Drug Addiction And Alcoholism Treatment: The 4 Phases (Part 1 of 4)

In this, the first article in a series of 4, we’re going to talk about Phase 1 of drug and alcohol addiction treatment, Beginning Treatment.

Today, we’re going to cover phase 1, beginning treatment.

The four phases are:

1. Beginning treatment.
2. Learning abstinence.
3. Maintaining abstinence.
4. Entering and maintaining recovery.

1. Beginning Treatment.

When a person has decided that they need help with drug addiction or alcoholism and start reaching out for help they actually entered phase 1, beginning treatment. That person has admitted that they have a problem and are seeking help to deal with it. They have initiated the treatment process.

When beginning treatment there are 2 obstacles that must be faced and overcome; these are the concepts of Denial and Ambivalence. We’ll start with denial first, because without thoroughly understanding this concept as it applies to addiction recovery one can be completely stalled and give up too early.

Denial

The thought process of one who wants to stay active in addiction is to maintain their addiction at all costs. Deep down, they know they are not doing themselves any good. Denial is the thought process that allows them to not believe how bad things have really gotten. It is the story and add expense to themselves to make drug use seem logical. Examples might be saying things like “I’m not really that bad, I work hard I deserve it, I don’t have a problem you have a problem, everybody does it.”

Unfortunately, the one thing that breaks through denial is one’s life circumstances or negative consequences it so bad they cannot be ignored. In other words, the attic story that drug use is not harming them is shot down by overwhelming evidence.

Ambivalence

The easiest way to describe the concept that ambivalence is to think of being stuck in two worlds. It is almost like having a discussion with yourself trying to take both sides at the same time. A person might say on the one hand I know I need to give up heroine because it will kill me, and on the other hand I’m scared of the drugs sickness from the withdrawals. An alcoholic might say on the one hand I don’t want to start drinking today, I need a drink to get out of bed.

Ambivalence might also be thought of as a stage of growth or change that needs to be moved through. It is like sitting on the fence on the one hand a person “should” stop using drugs and alcohol, but they may not believe they had the ability to do so. One way of looking ambivalence is that it is the fear of commitment, and unfortunately recovery requires complete commitment to abstinence and recovery.

In summary, there are two major goals in beginning treatment. Overcoming denial, to get a realistic picture of how bad things really are. And moving through ambivalence, or sitting on the fence, and taking positive action. One of the first things a professional in and addiction treatment setting will it be examining is denial, ambivalence, and motivation. Conquering beast will generally be the ticket to move forward into the Phase 2 of addiction treatment, learning abstinence.

For the complete series Click Below:

Part 1. – Beginning Addiction Treatment
Part 2. – Learning abstinence.
Part 3. – Maintaining abstinence.
Part 4. – Entering and maintaining recovery.