Drug addiction often makes people vulnerable to many physical and mental ailments. As a person develops tolerance towards these psychoactive substances, their need for taking a larger quantity of such substances increases which makes their condition worse. Detox and rehabilitation are the only ways to save their life and their future too.
Any detox program is carried out in two phases. Firstly, the physical aspect of addiction is dealt with by expert doctors. Secondly, psychiatrists and psychologists work together to help the patients with the psychological aspect of de-addiction.
If someone close to you is regularly consuming alcohol or any other psychoactive drug which is harmful to them, you can get in touch with a luxury Los Angeles rehab, Concise Recovery. It is also located in San Fernando Valley. Their staffs have the experience to manage all sorts of addictions including benzodiazepines and alcohol. Their primary focus is to ensure that withdrawal management for their patients is pain-free.
Detox program
Prolonged periods of consumption increase the blood concentration of psychoactive substances. The first phase of any detox program focuses on getting rid of all traces of a drug from the patient’s blood.
A very high level of substances in the blood triggers brain chemicals that their bodies are used to for normal functioning. As the detox begins, a drop in those chemicals results in typical withdrawal symptoms during the days that follow the detox. This happens till the brain gets adjusted to the new level of chemicals in the body.
However, the detox program will not end until the patient is stabilized physically before their mental therapy can be started to make them stronger individuals who can handle life and its challenges in the future.
Length of a detox program
The length of any detox program will vary for each individual based on the following 4 factors:
- Acceptability of treatment by the patient.
- Presence of other mental health conditions or physical ailments.
- Type of drug addiction.
- Use of multiple abusive substances simultaneously.
- Severity or complexity of the drug addiction.
Even gender plays a role in the management of drug addiction. Detox is the primary phase of any rehabilitation program and can take anywhere from 3-7 days. Withdrawal symptoms peak timing for different types of abusive substances are:
- 3-5 days for alcohol where a patient can experience fever, seizures, and even hallucinations. However, cravings subside only after week 2.
- With Barbiturates, symptoms begin within hours but may not peak until a week after their last dose was consumed and sleeping might be difficult for many days to come.
- Benzodiazepines may take up to 2 weeks to show severe withdrawal symptoms.
- Withdrawal symptoms for marijuana peak at about 5- 7 days.
- With Opioids, it is day 3 when symptoms start to peak.
- Stimulants like cocaine produce psychotic and based on the extent of brain damage, the cravings can persist for months.
The detox aims at reducing the discomfort that is associated with withdrawal symptoms and makes the process less scary for their patients.
