Health & Fitness

Long term drug treatment is an entirely different endeavor from detox and rehab. Anyone can get sober once or twice–indeed, the literature on addictions is littered with stories of well-meaning patients who returned dozens and even hundreds of times. The trick is staying that way, and this is where the major schools of thought diverge.

On the one hand are the cognitive-behavioralists who believe that the trick to getting well is engaging in exercises that amount to controlling your thoughts. Much of this therapy is aimed toward homework and exercises designed to free your thought patterns from the habits that give rise to the unwanted behavior. On the other hand are the psychodynamic therapists who maintain talking therapy is the only way to truly get well.

Drug Treatment: The Fish Problem
It amounts to a redux of the old homily: give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. In-depth therapy often involves recounting some emotional history in order to lay bare the beliefs and traumas that may have resulted in intolerable feelings. Often getting to the heart of such feelings is that only way to truly master the addiction over the long term.

The best long term drug treatment programs focus on the individual, and that usually requires a lot of care. If you have the means, many experts recommend finding a program that can give you one-on-one time with a trained professional in the field. Some of the best such programs can be found throughout the state of California.