Stuck in the Slew of Alcoholism in Sioux Falls
Sioux Falls has a colorful history to say the least. It was abandoned, sacked, resettled and reclaimed as a city that is home to approximately 150,000 people. The back and forth of the city is a good image of how alcohol can completely ransack someone’s consciousness. It is something that abandons, sacks, resettles and consumes the person who lives for its muse.
People who succumb to alcoholism are afflicted with a disease, not a defect of will. When the brain has developed a dependence on alcohol it is not a matter of will power anymore. They are not willing to continue living a life of wanton disregard for others and themselves. They have been swallowed by the wallows of addiction and they will need a hand getting out.
Alcoholism doesn’t happen overnight. It is a gradual process of neglect and falling into negative coping patterns. People may originally seek out alcohol to soothe, but it in the end it snares. Now, not everybody who drinks will stumble into dependence. Those who are most vulnerable to the disease of alcoholism are genetically predisposed or incapable of developing positive coping skills.
When someone first starts drinking they will experience the euphoria as dopamine gets released through the body. Dopamine is located in the rewards center of the brain. When someone drinks they are tricking their brain into thinking it’s getting rewarded when it’s really being sabotaged over time. Alcohol abuse does serious damage to the user’s body and brain. Not only does alcohol abuse rewire your brain, it wrecks it. In terms of the body, alcohol ravages the liver, kidneys, pancreas and immune system. In addition, alcoholism is a long slew into disrepair that dislodges you from others and yourself.
Unfortunately, our country has decided to criminalize the disease of alcoholism. People who commit crimes in the throes of abuse are often shackled, while they remain arrested in development and disease behind the bars that don’t bend. Alcoholism shouldn’t be criminalized; it needs to be treated.
There is hope. Treatment centers around the country are providing the counter narrative to criminalizing the disease of alcoholism. The counter narrative is this: alcoholism is a disease that needs treatment in the auspices of peers and professionals. A Better Today (ABT) is one of the premier treatment facilities helping to save lives and heal families.
Treatment at A Better Today
One of the cornerstone philosophies undergirding ABT is individualized care. We make sure that every person who comes through our doors is taken as an individual with a unique past and a bright future—not a number. We have no pre-determined plan of treatment that we affix to everyone.
The first thing that happens when someone comes to our facility is they go through a medically supervised withdrawal process. Before beginning detox, the client will go through a medical examination to determine the best course of treatment for them going forward. Once the treatment plan is determined, the client will be ready for detox.
Detox might just be the most feared component of rehab and for good reason. Detoxing from alcoholism can be lethal, if not done in the right environment. Thankfully, ABT provides a medical staff to oversee our client’s process. When someone goes through alcohol detox they will experience a bevy of symptoms ranging from shaking to vomiting. In the more extreme cases, people can go through hallucinations and seizures—the latter of which could be fatal. ABT can mitigate these symptoms through the use of various medications. It’s vital that people who are seeking to detox from alcohol do it in a supervised environment. Alcohol withdraws are the most dangerous of drug detoxification processes and as such supervision is highly recommended.
The process shouldn’t take more than 14 days. After that period the client will be ready for the rehab portion of treatment. Detox cleanses the body, rehab cleanses the brain.
ABT offer a multitude of treatment approaches to address the underlying issues motivating abuse. Throughout the week our clients will go through individual, group, art, music and cognitive behavioral therapy. Each therapy approach works differently for every person.
Individual therapy pairs our clients with a therapist who has a master’s degree and training in co-occurring disorders. A lot of people who abuse alcohol suffer from mental illnesses and often use it to self-medicate. The individual therapist will help people identify the various mental pitfalls that have perpetuated their abuse. Some people drink to hide; some people drink to appear and some people drink to appear normal. The therapist will help uncover that underlying reason and come up with a way to build up healthy coping skills to move forward. Life Is difficult, especially if you have a predilection towards substance abuse. That said, our therapists help people develop skills to enter the world with the armor of resistance and self-esteem. With fortified coping skills and a positive self-esteem, alcoholism can be avoided.
In group therapy, our clients will learn or relearn communication skills and glean motivation from their peers going through treatment as well. When someone attempts to dissolve their worries in the elixirs of alcohol, they risk dissolving their ties to others. Alcoholism can be extremely isolating and people can become falsely self-contained. It disorients people and turns them into people who they aren’t—and ultimately it ruins relationships. Through the community of group therapy, clients will recapture their social skills and learn to have empathy and caring for others again. Another component of group therapy is motivation. Hearing about other people’s stories of addiction can help motivate the client to keep going.
Another dimension of group therapy is the 12-step method. Some of the goal of the 12-steps is to get the client to admit that they are powerless over their addiction, make amends and seek a higher power. These steps are done together in the group. Though the 12-steps mention a higher power, ABT does not steer people to adopt any particular higher power. We make sure that we accept everybody regardless of religion, sex or race.
Every person has their own timetable for completing treatment. Some people might finish rehab in 60 days and some may take more. It really depends on the person. Though inpatient treatment is well documented as being the most successful, ABT offers outpatient as well to address people who need that. When someone finishes treatment at ABT, they have two options. They can either go back to their homes or enroll in a sober living facility. Sober living facilities are strongly suggested for people leaving treatment because they lower the chance of relapse than going back to the real world. There is no shame in going to a sober facility. People who choose that route are just taking extra caution. In the battle for sobriety, no effort is wasted or too much.
Whether or not someone chooses to go into treatment, they will forever be a part of the ABT family. We offer alumni programs to help keep people connected to our staff and company. The alumni program organizes various, fun events for the clients to go on in order to encourage them in their sobriety and have safe fun. When you walk into our doors, you are no longer on your own—you have a new family.
Intervention and Traveling for Treatment
If you believe your loved one needs to go to treatment, it’s never too early to act on their behalf. It may seem hard to initiate an intervention due to hurt feelings or the countless episodes of manipulation your loved one has put you through. However, ABT can give you the resources to hire an intervention specialist who can help administer the intervention. The most important component of an intervention is a loving and supportive environment. If your intervention does not have those to qualities, your loved one could stumble even farther into abuse. In the case that your loved one decides to get treatment it is recommended that they travel for treatment. Traveling for treatment can remove the loved one from the place that spawned their abuse and give them a new start.
Paying for Treatment
Paying for treatment doesn’t have to be a barrier and ABT does everything it can to make sure that’s not the case. ABT offers several treatment plans to help with the costs and takes most major insurances. Additionally, most insurance companies will pay for most if not all of the treatment costs. ABT wants to make sure that payment isn’t a barrier. We believe everyone has a right to treatment.
Join the family.
