Types of Drug Detox

If you have developed physical and psychological tolerance and dependence on mind altering and intoxicating substances, there is a high risk that you could continue escalating down the road to full addiction. This is unless you enroll in a drug detox and rehabilitation program.

Understanding Drug Detox

When you use intoxicating substances, they will typically alter the chemical pathways and structure of your brain. As a result, you will develop dependence on these substances. Often, this condition will continue getting worse as you escalate your substance intake and abuse.

At some point, you might addiction would be considered to be full-blown. At this point, your body and mind will need the presence of these substances to function normally and work as well as they used to before you introduced drugs and alcohol into your system.

When you do not have access to these intoxicating and mind altering substances and cannot use them to calm your body and brain, your system will start reacting while struggling to return to its normal functioning.

As a direct result, there is a high risk that you will develop withdrawal symptoms and intense drug cravings. Although these withdrawal symptoms might be mild or moderate, they can also be severe or even life-threatening.

To this end, you are going to need medical detox services. These services would be designed to help you go through withdrawal in a safe and comfortable way, as well as calm down your withdrawal symptoms and drug cravings.

Although not every intoxicating substance will require medical detox services to overcome, it is often one of the essential first steps in the continuum of care that is drug rehabilitation.

Types of Detox

Often, drug detox is offered in a wide variety of settings and through several formats. Your choice of a format will largely depend on a wide variety of factors. Read on to find out more:

a) Social Detox

Social detox is a type of non-medical drug detox program that would be ideal if you are new to substance abuse and addiction, and your dependence is not fully developed. This means that when you suddenly stop drinking alcohol or using drugs, you will not experience severe, painful, or life-threatening withdrawal symptoms.

However, these symptoms can still cause you some level of discomfort. As a result, social detox could be ideal because you won't have to take any medications as you get rid of the toxins in your body so that you can get on the road to recovery.

b) Medical Detox

Medically managed detox, also known as medical drug detox, is the ideal choice for most people who are struggling with substance use disorders and co-occurring mental health and medical disorders.

If you are addicted, you might get to a point where your body can no longer function normally unless you take your favorite intoxicating and mind altering substances. At this stage in your addiction, you might even be considered to be a threat to yourself and to others around you.

To this end, you are going to need help overcoming your addiction, as well as dealing with the severe and sometimes life-threatening withdrawal symptoms and drug cravings that you develop.

Medical detox can provide you with close medical supervision, management, and care to ensure that you do not suffer too much or even succumb to your withdrawal symptoms. The program might also see you receiving prescription medications to deal with these symptoms as well as to calm the pain that develops during your detox.

c) Rapid Detox

Rapid detox is ideal if you are extremely dependent on intoxicating and mind altering substances. If you try to detox from these substances at this stage, you would typically suffer life-threatening symptoms of withdrawal. As a result, you are going to need help that could change your life as soon as possible.

Often, rapid detox centers will prescribe certain medications because treatment is offered at a fast pace - which could cause your withdrawal symptoms to start developing sporadically.

These centers are often run by highly experienced expert physicians. Although rapid detox might be medically necessary, however, not every detox facility will offer this type of program. This is because of the dangers associated with it.

d) At Home Drug Detox

The final option would be to go through the detox process at home. This type of detox is not recommended because of the various dangers that it comes with, as well as the fact that you might end up succumbing to your withdrawal symptoms. However, it might be ideal if you have only been abusing drugs for a few days, and you have not developed a substance use disorder.

Overall, drug detox should only be done under highly controlled and monitored medical settings. This means that you should only attempt the process after you have checked into a medically managed detox program.

CITATIONS

https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/principles-drug-addiction-treatment-research-based-guide-third-edition/frequently-asked-questions/how-effective-drug-addiction-treatment

https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/teaching-packets/understanding-drug-abuse-addiction/section-iii/7-medical-detoxification

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1360883/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4029096/