Substance Abuse and How to Treat it?

As mental health is gaining prominence so is the concern regarding substance abuse and addiction. It can occur for various reasons and hamper both physical and mental well-being. Therefore, it is always advisable to receive proper treatment for substance abuse and addiction.

Are you wondering about the proper treatment for substance abuse? Read till the end of this article to get a complete overview.

Illegal substances or drugs are used to gain a form of intoxication or high. These mostly have addiction potential. Substance abuse refers to occasional episodes of substance use, which can turn into chronic usage after the user gets addicted to it. These can be prescription drugs or non-medical drugs. Some of these are listed below-

• Hallucinogens like PCP and LSD
• Hypnotics and sedatives like benzodiazepines, sleeping pills, and barbiturates
• Cannabis (marijuana)
• Inhalants, such as paint thinners, aerosol sprays, dendrite and nitrites
• Opioids like codeine, oxycodone and heroin
• Stimulants like cocaine, Adderall, and methamphetamine
• Tobacco/nicotine, like smoking and vaping cigarettes 

These substances usually vary from each other. However, at the end of the day, these can all enhance your addiction. It begins with the voluntary act of taking drugs, which then become addictive. Ultimately, people fail to stop its consumption. Therefore, they must think of ways to manage substance abuse to avoid mental and physical harm.

Substance abuse can affect your mental and physical health, causing many problems. Moreover, they will keep escalating if you avoid proper treatment. Here are some health issues and illnesses you can face from substance abuse.

• Damages to the Immune System: If you inject drugs intravenously, you risk developing various infections like HIV, hepatitis B and C, or bacterial infections. Dirty and overused needles can cause these. On the other hand, snorting drugs can cause upper respiratory infections. In addition, drugs like cocaine reduce the immune system's ability to create WBC, thereby reducing its power to fight against infections.
• Cardiovascular Conditions: Abusing stimulants often enhances a user's heart rate, while depressants and sedatives slow it down. Constant rise and drop in blood pressure and heart rate cause ischemic injury, blood clots, and aortic or coronary arterial dissection. Users of stimulants like cocaine or methamphetamines face the risk of death from cardiac arrest.
• Gastrointestinal Problems: Alcohol and prescribed drugs like opioids or ADHD medication can attack your digestive system. Their constant consumption can cause stomach upset, chronic constipation, indigestion, nausea, or vomiting. Additionally, alcohol abuse can cause Reflux esophagitis, Pancreatitis and greater cancer risks.
• Respiratory Issues: Smoking drugs and excessive tobacco can damage the alveoli in the lungs, making your upper respiratory system more vulnerable to infections. Few CNS depressants like opioids can cause slow or irregular breathing. Overdose of drugs like hypoxia can lead to death.
• Liver Damage: The liver has a significant responsibility of stimulating metabolism. However, if your body has a high content of drugs and substances, the liver fails to perform this duty. Alcohol, heroin, inhalants, and steroids can damage your liver rapidly. It leads to cirrhosis or hepatitis. Excessive alcohol abuse can also cause alcoholic steatohepatitis, also known as fatty liver.
• Kidney Damage: Kidneys have the role of draining toxins out of the bloodstream. When the toxin level is high, kidneys fail to perform their duty properly. In addition, some drugs can cause rhabdomyolysis, which results in a breakdown of muscle tissues that fill the bloodstream with toxic muscle cells, making it more challenging for kidneys to perform. Constant consumption of such drugs causes progressive kidney damage, ultimately leading to renal failure.
• Mental Health Issues: Excessive alcohol consumption causes depression, anxiety and anger issues. On the other hand, stimulants like methamphetamines can cause confusion, insomnia, mood swings, violent behaviour, hallucinations and paranoia. In addition, tobacco and nicotine might develop problems like irritability, attention and sleep problems.

It is difficult to find a one-size-fits-all treatment for substance abuse. Treatment varies on an individual level depending on the type of substance, the extent of addiction, and physical and mental health conditions. Nevertheless, here are some of the most popular treatments for drug addicts that most people try.

1. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

CBT is one of the most common treatments for substance abuse. It is an excellent form of psychotherapy used to treat multiple mental health issues. The best part is that you can use it to deal with multiple addictions, including food, alcohol, and prescription drug addictions.

Therapists use CBT to identify your unhealthy behavioural patterns and the triggers behind your activities. Then, they will talk to you to understand how your behaviour and thinking can affect your addictive tendencies. With this, you can develop a healthier thinking pattern and control your addiction.

2. Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy

It is another treatment procedure used for mental and emotional health issues. One can use it for treating substance abuse, as its origin is hidden in your mental functioning. With this method, you get to identify your negative thoughts and deal with the feelings of self-defeat.

When individuals develop an addiction, they are likely to avoid rational thinking and only focus on how to continue substance abuse. The goal of this therapy is to help them gain the ability to consider logic and reason in their thoughts and decisions. It can ultimately help them get over the addiction.

3. Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT)

This therapy focuses on the emotional and mental responses of the patients against certain situations and events. Usually, self-destructive behaviours from stress and intense emotions drive people towards substance abuse. This therapy aims to regulate the emotional turmoil and mindfulness of the individuals to help them deal with their addiction.

Even though DBT is more suitable for handling mental health issues like borderline personality disorder, it is also beneficial for controlling cravings. In addition, it helps individuals in situations of substance addiction relapse, teaching essential coping skills.

4. Motivational Interviewing (MI)

This treatment, as the name suggests, aims at increasing the patient's motivation to make efforts to get rid of their addiction. Instead of setting goals for the patients and providing instructions, this method helps them set goals for themselves.

At the end of the day, it is up to an individual to eliminate their addiction through therapies. If they are not motivated, they will fail to address it despite therapies and medicines. This therapy is often preferable since it develops a desire for sobriety among the addicts, inspiring them to make their way towards it.

5. Detoxification

It is a medically-assisted program to help you eliminate your addiction and recover from the mental and physical damages that these might have caused. Substance withdrawal can be an unpleasant process, as your body parts might react negatively to the sudden change. Therefore, professional help in detoxification can be beneficial.

Detoxification differs from the therapies discussed above since it does not merely treat the underlying behavioural causes of the addiction. Instead, it is a practical therapy used to completely cure a person of addiction and help them go clean and sober.

6. 12-Step Facilitation

Also known as the 12-step program, it is a popular method used to treat substance abuse. It helps to form group therapy, considering more than one addict. Here, the group starts to accept their addiction and recognises its negative impact on their emotional, physical and social health.

These groups help addicts share their stories with each other and gain inspiration. Once they recognise the addiction problem, they submit to a higher power. They need to participate in consistent group meetings to avoid the possibility of returning to the abuse.

7. Inpatient & Outpatient Rehabilitation

Inpatient and residential rehab programs refer to live-in solutions for people who are experiencing substance addiction. Here, they receive supervised treatment with a structured care plan. In addition, licensed professionals monitor the behaviour and activities of the patients, helping them develop healthy habits and get rid of their addictions.

On the other hand, outpatient rehab with Intensive Outpatient Programs enables substance abusers to receive treatment at their own time and convenience. They do not have to stay on-site or in any rehab facility. It is a good option once the individual gains sobriety and tries to recover from the damages of the illegal substances in their system.

8. Contingency Management

This therapy is again helpful in treating various forms of addiction, including narcotics, tobacco and alcohol. In addition, this therapy aims to reinforce your positive behaviour, which aims at maintaining sobriety.

With this treatment, you get the motivation to overcome an addiction, as it rewards desired behaviours. Often, it provides monetary compensation to the addicts who successfully earn sobriety within the stipulated time. In addition, opportunities to win prizes or gift cards can act as motivators for substance abusers.

9. Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR)

This therapy mainly treats mental health issues from past trauma or depressing incident, like PTSD. Such mental health illnesses often result in substance abuse, and individuals get addicted since the intoxication helps them divert their minds from such incidents and their memories. Moreover, substance consumption causes dilated pupils.

This therapy heals the brain’s information processing system, promoting emotional stability and symptom reduction. Its effects become visible within a short span of the treatment, enabling the patients to develop healthier and more positive thoughts. This way, they can handle substance addiction.

10. Matrix Model

It is a combination of various therapeutic techniques to handle substance abuse. Initially, it aimed at helping patients suffering from stimulant addictions. Then, therapists try to motivate the patients by rewarding good behaviours. They also help them believe in their capabilities and thereby enhance their self-esteem.

This therapy aims to enhance self-esteem, dignity, and self-worth among substance abusers. In addition, it is a great way of generating a consensus between both patients and therapists to eliminate the addiction for their well-being.

11. Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) & Therapeutic Communities (TCs)

With an ACT, you receive mental health services and therapies within a community instead of living in a hospital or rehabilitation centre. It is an individualised treatment therapy, where the therapists focus on your specific issues and work on the same. They will set goals based on your current needs.

TC is another long-term residential treatment to help substance addicts develop healthy behaviours. They learn healthier values and behaviours while learning to cope with other mental and physical health issues from substance abuse.

12. Medication

Medication is probably a mandatory treatment requirement when it comes to dealing with substance abuse. Various medicines work well for reducing cravings, decreasing addictive behaviours, and improving mood shifts. FDA has approved the following medicines in this regard.

• Lofexidine, for reducing cravings and withdrawal symptoms among patients
• Methadone, Buprenorphine and Naltrexone for treating opioid use disorder
• Naltrexone, Acamprosate and Disulfiram for reducing alcohol addiction
• Bupropion or Varenicline, for tobacco cravings, along with a nicotine patch, spray, gum or lozenge

One might wonder why drug abuse treatment is necessary if a person is already in remission. Even if you feel like you are no longer addicted to substances, you must seek treatment to work on the core issues that your body or mind might face.

• Your body will react against a vital change, like stopping the consumption of a certain drug all of a sudden.
• This causes various health issues, the most common ones like teeth-gritting and forming tight fists. It becomes challenging to deal with such conditions without professional help.
• A professional therapist or a support group can help you deal with such issues with suitable measures, ensuring minimum suffering and pain.
• Even if you feel like you have recovered, staying in touch with support groups or regular counselling sessions is advisable. This is because a new incident or event can always affect your mental health, forcing a relapse of the addiction.
• It will not be easy to handle the temptations. However, with professional help, you can get over negative thoughts and incidents, thereby avoiding the possibility of relapse.

Therefore, it is mandatory to seek treatment for substance abuse, whether you have recovered from the addiction or not. As this article pointed out, your physical and mental health might have adverse reactions when you are trying to withdraw. You can consider the therapies and treatment methods discussed here.