous symptoms experienced tend to come from the brain's attempts at adaptation to drastic changes to the chemicals that it has been exposed to.

The detoxification process can include very painful and dangerous symptoms that can kill, cause injury or, at the very least, discourage people from even trying to quit. Approaching the best detox facility is the safest way to go about addressing the detox process.

Inpatient Detox Is the Most Effective Approach to Take

Medical detox in Chesapeake is by no means a straightforward process. Helping a patient navigate the painful and dangerous symptoms often requires checking into a facility. Full-time attention by doctors and addiction specialists is often a requirement, especially in some of the more complex cases of addiction that involve conditions such as cardiac, liver or kidney dysfunction, multiple drugs, the presence of psychiatric disorders or a tendency to fail at drug rehab programs.

Making the Best Choice

The best drug rehabs in Chesapeake individually treat each patient to unique, individual plans, take each patient's mental and physical health into account, and offer intensive psychotherapy to help each patient develop engagement to treatment. While not every rehab offers such thorough treatment approaches, these are essential. If you can put in the effort to find the right rehab, achieving sobriety is all but a certainty. When sobriety and a full, productive life are fully within reach, denial simply becomes less tempting. Call Chesapeake Alcohol Rehab Centers. (877) 804-1531