Right now, you can’t envision yourself living without drinking. But the detox centers for alcohols can change that. Before you enroll in California alcohol addiction treatment, detox is a must. Here’s how it works.
Alcohol Detox Centers in California Keep You Safe During Withdrawal from the Drug
You already know the signs of withdrawal. There are the cravings for another drink and the shakes. You typically wake up to them. Besides that, they come when you wait too long to have a drink.
Now, you’ve decided to quit drinking. You’ve tried to quit cold turkey in the past. It didn’t work. Similarly, it was painful. A California alcohol detox center helps you get sober from alcohol, and begin the journey to recovery.
During treatment, you work with therapists who understand what you’re going through. They know that the alcohol withdrawal timeline includes pain and cravings. Therefore, they can plan to help you.
Examples of care approaches include:
- Around-the-clock supervision and medical monitoring for safety
- Medication-assisted treatment that manages cravings and deals with discomfort
- Dual diagnosis treatment for underlying mental health conditions
- Talk therapy that encourages you to plan for lifelong sobriety
- Group therapy sessions that provide sounding boards for expressing emotions and concerns
The Importance of Formal Detoxification
What sets apart institutional detox from cold-turkey quitting attempts at home is the safety. For example, did you know that one of the withdrawal symptoms for alcohol involves hallucinations? You’ll have a difficult time trusting your senses. Besides that, there’s the risk of delirium tremens.
Although it only affects a small percentage of people with an alcohol use disorder, it’s impossible to predict. Therefore, therapists at the facility know to be on the lookout for symptoms. If they notice spikes in your heart rate and similar problems, they’ll immediately initiate medical procedures.
What Comes after Detox?
Once you finish with detox, which takes about three to seven days, you move to rehab. Almost all detox patients do well with a residential treatment center in California. Residential care means that you live at the facility. Typical treatment stays range from 30 to 90 days, depending on your needs.
During this time, you work with therapists on breaking the psychological hold the alcohol has on you. Because it’s a drug, there’s a good chance that you struggle with this aspect of addiction, too. If you don’t get this level of assistance after detox, you might relapse quickly.
For many people, now’s the time that they learn about an underlying mental health condition. For example, you might have been abusing alcohol to deal with anxiety or PTSD. Because you didn’t have good coping skills, you abused the alcohol instead. It became a crutch.
Then, the crutch became an addiction. It probably happened slowly. Initially, you simply had to drink more for the same effects. You thought that you were good at holding your liquor. In reality, your body developed a tolerance.
Eventually, you had to drink just to feel normal. That’s when the withdrawal symptoms came into play. Because at this point you succeeded in overcoming them, you can now focus on the issue at the root. What’s causing your drinking problem?
Once you go through the various therapies, you’ll be able to answer this question. Most importantly, you’ll have the coping skills you need to prevent it from recurring. That’s because you work with therapists on relapse prevention from day one.
To better your odds of remaining sober, it’s a good idea to enter a sober living home after rehab. There, you practice living sober against the backdrop of daily life tasks. You look for work or return to a job. Some people go back to school.
You deal with the kinds of stressors that might have caused problems for you in the past. Of course, before you can get to this point, you need to enroll in a good-quality detox facility. Make the call today.